Ukraine has sent reinforcements to Bakhmut, a senior Ukrainian official said on Wednesday, signaling the intensity of fighting in a city that has become a crucible in the east of the country as Russian forces gradually tighten their grip.
Speaking on Ukrainian television, the official, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar, did not say how many troops were being sent or for what purpose. It is unclear if the reinforcements could be needed for cover or logistical support in case of a Ukrainian withdrawal, or whether they could be part of an effort to continue to defend Bakhmut and possibly to keep Russian forces tied up so they cannot redeploy to other battles.
Ukrainian soldiers have for months held out in Bakhmut, where the death toll has been staggering on both sides. Russian forces, including large numbers of newly mobilized recruits, have been rushed to the front line in the east, giving Ukraine opportunity to inflict thousands of casualties, even at a high cost to its own fighters.
Russia has sustained more combat deaths in the war’s first year than in all the conflicts it has fought since World War II combined, including Chechnya and Afghanistan, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a research organization based in Washington.
Kyiv has used its resistance as a symbol of the country’s broader defiance a year after Russia launched its full-scale invasion. But in recent weeks, Russia’s reinforcements have helped Moscow seize villages and towns around Bakhmut and surround the city on three sides.
“The most difficult situation is still Bakhmut and the battles that are important for the defense of the city,” Mr. Zelensky said on Tuesday in his nightly address, the second day in a row that he has referred to problems facing the city’s defenders. “The intensity of fighting is only increasing.”
On Monday, he said that Russian forces were destroying anything that could shelter the forces fighting to defend the city. “The situation is getting more and more difficult,” he said in that day’s nightly address. “The enemy is constantly destroying everything that can be used to protect our positions, to gain a foothold and ensure defense.”
Much of the fighting in and around Bakhmut has been conducted by troops from the Wagner Group, a mercenary force whose leader, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, has close ties to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
Mr. Prigozhin said on Wednesday in an audio message on social media that there was no sign that Ukrainian forces were withdrawing from the city. Moscow turned its attention to the capture of Bakhmut last summer after it had seized two cities in the nearby Luhansk region, but the battle for the city now stands as the most protracted of the full-scale war. Both sides have sustained heavy casualties.
Russia is trying to encircle Bakhmut, using their “best” and “most well-trained and the most experienced” troops from the Wagner group, Ukraine’s economic adviser, Alexander Rodnyansky, said in an interview with CNN on Tuesday.
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“Our military is obviously going to weigh all of the options,” he said. “So far, they have held the city but, if need be, they will strategically pull back because we are not going to sacrifice all of our people just for nothing.”
He emphasized that it was up to the country’s military to decide if a withdrawal was needed, he said.
As Ukrainian officials mull Bakhmut’s fate, the situation on the ground has become increasingly perilous.
“It’s getting pretty spicy,” said one soldier fighting for Ukraine in the city, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
As it stands, Russian forces are focusing the brunt of their offensive power on the city’s western and southern outskirts, he said, in an attempt to cut off two roads leading into the city. If the Russians manage to close the roads, the Ukrainian formations in Bakhmut proper will be trapped.
Both roads are under intense fire from artillery and anti-tank guided missiles, and sometimes by Russian machine guns, the soldier said.
Ukrainian troops are fighting ferociously to ensure that the roads remain open, but it is unclear how long they can hold off the Russian advances.
“Never fall back is the motto,” the soldier said.
