Ukraine’s forces have killed hundreds of Russians “caught in a trap” near Bakhmut over the last 24 hours, a top general has claimed.
The shattered city has been the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the Russia-Ukraine war. It finally fell to Moscow after a devastating 10-month struggle but now Ukraine is pushing to take it back.
“Bakhmut. The enemy is caught in a trap,” General Oleksander Syrskyi, in charge of Ukraine’s ground forces, said on the Telegram messaging app.
He added: “The city is under the fire control of [our] defence forces…the enemy is being pushed out of their positions.”
The destroyed city has taken on incredible symbolic value for both sides and was taken by Wagner mercenaries in May. The PMC has since left leaving regular Russian troops to defend the city.
As Ukraine launched its counteroffensive, Kyiv’s forces made promising gains to the northeast and southwest of the city in what appears to be an attempt at eventual encirclement.
With Ukraine’s forces on the flanks, Russian soldiers in the ruins are subject to artillery barrages from the southwest, according to the think-tank Critical Threats.
The claims from Ukraine come amid reports that Vladimir Putin’s strongman in Chechnya – an autonomous republic inside Russia – was sending special forces to the region to bolster Moscow’s forces there.
Russia’s state-run news agency TASS reported that Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said he would send his troops to the “difficult Bakhmut area”.
“The command of the special operation has redeployed the Akhmat special forces unit commanded by Apty Alaudinov to the difficult Bakhmut area. This decision speaks about the General Staff’s confidence and proves the unit’s high combat capability,” he wrote on Telegram.
Members of the Akhmat unit are known as “Kadyrovites” due to their unwavering loyalty to the Chechen boss.
It’s unclear what effect, if any, their presence will have on the situation in Bakhmut.
Ukraine appears to have taken advantage of the withdrawal of Wagner fighters in the region who last month entered Russia to perform a short-lived abortive mutiny against Putin.
Some of Russia’s best fighters, the mercenaries likely left a hole in Bakhmut’s defences which Kyiv is now exploiting.
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