KYIV
\nNATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned Wednesday the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut might fall to Russia in the coming days following months of intense fighting.
\nHis remarks came as Russia\u2019s Wagner mercenary group, which has spearheaded the attack on Bakhmut, claimed to have captured the eastern bank of the industrial town, devastated in the longest battle since Moscow invaded Ukraine a year ago.
\nWagner chief and Kremlin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin said on social media Wednesday that his forces \u201chave taken all of the eastern part of Bakhmut,\u201d a salt-mining town with a pre-war population of 80,000.
\nThe intense fighting around Bakhmut has been the longest and bloodiest in Russia\u2019s more than year-long invasion, which has devastated swathes of Ukraine and displaced millions of people.
\n\u201cWhat we see is that Russia is throwing more troops, more forces and what Russia lacks in quality they try to make up in quantity,\u201d Stoltenberg told reporters in Stockholm on the sidelines of an EU defense ministers meeting.
\n\u201cWe cannot rule out that Bakhmut may eventually fall in the coming days,\u201d the head of the US-led military alliance said, adding that \u201cthis does not necessarily reflect any turning point of the war.\u201d
\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned in an interview with CNN of what could happen if Bakhmut falls to Russian forces. \u201cWe understand that after Bakhmut, (Russian forces) could go further\u201d and attack nearby cities in the Donetsk region, he said.
\n\u201cThey could go to Kramatorsk, they could go to Sloviansk, it would be an open road for the Russians after Bakhmut to other towns in Ukraine, in the Donetsk direction,\u201d Zelensky said in an interview set to air Wednesday.
\nRussian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told military officials during a televised meeting on Tuesday that taking control of the city would allow for \u201cfurther offensive operations\u201d in eastern Ukraine.
\nPrigozhin has estimated that between 12,000 and 20,000 Ukrainian troops were still defending the town.
\nZelensky told CNN that his armed forces were resolved to stay in Bakhmut.
\n\u201cOf course, we have to think about the lives of our military. But we have to do whatever we can whilst we\u2019re getting weapons, supplies, and our army is getting ready for the counter-offensive.\u201d
\nZelensky on Wednesday hosted UN chief Antonio Guterres in Kyiv, his third visit to Ukraine since Russia\u2019s invasion. Guterres stressed the need to extend a deal that has allowed Ukraine to export its grain but is due to expire.
\n\u201cI want to underscore the critical importance of the rollover of the Black Sea Grain Initiative on 18 March,\u201d Guterres said.
\nEU defense ministers were meeting in Stockholm to discuss a plan to rush one billion euros\u2019 worth of ammunition to Ukraine as pressure mounts on Kyiv\u2019s allies to bolster supplies to the war effort.
\nUkraine\u2019s Western backers warn that Kyiv is facing a critical shortage of 155-millimeter howitzer shells as it fires thousands each day in its fight against the grinding Russian offensive.
\nA Ukrainian tank fires towards Russian positions at the frontline near Bakhmut, Ukraine, on March 8, 2023. (AP Photo\/Evgeniy Maloletka)
\n\u201cThe current rate of consumption compared to the current rate of production of ammunition is not sustainable, and therefore we need to ramp up production,\u201d Stoltenberg said.
\nBut a report by The New York Times on Tuesday claiming US officials had seen new intelligence indicating a \u201cpro-Ukrainian group\u201d was behind last year\u2019s sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines could raise difficult questions among the allies.
\n\u201cThis is not our activity,\u201d Ukraine\u2019s Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov told reporters in Stockholm.
\nIn the interview with CNN, Zelensky invited US House speaker Kevin McCarthy to visit Ukraine and see for himself what the war is like. McCarthy has not opposed US aid to Ukraine but he has said more than once that Congress should not be writing \u201cblank checks\u201d to support the war without close scrutiny.
\n\u201cMr McCarthy, he has to come here to see how we work, what\u2019s happening here, what war caused us, which people are fighting now, who are fighting now. And then after that, make your assumptions,\u201d Zelensky said,
\nUkraine on Wednesday said it had identified the man shot dead in a video that sparked outrage on social media as one of its soldiers.
\nThe footage shows what appears to be a detained Ukrainian combatant standing in a shallow trench and smoking, and then being shot after saying \u201cGlory to Ukraine.\u201d
\n\u201cBased on a preliminary examination, we believe that the video may be authentic,\u201d a spokeswoman for the UN Human Rights Office told AFP on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KYIV NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned Wednesday the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut might fall to Russia in the coming days following months of intense fighting. His remarks came as Russia\u2019s Wagner mercenary group, which has spearheaded the attack on Bakhmut, claimed to have captured the eastern bank of the industrial town, devastated in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318567,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-318553","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n