Ukraine-Russia War Latest Updates: Ukraine Troops Forced To Pull Back As Russia Launches ‘Re-Energised’ Bakhmut Assault

Ukrainian troops have been forced to withdraw from some territory in the battlefield city of Bakhmut as Russia mounts a renewed assault there with intense artillery fire over the past two days, Britain said in an intelligence update on Friday.

“Russia has re-energised its assault on the Donetsk Oblast town of Bakhmut as forces of the Russian MoD and Wagner Group have improved co-operation,” it said, referring to Russia’s defence ministry and its main mercenary force.

“Ukrainian forces face significant resupply issues but have made orderly withdrawals from the positions they have been forced to concede,” Britain’s military said in a daily intelligence update.

Wagner has taken the lead on the Russian side in the months-long battle, the deadliest of the war for troops on both sides, but the mercenary group’s leader had complained of poor support for his forces from the regular military.

“The Ukrainian defence still holds the western districts of the town but has been subjected to particularly intense Russian artillery fire over the previous 48 hours,” the British update said.

It said Wagner units were now focusing on advancing in the centre of Bakhmut, while Russian paratroopers were relieving them in attacks on the city’s flanks.

Bakhmut, which held around 70,000 people before the war, has been Russia’s main target in a massive winter offensive that has so far yielded scant gains despite infantry ground combat of an intensity unseen in Europe since World War Two.

Capturing the city would be Russia’s first substantial victory in eight months. Moscow says it would open a route to capturing more territory in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, a major war aim.

Ukraine, which is preparing for its own counteroffensive, had appeared likely to abandon Bakhmut at the end of February, but announced in March it would fight on there, saying Russia was taking higher casualties trying to storm it.

Moscow has made use of hundreds of thousands of freshly conscripted reservists and thousands of convicts recruited as mercenaries from jails. Kyiv, meanwhile, has mostly stuck to defending its lines while waiting for the arrival of new Western arms for an expected counter-offensive in coming months.

“We are readying our boys,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video address late on Thursday. “We look forward to the delivery of weapons promised by our partners. We are bringing victory closer as much as possible.”

Ukraine had appeared likely to abandon Bakhmut at the end of February, but announced in March it would fight on there, saying it was worth defending the largely ruined city because of the losses it was inflicting on Russians trying to assault it.

Both sides say they are inflicting huge casualties. U.S. intelligence documents leaked last week said Russia had lost 35,500-43,000 soldiers killed, while Ukraine had lost 15,500-17,500, between a third and half as many.

Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of Ukrainian civilians have also been killed across the country since Russia launched its invasion in February last year. Moscow claims the war is necessary to protect Russia from a security threat. Kyiv and the West call it an unprovoked war to conquer an independent country.