The Ukrainian army resolved conflicting statements about the fate of the city of Bakhmut in the eastern Donbass region, and while Russian forces carried out more missile strikes on infrastructure facilities, the Polish president said that moving combat aircraft to Ukraine without coordination with allies would be a "dangerous decision".
The Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Army, Valery Zaluzhny, said that the city of Bakhmut is still under the control of his forces, despite the constant pressure from the Russian forces and the Wagner Military Group, which is leading the attack on the city.
Zalogny added, in a telephone conversation with US Chief of Staff Mark Milley, yesterday, Saturday, that the Ukrainian army continues to take measures to achieve stability in the front line around Bakhmut, which is located in the north of Donetsk Province, and was inhabited by 70,000 before the war broke out on February 24, 2022.
He added that the situation in Donetsk is tense, and he said that Russian forces launch about 50 attacks daily in Donetsk, referring to fierce battles taking place around the cities of Voglidar and Marinka.
The Ukrainian military commander also said that his forces managed in some parts of the front to recover previously lost positions, stressing that the Ukrainian forces need more weapons and ammunition.
Over the past weeks, there has been ambiguity about the situation in Bakhmut, with conflicting statements from both sides regarding the course of the battles.
control of Donbass
In a rare interview published on Saturday, the head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said that Russia's full control of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions - which make up the Donbass region - could take two years.
Prigozhin had recently talked about his forces entering the northern neighborhoods of Bakhmut, but Kyiv confirmed that its forces had repulsed many Russian attacks on the city, which has been subjected to intense Russian bombing for months.
The British Ministry of Defense said in a report on Friday that the Russian forces had made some progress north of Bakhmut as part of an attack aimed at encircling it.
During another drone attack, 20 Shahed-136/131 UAVs were shot down by #UAarmy.
pic.twitter.com/zYYYPzQmht
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) February 11, 2023
Continuous missile attacks
Meanwhile, the governor of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, Oleh Sinyhopov, announced that Russian forces fired missiles at the city on Saturday evening, which damaged one of the infrastructure facilities, a day after a similar bombing targeted power generation facilities and injured 8 people.
For its part, the Ukrainian regional administration in Dnipro (center) said that Russian marches attacked 3 energy facilities in the regions of Kryvyi Rih and Nikopol, which led to the outbreak of fires.
The regional administration stated that a facility in the Kryvyi Rih region was attacked twice in one day, which resulted in great destruction.
On Friday, several regions in Ukraine were subjected to Russian attacks with missiles and drones, which caused damage to infrastructure facilities and power outages.
combat aircraft
Meanwhile, Polish President Andrzej Duda ruled out the possibility of his country delivering combat aircraft to his country's neighbor Ukraine without prior agreement on this step with NATO member states.
Duda told the BBC, days before his scheduled visit to London, that such a decision should be taken jointly by NATO allies, adding that the transfer of F-16 fighters from Poland to Ukraine would be "a very serious decision that will not be taken lightly." , according to his expression.
Two F-16s during NATO exercises in Poland (Getty Images)
The Polish president added that his country's air force has less than 50 of these American-made aircraft, which are not enough for Poland, pointing to logistical challenges related to the transfer of these aircraft to Ukraine.
In Kyiv, Igor Chernyv, deputy head of the Defense Council of Ukraine, said that the political decision on supplying Ukraine with long-range missiles and warplanes was taken by what he described as Ukraine's Western partners.
Chernev added, in exclusive statements to Al-Jazeera, that NATO now believes that Ukraine's self-defense and the liberation of its lands do not lead to direct confrontation with Russia, but rather it is Ukraine's right, as he put it.
Kyiv had requested to provide it with fighters after it received Western promises to supply it with modern tanks, especially the American "Abrams" tanks and the German "Leopard 2", in addition to long-range weapons.
French President Emmanuel Macron did not rule out supplying combat aircraft to Kyiv, but Western leaders expressed reservations about the matter.
negotiations with Ukraine
Politically, Sergey Vershinin, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, said that Moscow would be ready to negotiate with Kiev, but without preconditions and on the basis of the existing reality, as he put it.
Vershinin added, in statements to the "Zverda" channel of the Russian Ministry of Defense, that the decision regarding the negotiations is in the hands of Brussels (the headquarters of the European Union) and Washington, and not in Kyiv.
For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said NATO membership would be the best guarantee for Ukraine.
During a meeting organized by the US bank "JP Morgan" to encourage investment in Ukraine and its reconstruction, Zelensky added that his country will be able to become a full member of the European Union within two years and after victory will join NATO, as he put it.