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Russian forces attempt to close ring around Bakhmut
The military situation is becoming increasingly difficult around Bakhmut, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday as many of Ukraine’s battlefields turn to mud and Russian forces attempt to close ring around the eastern Ukrainian town.
Zelenskiy said in his Monday night address:
Bakhmut direction – the situation is getting more and more difficult. The enemy is constantly destroying everything that can be used to protect our positions, to gain a foothold and ensure defence.”
Russia’s defence ministry claimed its forces destroyed a Ukrainian ammunition depot near the town – the focal point of Russia’s advances in eastern Ukraine – also shooting down four Himars missiles and five drones launched by Ukrainian forces.
“The number of enemy personnel is increasing,” Ukraine’s general staff said, adding that six nearby Donetsk settlements came under Russian shelling.
Hanna Maliar, Ukraine’s deputy minister of defence, said Russia is “increasing the intensity of its assaults” using “tactics of exhaustion and total destruction”.
In a Telegram post late on Monday night, she said:
To put it briefly and simply: the situation at the front is complicated. The enemy army is increasing the intensity of its assaults.
The most difficult situation remains in the Bakhmut direction.
During offensive operations, the enemy uses tactics of exhaustion and total destruction.
At the same time, the enemy is suffering significant losses, losing from 600 to 1,000 people daily.”
In the Donetsk region, suddenly warmer weather has softened the frozen ground, turning battlefields into mud. The spring thaw can turn roads into rivers and fields into impenetrable bogs.
“Both sides stay in their positions, because as you see, spring means mud. Thus, it is impossible to move forward,” one Ukrainian commander told Reuters.
Russia is trying to encircle Bakhmut, forcing Ukraine to pull out its garrison. That would give Moscow its first major prize in more than half a year after Russia intensified its attacks on several locations along the front in the east.
The fierce fighting for the industrial city has been the longest-running battle of Russia’s year-long invasion.
Moscow’s troops have made clear, if slow, progress north and south of Bakhmut, attempting to cut off Ukrainian forces inside the ruined city, which once held around 75,000 people.
“Vicious battles are going on there. The command is doing everything it can to stop the enemy from advancing through our territory,” Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern military command, told Ukrainian television.
Summary and welcome
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. I’m Samantha Lock and this will be the last time I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments as they unfold.
The military situation around Bakhmut, the focal point of Russia’s advances in eastern Ukraine, is becoming “increasingly difficult”, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said.
Russian forces appear to be making more strident attempts to close ring around the eastern Ukrainian town as Ukraine’s eastern military command describes “vicious battles” to stop Russian troops from advancing further through the territory.
US officials say China has “very clearly” taken Russia’s side and has been “anything but an honest broker” in efforts to bring peace to Ukraine.
US department of state spokesperson Ned Price made the comments during a news briefing on Monday, claiming China has provided Russia with “diplomatic support, political support, with economic support, with rhetorical support”.
It’s 7.30am in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
The military situation is becoming increasingly difficult around the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday as many of Ukraine’s battlefields turn to mud. “In the Bakhmut sector, the situation is constantly becoming more difficult,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly address. “The enemy is constantly destroying everything that can be used to protect our positions for fortification and defence.” Russia’s defence ministry claimed its forces destroyed a Ukrainian ammunition depot near the town – the focal point of Russia’s advances in eastern Ukraine – also shooting down four Himars missiles and five drones launched by Ukrainian forces.
Belarusian anti-war partisans claim to have severely damaged a Russian military aircraft in what an opposition leader has called the “most successful diversion” since the beginning of the war. BYPOL, the Belarusian partisan organisation, said it had used drones to strike the Machulishchy airfield 12km from Minsk, severely damaging a Beriev A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft (Awacs).
China has “very clearly” taken Russia’s side and has been “anything but an honest broker” in efforts to bring peace to Ukraine, US department of state spokesperson Ned Price said at a news briefing on Monday. China has provided Russia with “diplomatic support, political support, with economic support, with rhetorical support,” he added.
Russia has given a lukewarm response to a Chinese peace plan to end the war in Ukraine but said it was paying “a great deal of attention” to the detail. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said any initiatives that might bring peace closer were worthy of attention and Beijing’s voice should be heard, but the nuances of the proposal are important and, for now, he didn’t see any signs suggesting a peaceful resolution could be achieved. “Any attempt to formulate theses for reaching a peaceful settlement of the problem is welcome, but, of course, the nuances are important,” Peskov told the Izvestia daily.
Russia will not resume participation in the Start nuclear arms reduction treaty with the US until Washington listens to Moscow’s position, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in remarks published on Tuesday. Russian president Vladimir Putin last week announced Russia’s decision to suspend participation in the latest Start treaty, after accusing the west of being directly involved in attempts to strike its strategic airbases. Peskov told the daily Izvestia in an interview that the “attitude of the collective west”, led by the US needs to change towards Moscow. “The security of one country cannot be ensured at the expense of the security of another,” Peskov said.
Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, is due to visit Beijing on Tuesday for a meeting with China’s president Xi Jinping, in a high-profile trip symbolising the widening gulf between the US and China over the war in Ukraine. Xi’s meeting with Lukashenko, a close ally of Putin, is seen internationally as a sign of where Beijing’s sympathies lie.
The US Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, met with Zelenskiy and other key Ukrainian government officials in a surprise visit to Ukraine to reaffirm Washington’s support for Kyiv on Monday. Following talks with prime minister Denys Shmyhal, Yellen said that the US has provided nearly $50bn in security, economic and humanitarian assistance, and announced another multibillion-dollar package to boost the country’s economy.
Poland has announced a joint initiative with the European Commission to trace Ukrainian children who have been abducted and taken to Russia during the ongoing war in Ukraine. The aim of the scheme is to track down the missing children and to “ensure those responsible are brought to justice”, Poland’s EU affairs minister Szymon Szynkowski vel Sęk said. “We need to return the abducted children to Ukraine and punish Russia for its crimes,” Shmyhal said.
English (US)