Ukraine: Russian advance in Bakhmout, Ukrainian resistance in Vouhledar

Ukrainian volunteers on the front lines of the Battle of Bakhmout, February 9, 2023. REUTERS - STRINGER

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In Ukraine, fighting has intensified further in the Donbass, as Ukrainian military officials say they expect more ground attacks as the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine approaches.

On Monday, the noose tightened further around the city of Bakhmout, where Russian forces are trying to grab ground.

But they would be on the contrary in the process of wiping appalling losses a little further south, in Vouhledar.

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With our correspondent in Kiev,

On Monday, the Ukrainian executive announced a " 

" in the north of the agglomeration of Bakhmout, where the Russian forces continue their strategy of nibbling, in order to take control of the roads which connect the city to the rest. of the Donbass.

The Russians claim the capture of the locality of Krasna Hora, and put pressure on that of Paraskoviïvka, one of the main road interchanges in the region.

To the east of Bakhmout, the Ukrainians continue to defend themselves tooth and nail in the residential suburbs, house by house, while the Ukrainian army has decided to prohibit access to the city to non-military people.

The situation is also very tense further north, between Kreminna and Svatove, in the Luhansk region.

But it is from Vouhledar, further south, that the striking images come.

This sector of the front is the subject of a massive Russian assault.

For about three weeks, views from drones of the Ukrainian army show this mining town near Donetsk, 15,000 inhabitants before the invasion, almost completely destroyed.

According to the Institute of War Studies, a reputable American study group, the outskirts of the city were engaged head-on by the Russian 155th Marine Infantry Brigade, which lost dozens of tanks.

According to kyiv and the West, the losses of the Russian army amount around Vouhledar to several hundred men per day, perhaps the most appalling daily toll since the beginning of the war.

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• Ukraine

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