On Thursday (Apr 13), Russia claimed that it had severed the supply lines of Ukrainian forces inside Bakhmut, but Kyiv insisted that it still had open supply lines to the town, which has witnessed the most brutal battle of the war.
The status on the ground in the eastern town, where Russian troops have been battling to capture it since last summer, could not be independently verified by AFP.
The town, which had a pre-war population of 70,000, now mostly represents a symbolic victory for Russia if it falls.
The Russian army stated that its airborne troops were blocking the transfer of Ukrainian army reserves to the city and the possibility of retreat for enemy units.
It also claimed that Wagner mercenary units were advancing in Bakhmut. However, according to the Ukrainian army, it maintained communication with its troops inside Bakhmut and was able to send them munitions.
“This does not correspond to reality,” Sergiy Cherevaty, spokesman for Ukraine’s eastern forces said, referring to Russia’s claims.
“We are able to … deliver food products, ammunition, medicines, all that is necessary, and also to recover our wounded.”
The Ukrainian general staff nevertheless acknowledged a “difficult” situation in Bakhmut.
“NOWHERE TO GO”
But even as Russian forces say they are getting closer to the town, some residents of nearby areas have no plans to leave.
“I’ve got nowhere to go. I can’t afford to leave,” 71-year-old Vira Petrova told AFP in the village of Kalynivka, several kilometres west of Bakhmut.
“If my home is destroyed. I’ll live in my basement,” she added, not flinching after each boom.
Petrova gestured to artillery damage to her home, explaining why she was no longer afraid of the war creeping nearer.
“She said that they had already experienced shelling, which had destroyed half of their kitchen roof and their neighbor’s roof as well. “She added that they had become accustomed to it.”
Her street, lined with cherry blossom trees and abandoned one-storey homes, has only around two dozen residents remaining – a fraction of those who once called it home.
The Kremlin is looking to present a triumph at home as the offensive drags on for a second year.
Adding confusion to the situation on the ground, Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Russian paramilitary outfit Wagner, also cast doubt on Moscow’s claims, saying it was “too early” to talk about Russian forces encircling Bakhmut.
“The Ukrainian Armed Forces continue to deploy reserves and transfer them,” Prigozhin’s press office said on social media.
“The hardest, bloodiest battles are going on, so it’s too early to talk about the complete encirclement of Bakhmut”.
Tensions between the Kremlin-linked businessman and Russia’s army have emerged during the battle for Bakhmut.
