Ukraine says its forces are holding out in Bakhmut

Ukrainian officials said Friday their forces were still clinging to Bakhmut and sent a senior commander to the beleaguered eastern city in a show of resolve, even as the chief of a group of Russian mercenaries leading the assault there announced that a Ukrainian defeat was imminent.

Signs are mounting that Ukraine may be forced to withdraw from the decimated city. As Russian forces launched multi-directional assaults aimed at encircling the city, Ukrainian Ground Forces Commander Colonel General Oleksandr Syrsky, visited his troops to the city to get an update on the state of affairs.

"Heavy fighting is taking place in and around the city itself," said the army said in a statement. "The commander supported and encouraged the defenders," the statement added.

The visit was announced just hours after Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner Mercenary Force , released a video claiming that there was only one route left for Ukrainians to escape from the city and urging President Volodymyr Zelensky to order a withdrawal. p>

This is not the first time Mr. Prigozhin has made bold claims, many of which have turned out to be false. But the precariousness of the Ukrainian hold on Bakhmut has been evident for weeks.

Col. Serhiy Cherevaty, spokesman for Ukraine's Eastern Command, told reporters on Thursday that Ukrainian forces would carry out a tactical retreat from Bakhmut if necessary.

Bakhmut took a deep symbolic resonance for both sides, which suffered an impressive number of victims.

The most serious risk for Ukrainian forces is that they will be surrounded, trapped and killed in large numbers. But the most immediate risk is that Russia will make it impossible to resupply Ukrainian fighters in and around Bakhmut.

The road from Bakhmut to Chasiv Yar — five kilometers away the west — is the last major supply line for Ukrainian soldiers in and around Bakhmut. Volodymyr Nazarenko, deputy commander of the Ukrainian National Guard, travels this road often and said on Friday that the road was regularly shelled.

"The enemy is trying to advance and carries out assaults not even every day, but almost every hour,” Nazarenko said, but added that Ukraine continued to defend the supply line.

The commander of a Ukrainian drone unit, which uses my Magyar call sign and provided frequent updates on the situation from inside Bakhmut, said Thursday that Kiev was still in control the city but "it's getting harder and harder to hold it. On Friday, he posted a video saying his unit had been ordered to withdraw from the city to another position. He gave no other detail.