BAKHMUT (AFP) – Heavy
fighting was underway Sunday in the northern parts of the frontline hotspot Bakhmut, while Russian missile strikes on Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv wounded five people.
Despite the flow of Western weapons to Ukraine, Russia has in recent days claimed gains around war-ravaged Bakhmut in the eastern region of Donetsk.
However, the head of Russia’s Wagner military group said Sunday that the Ukrainian army was not retreating and that fighting raged on in northern parts of Bakhmut.
“In the northern quarters of Artemovsk, fierce battles are going on for every street, every house, every stairwell,” Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a statement, referring to Bakhmut by its old name.
“The Ukrainian armed forces are fighting to the last,” he said.
Russian forces have been trying to seize control of Bakhmut in the eastern region of Donetsk for months in what has become the longest and bloodiest battle since Russia launched a war on Ukraine last February.
The fight for Bakhmut has turned the town with a pre-war population of roughly 75,000 into a ghost town dotted with hedgehog anti-tank defenses and burnt-out cars. The town has no water, gas or electricity.
About 20 people, including two soldiers, attended a Sunday mass in the basement of the golden-domed All Saints’ church in the deserted town.
Russia has warned that a Ukraine’s attack on Crimea will trigger Moscow to retaliate and use ‘weapons of any kind’ to defend itself.
Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev wrote on his Twitter page that “Crimea is Russia. The attack on Crimea is an attack on Russia and an escalation of the conflict.”
Igor Klymenko, Ukrainian minister of Internal Affairs, on Friday announced the creation of assault brigades composed of military, border guards, and police officers to carry out operations to seize Crimea and Donbas.
Moreover, in a separate interview with Nadana Friedrichson on Saturday, Medvedev warned that the supply of more U.S. weaponry to Ukraine will just add fuel to the fire, culminating in more retaliatory strikes by Russian forces.
The former president insisted that the use of longer-range weapons by Ukraine and its allies will not force Russia to hold negotiations and said that “the result will be just the opposite.”