Russian forces are still edging forward in the shattered eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, a Moscow-installed official said on Tuesday, but British intelligence said a Russian tank division had suffered heavy losses in the nearby town of Avdiivka.
The battle for Bakhmut, a mining city in the Donetsk region, has been the focus of Moscow’s war in Ukraine for months, with both sides describing the fighting there as a “meat grinder”.
Denis Pushilin, the Russian-installed leader of the part of Donetsk region under Moscow’s control, said most Ukrainian forces had pulled back from the AZOM metals factory on the western side of the Bakhmutka river in the city.
“The important thing here was to clear out the industrial zone at the plant itself. You can practically say that has now been done, with the guys just finishing off (Ukrainian) fighters there who are only left in solitary groups,” Pushilin told Russian state TV.
Ukrainian military commanders have said their own counteroffensive – backed by newly-delivered Western hardware, including German Leopard 2 tanks – is not far off, but have stressed the importance of holding Bakhmut in the meantime.
Russian forces have also been shelling Avdiivka, 90 km (55 miles) south of Bakhmut. Many civilians have now been evacuated.
In its daily update on the war in Ukraine on Tuesday, Britain’s defence ministry said Russian forces had made only “marginal progress” in an attempt to encircle Avdiivka in recent days and had lost many armoured vehicles and tanks.
Russia’s 10th Tank Regiment, taking part in the Avdiivka operation, was dogged by problems of ill discipline and poor morale, and had “likely lost a large proportion of its tanks”, the ministry said.
