Ukrainian military commanders pledge to keep fighting for city as Pentagon plays down Bakhmut\u2019s strategic value
\n KYIV
\nUkraine\u2019s top generals have vowed to keep defending the eastern city of Bakhmut, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, as Russian forces fought to tighten their siege and secure their first major battlefield gain in more than six months.
\nRussian forces have been trying to take Bakhmut for months and say capturing it would be a step towards its objective of seizing all of the surrounding Donbas region. But Western strategists say it would be more of a pyrrhic victory given the time taken and casualties suffered.
\nUkrainian troops have been reinforcing positions west of the city in apparent preparation for a possible withdrawal but appear not to have decided to pull out.
\nZelenskiy said he discussed Bakhmut with top commanders and they had said \u201cnot to withdraw\u201d and instead to strengthen the city\u2019s defences.
\n\u201cThe command unanimously supported this position. There were no other positions. I told the commander in chief to find the appropriate forces to help our guys in Bakhmut,\u201d Zelenskiy said in his nightly address on Monday.
\nThe head of Russia\u2019s Wagner mercenary force, which has led the Bakhmut assault, said on Monday he needed the regular army to supply him with more ammunition if he was to win the battle.
\nThe appeal from Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin underlines his deepening rift with the Russian defence ministry, which he has accused of deliberately starving his men of ammunition, an accusation the ministry has rejected.
\n\u201cI\u2019m knocking on all doors and sounding the alarm about ammunition and reinforcements, as well as the need to cover our flanks,\u201d he said in a statement.
\n\u201cIf everyone is coordinated, without ambition, screw-ups and tantrums, and carries out this work, then we will block the armed forces of Ukraine. If not, then everyone will be screwed.\u201d
\nThere was no response from the Russian Ministry of Defence.
\n\u2018Invisible Hand\u2019
\nThe Ukrainian military command on Tuesday reported a record-high 1,600 Russians killed over the previous 24 hours, taking its tally of Russian soldiers killed to 154,830.<\/p>\n
The data could not be independently verified and the command gave no details of Ukrainian casualties.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Ukraine has broadened a request for cluster bombs from the U.S. to include a weapon that it wants to cannibalize for the bomblets they contain to drop on Russian forces from drones, according to two U.S. lawmakers.<\/p>\n
Cluster bombs are widely denounced by humanitarian groups for the toll their bomblets take on civilians, sometimes years after the war in which the munitions were used has ended.<\/p>\n
The U.S. and its allies have imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia and sent billions of dollars in security assistance to Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s ally China, meanwhile, renewed a call for dialogue, saying sanctions and pressure would not end the war.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe process of peace talks should begin as soon as possible, and the legitimate security concerns of all parties should be respected,\u201d China\u2019s foreign minister Qin Gang said on the sidelines of a parliament meeting in Beijing.<\/p>\n
Qin said an invisible hand was pushing for escalation and that threat of sanctions against China if it provided weapons to Russia was \u201cabsolutely unacceptable\u201d as it \u201chas not provided weapons to either side\u201d.<\/p>\n
China has declined to identify Russia as the aggressor in the conflict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ukrainian military commanders pledge to keep fighting for city as Pentagon plays down Bakhmut\u2019s strategic value KYIV Ukraine\u2019s top generals have vowed to keep defending the eastern city of Bakhmut, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, as Russian forces fought to tighten their siege and secure their first major battlefield gain in more than six months. Russian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318181,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-318171","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n