Modest Ukrainian gains

 

Ukrainian forces claim to have clawed back three square miles of occupied territory around the southeastern edge of the destroyed city of Bakhmut on Wednesday. Russian invaders have been trying to take control of the city for nearly an entire year. They nearly encircled it in January, but Ukraine's military has held firm across several blocks on the city's western edges in the weeks and months since.

The New York Times reported this latest alleged advance, and noted that, "If confirmed, it would be the first significant gain for Ukraine in the fight for Bakhmut since pushing Russian forces off a key access road two months ago." It remains to be seen, however, if either side's gains and losses in the region can be sustained.

The Ukrainian claim was effectively seconded by Russian mercenary mouthpiece Yevgeny Prigozhin, who runs the Wagner convict fighting force trying to help Moscow's fumbling ground forces inside Ukraine. Prigozhin said Tuesday that Ukrainian forces broke through a Russian flank near Bakhmut recently. "Everyone fled and exposed a front almost two kilometers wide and 500 meters deep," he said of Russian military ground forces there. He also claimed his forces rushed to the vacancy and filled it enough to stop a further push by Ukraine's military.

"A screaming comes across the sky…" Take a look at a Ukrainian intelligence map of recent Russian missile strikes across Ukraine, including their approximate launch points and impact or shootdown locations. The image comes from a visit to the offices of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, as photographed Tuesday by Nicole Tung of the Times.

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Ukraine's Foreign Ministry shared video of an alleged Russian soldier surrendering recently from among the trenches. Ukraine's military air-dropped instructions to the soldier to follow a drone to safety, and the soldier reluctantly does—despite being allegedly shot in the back by his own Russian comrades in the process.

Ukraine's military called drones "the best friends of the artillery and the eyes of the infantry," in a Facebook post Tuesday. "Every crevice in which the invaders hid is under their watchful eye…So, target by target, centimeter by centimeter, Ukrainian aerial scouts are making Victory."