The Russian military website, Ribar, reported that the Wagner group encircling the city of Bakhmut is close to cutting off the last supply routes of the Ukrainian army in the strategic city, while the Ukrainian leadership ordered a reconnaissance unit in the city to withdraw.

Wagner's units reached the road linking Bakhmut and Chasov Yar after the Ukrainian forces retreated.

And Ukrainian military sources indicated that fierce battles are continuing on the eastern and southern axes of the city.

The Ukrainian Staff Command said in a statement that the Russian forces bombed 15 towns in the vicinity of Bakhmut and repelled 85 Russian attacks on the fighting axes in the Donbass region, east of the country.

For his part, the head of the Russian Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said that the city of Bakhmut has become almost completely surrounded, and that there is only one way for the Ukrainian forces to leave the city.

Prigozhin called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to withdraw his forces from the city as soon as possible.

The deputy spokesman for the Secretary-General of the United Nations also said that thousands of residents are trapped in the city of Bakhmut, and that hostilities continue.

As for the Ukrainian side, the commander of the 28th Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Army, Yuri Madyar, said that his reconnaissance unit had received an order to withdraw from the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, stressing that he would carry out the orders despite not knowing the reasons for this decision.


fierce fighting

In the same context, the Ukrainian army said that the commander of the Ukrainian ground forces, Oleksandr Sersky, visited the city of Bakhmut and listened to the reports of the field commanders regarding the situation in the combat units, and was briefed on the problematic issues related to increasing the defense capability of the units on the front lines.

According to what was reported by the Ukrainian Ground Forces page on Telegram, Sirsky confirmed that fierce fighting is taking place in the city and its surroundings, indicating that Russia has thrown its most prepared and trained military units from the Wagner militia and regular units to control the city.

A field military commander in the Russian Wagner militia said that the Ukrainian army is destroying infrastructure facilities, especially roads and bridges, in and around the city of Bakhmut.

The military commander in Wagner added that the Ukrainian forces are destroying the infrastructure in an attempt to impede the progress of his forces.

Russian media also said that the Ukrainian army destroyed the bridge that connects the two banks of the Bakhmutka River and passes through the center of Bakhmut, and another bridge on a water channel towards the neighboring city of Chasovyar.


Partial progression

On the other hand, the Al-Jazeera correspondent quoted Ukrainian military sources as saying that the Wagner militia had made partial progress in its attempts to advance towards the village of Khromova on the northern axis of the city of Bakhmut.

The sources indicated that the village is still under the control of the Ukrainian forces, through which the last roads leading to the city of Bakhmut pass.

The sources pointed out that fierce battles are continuing on the eastern and southern axes of the city.

In Kherson, the Ukrainian military administration announced that one person was killed and four wounded in Russian bombing targeting neighborhoods in the city.

The military administration in Kherson counted more than 360 shells fired at the right bank of the Dnieper River, which is under Ukrainian control.

The military administration in Mykolaiv said in a statement that heavy artillery shelling targeted the Ochakhiv area, in the south of the province, which led to material damage to residential buildings and damage to the water collection institution, which was directly targeted.


Bryansk events

On the other hand, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the explosions in sensitive Russian facilities, march attacks and gang conflicts are a result of the loss of control in Russia.

He added that Ukraine had nothing to do with internal conflicts in Russia, he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held an extraordinary meeting of the Russian Security Council to discuss counter-terrorism measures.

This meeting came via visual communication technology after the attack in the Russian province of Bryansk yesterday, where an armed group crossed from Ukrainian territory to two villages adjacent to the border, and armed confrontations took place, killing two Russian citizens and injuring a child.

For its part, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the attack on Bryansk was carried out with NATO weapons, and that it was a crime that would not go unpunished.

She added that the West is asking Kiev to continue offensive operations and occupy new Russian lands, but these plans are doomed to failure.

The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed the continuation of what it called Russia's special operation until the disarmament mission in Ukraine is completed and the security threats are over.