Hellish battles continue in the Bakhmut direction. The invaders were strengthened by airborne troops.
This was announced on the air of the national telethon by a representative of the Eastern Group of Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Sergey Cherevaty also stressed that Bakhmut continues to be the main direction of the enemy’s strike.
Combat encounters and strengthening of the enemy
Sergei Cherevaty said that only during these days on the Bakhmutsky front, the enemy everywhere strikes from different types of artillery. In general, the invaders delivered 128 strikes in this direction. 20 of them are in the Bakhmut area.
In addition, 41 clashes occurred on the entire sector of the front. The majority, 19, are just in the area of the city of Bakhmut.
127 enemies were killed, 135 were injured to varying degrees, Cherevaty said.
So far, the occupiers are operating in small tactical infantry groups, primarily the Wagner PKK. And they use armored vehicles less there.
“Recently, we have seen that they have been strengthened by units of mechanized airborne troops. Regular troops also provide them with artillery support,” the speaker added.
Cherevaty noted that at the beginning of the invasion, the Russians had basically all the modernized equipment. In particular, BTR-82, T-72 tanks, modernized T-80, T-90, BMP-3. Now our military is increasingly noticing that the enemy has already received BMP-1s, which have been withdrawn from service.
Moreover, in some sectors of the front, the T-62 was fixed – this is an old model that does not even have active protection against shaped charges.
This year of our struggle knocked out not only a lot of personnel (the enemy – Channel 24), but also many armored vehicles. Many were taken as trophies. Especially during the Kharkov operation,” Cherevaty emphasized.
Zelensky explained the expediency of keeping Bakhmut
The President noted that after Bakhmut, the Russians could go further. “They could go to Kramatorsk, they could go to Slovyansk, this would be an open road for Russians after Bakhmut to other cities of Ukraine in the Donetsk direction. Therefore, our guys are standing,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed.
The head of state also added that the goals of the Russian army and the Armed Forces of Ukraine differ. The invaders are indifferent to the civilian population, they destroyed the city and continue to storm it further. So Russia is trying to win “at least some kind of victory”, even destroying everything in the city and killing local residents.
Zelensky stressed that if Russia can “put its little flag” on top of Bakhmut, it will help “mobilize Russian society in order to create this idea that they are such a powerful army.”
