Most of Bakhmut destroyed in Ukraine war, official says

The protracted and bloody battle for Bakhmut has destroyed more than half of the city in eastern Ukraine, a local official said Thursday.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of Ukraine's military administration for the Donetsk region, which includes Bakhmut, said Ukrainian troops are holding back Russian forces but defending the city comes at a cost to amid "constant shelling".

"The city itself is suffering," Kyrylenko told Ukrainian television. "It's over 60% destroyed." Two people were killed there by Russian artillery fire the day before, he added. The claims could not be independently verified.

Russia continued to wage an offensive aimed at capturing Bakhmut, after suffering a series of setbacks elsewhere in Ukraine in recent months. The city remains one of the main targets of the Russian military, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said on Thursday.

As the Battle of Bakhmut turned into one of the bloodiest campaigns of the war and casualties on both sides mounted, the defense of the Ukrainian-ravaged city has taken on a symbolism twist that goes beyond its military significance, with “Hold Bakhmut” emerging as a rallying cry for the nation. in December, again expressed gratitude in her overnight speech for the troops defending her, calling them "warriors". percent of the city's pre-war population of 73,000 fled.

Donetsk is one of four Ukrainian regions that the Kremlin illegally annexed in September even as his troops were losing ground there. Since then, fighting in the region has become a bloody drag, as Ukrainian forces seek places to assert their advantage, while the Russians build trenches and fortifications along the front lines and attempt to capture Bakhmut.

The Russian force fighting in Donetsk is partly made up of fighters from the Wagner Group, a private military contracting company, and includes convicts who have been promised the pardon in exchange for fighting for Moscow in Ukraine. Trench warfare swung back and forth over the outlying districts of Bakhmut and neighboring villages, with advances and retreats on both sides often measured in hundreds of meters.