Reuters:
KYIV, March 27 – Ukraine’s ground forces commander said on Monday Kyiv was planning its next move after Moscow shifted the focus of its offensive from a flagging assault on the eastern city of Bakhmut to another town further south, described as post-apocalyptic.
The Ukrainian military aims to wear down Russian forces as much as possible before launching a counteroffensive in the coming weeks or months – seeking to end the all-out invasion launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin 13 months ago.
Ukrainian ground forces commander Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, who said last week that the counterattack could come “very soon”, visited front line troops in the east on Monday and said his forces were still repelling Russian attacks on Bakhmut.
Defending the small city in the industrialised Donbas region that Russia has tried to seize for months was a “military necessity”, he said, praising Ukrainian resilience in “extremely difficult conditions”.
“We are calculating all possible options for the development of events, and will react adequately to the current situation”.
Commander-in-Chief General Valery Zaluzhniy said on Saturday the situation was being “stabilised” around Bakhmut, where Russian forces say they are fighting street by street.
Last week, the Ukrainian military warned that Avdiivka, a smaller town 90 km (55 miles) further south, could become a “second Bakhmut” as Russia turns its attention there. Both towns have been reduced to rubble in fighting that both sides have called a “meat grinder”.
“I am sad to say this, but Avdiivka is becoming more and more like a place from post-apocalyptic movies,” said Vitaliy Barabash, head of the city’s military administration. Only around 2,000 of a pre-war population of 30,000 remain and he urged them to leave.
A Ukrainian military video showed smoke billowing from ruined apartment blocks and dead soldiers on open ground and in trenches in Bakhmut.
Two people were killed and 29 wounded on Monday after Russian forces fired two S-300 missiles at the eastern city of Sloviansk northwest of Bakhmut, according to regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy posted a video of smouldering debris and vowed that “Ukraine will not forgive” such attacks. Moscow denies targeting civilians.
Inside Russia, the defence ministry said it had downed a Ukrainian drone on Sunday, adding three people were injured and apartment blocks were damaged in the attack south of Moscow.
Kyiv does not generally comment on reports of attacks inside Russia. The latest reported attack, on the town of Kireyevsk, in Tula region 220 km (140 miles) south of Moscow, appeared to be one of the closest yet to the Russian capital.
