Zelensky says situation ‘most difficult’ near Bakhmut in Donetsk

KYIV, Ukraine: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday the situation was “the most difficult” near the eastern town of Bakhmut, a few days after pro-Russian forces announced they were moving closer to the city.

“A very severe situation persists in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions” in the Donbas, Zelensky said in his daily address, “the most difficult is near Bakhmut, like in previous days. We are still holding our positions.”

This comes after Russian-backed separatist forces in Ukraine´s Donetsk region said Thursday they had captured two nearby villages, Opytine and Ivangrad.

Russian troops have for weeks been pummelling Bakhmut, a wine-making and salt-mining city that used to be populated by 70,000 people, in the hope of capturing the city.

About 15-km from Bakhmut, in Chasiv Yar, AFP journalists spoke to a soldier just back from the Bakhmut front line.

With intense physical and emotional exhaustion in his eyes, the 50-year-old soldier from the 93rd brigade nicknamed “Poliak”, recalled the four days on the tense battlefield.

“For days I didn´t sleep, didn´t eat, didn´t drink except coffee,” he said.

“Out of the 13 guys in my group, we lost two soldiers, and five got evacuated,” said Poliak, slightly injured by shrapnel. “This is our life now, we´ll do everything for our country” he added, almost brought to tears.

For weeks Ukrainian troops have been clawing back large swaths of territory in the south and east of Ukraine -- including Donetsk -- controlled by Russian forces for months.

Meanwhile, Russia should be finished calling up reservists in two weeks, President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday, promising an end to a divisive mobilization that has seen hundreds of thousands of men summoned to fight in Ukraine and huge numbers flee the country.

Putin also said Russia had no plans “for now” for more massive air strikes like those it carried out this week, in which it fired more than 100 long range missiles at targets across Ukraine.

Putin ordered the mobilization three weeks ago, part of a response to Russian battlefield defeats. He has also proclaimed the annexation of four partially occupied Ukrainian provinces and threatened to use nuclear weapons.

Russia has since seen the first signs of public criticism of the authorities since the war began and officials have acknowledged some mistakes. Members of ethnic minorities and rural residents have complained of being drafted at higher rates than ethnic Russians and city dwellers.

Defending the order, Putin said the front line was too long to defend solely with contract soldiers.

He said 222,000 out of an expected 300,000 reservists had already been mobilized. “This work is coming to an end,” he told a news conference at the end of a summit in Kazakhstan. “I think that in about two weeks all the mobilization activities will be finished.”