At meeting with president, Zaluzhnyi and Syrskyi support continuation of defense operation in Bakhmut
At the meeting of the Stavka, the situation in Bakhmut was discussed (Photo:ОП)
Ukraine’s top army commanders still support the continued defense of the Donetsk Oblast town of Bakhmut, which has been under assault by Russian forces for more than half a year, the press service of the President’s Office reported on March 6.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a meeting of the Ukrainian High Command, at which further actions of Ukrainian army in the Bakhmut area were discussed.
The meeting was attended by the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valery Zaluzhnyi and the Commander of Ukrainian Ground Forces Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi.
Both Zaluzhnyi and Syrskyi spoke in favor of continuing the defensive operation in Bakhmut and further strengthening Ukrainian positions there.
Also, at the meeting, the commanders of the operational-strategic groups of troops reported on the situation in the major areas of the front.
The logistics issue, which was among the key ones, was considered.
The meeting was attended by representatives of all law enforcement agencies and Ukrainian special services, as well as ministers of key relevant ministries.
Earlier, the German publication Bild, citing its sources, reported that Zelenskyy and Zaluzhnyi had disagreed over the further defense of Bakhmut. The publication said that a few weeks ago, the general recommended the president to think about withdrawing the Defense Forces of Ukraine from Bakhmut “for tactical reasons.”
Battles for Bakhmut have been going on since July 2022. Ukrainian military’s General Staff reported that the Russian army is continuing to try to surround and capture the town of Bakhmut, but to no avail. The Russian invaders threw trained units of the Wagner PMC Regiment and other regular units of the Russian army to capture the city.
Ukrainian Defense Minister, Oleksiy Reznikov, estimated the daily losses of the Russian Federation in the battles for Bakhmut at 500 people killed and wounded.
On Feb. 28, Deputy Minister of Defense, Hanna Malyar, announced that reinforcements had been sent to Bakhmut. Holding the city, she assured, is a military, rather than a political decision.
The analysts from the U.S. think tank the Institute for the Study of War recently wrote that the Russian invasion forces will not be able to capture Bakhmut in the near future and force the Ukrainian troops to retreat, although they have secured a positional advantage in certain areas of the city.
The spokesman of the Ukrainian military’s Eastern Group of Forces, Serhiy Cherevaty, said that there was no mass withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the city of Bakhmut, but a planned rotation was in process.
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