Calay News
Western analysts and the former military chief of the Donetsk separatists, Igor Girkin, agree that Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the order for his troops to seize the Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, in the Donetsk region, with the aim of presenting some triumph on the first anniversary of the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine.
Currently, the Russian Army is conducting a devastating offensive in the city, which has left Bakhmut partially surrounded, and some of its neighborhoods have already been penetrated.
Due to heavy fighting, the Ukrainian government has ordered civilians to leave the city immediately and the population to evacuate Bakhmut. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshuk has warned that Russian troops are attacking residential areas and that civilians pose a danger to police and volunteers who come to the city to help them, as well as interfere with the work of the Ukrainian Army and security forces.
Zelenski has directed that the city be defended until new military aid equipment arrives from the West. For his part, the head of the Wagner Group mercenaries, Evgueni Prigozhin, has criticized the Defense Ministry for the slow progress in the advance to occupy Bakhmut, noting that it will take until April or May to take the city.
