Bakhmut

Ukrainian service members ride inside an infantry fighting vehicle near the frontline town of Bakhmut, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, ...

Only Turkey and Hungary have not yet given their approvals. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said during a visit to Turkey earlier in February that "the time has come" to ratify both Sweden and Finland as new NATO members. All of NATO's existing members must approve their bids.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged Monday that the situation is deteriorating around Bakhmut. Russian forces and private military ...

and redeploy their forces for the counteroffensive and then strike Bakhmut again," he said. But he said it should be watched whether Ukraine decides to send its elite forces into Bakhmut or whether they reserve those forces for a counter-offensive expected in the spring. The Ukrainians launched a counter-offensive of sorts at the weekend that was ultimately rolled back but the point is, they did gain a little bit of momentum and traction," he noted. Still, Russian officials continue to claim that their forces are encircling and even entering the city. She said Russia was employing the tactics of "exhaustion and total destruction" but said that Russian forces were experiencing significant losses, losing between 600 to 1,000 people daily, she claimed. The most difficult situation remains in the Bakhmut direction."

Ukrainian soldiers who have been holding off a Russian offensive around the city describe intense fighting.

For most of last year he fought in Zaporizhzhia province in the south. And the place no longer exists.” It had become another Mariupol, the once flourishing city on the Sea of Azov, pulverised last spring by Russian bombs, he said. He was based in the village of Pisky, close to Donetsk’s ruined airport. He described the battle for Bakhmut as relentless and intense: the hottest and most dangerous place on a 600-mile long frontline. The Russians have a lot of artillery. They cite logistical difficulties and a lack of Russian infantry. There are destroyed vehicles and a clip of a wounded serviceman. In January they took the nearby town of Soledar. According to Ukrainian intelligence, Russia’s president has ordered his military to seize all of Donetsk and Luhansk provinces by the end of March. But we can’t see who they are because of the forest,” a soldier says. Further along the same front, Ukrainian soldiers are doggedly defending the town of Bakhmut, once home to 70,000 people. Bendyk and his fellow Ukrainian soldiers have been holding off a surging Russian offensive west of Kreminna, a city that Moscow captured last year.

Harrowing footage showed the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut looking like “hell” as Russian troops step up their bid to encircle it and Volodymyr Zelensky said the ...

[Russian President, Vladimir Putin](https://inews.co.uk/topic/vladimir-putin?ico=in-line_link), announced last week [he would temporarily withdraw from the agreement ](https://inews.co.uk/news/world/vladimir-putin-speech-russia-ukraine-war-invasion-anniversary-2162222?ico=in-line_link)amid reports of figures in Washington wanting to resume nuclear testing. [US President, Joe Biden](https://inews.co.uk/topic/joe-biden?ico=in-line_link), branded the move a “big mistake”. [the bilateral arms control treaty ](https://inews.co.uk/news/world/vladimir-putin-speech-russia-ukraine-war-invasion-anniversary-2162222?ico=in-line_link)with Washington until it heard its position. [Volodymyr Zelensky](https://inews.co.uk/topic/volodymyr-zelensky?ico=in-line_link) said the situation there was “becoming more difficult”. “The southern part of Bakhmut is the only area which can be described as under Ukrainian control. The images showed rubble strewn over the roads and hollowed out buildings in the heart of Bakhmut, where Mr Miller used to have his apartment. [Russian attacks](https://inews.co.uk/news/world/ukrainian-war-photographer-yellow-kitchen-image-2170689?ico=in-line_link) on the villages of Yadhidne and Berkhivka, on the northern approaches to Bakhmut. [the four regions it proclaimed as annexed in September](https://inews.co.uk/news/world/putin-martial-law-ukraine-regions-annexed-russia-mass-evacuation-1920534?ico=in-line_link), including Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday. [Russia ](https://inews.co.uk/topic/russia?ico=in-line_link)has “thrown in the most prepared assault units of [Wagner](https://inews.co.uk/topic/wagner-group?ico=in-line_link)” as it tries to cut off [Ukrainian forces’ supply lines](https://inews.co.uk/news/ukraine-delivery-western-weaponry-masterminded-2172869?ico=in-line_link) in Bakhmut, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi was quoted as saying on a military messaging platform. [last week entered its second year ](https://inews.co.uk/news/world/ukraine-war-anniversary-russia-invasion-marked-around-world-one-year-on-2170866?ico=in-line_link)– but that new “territorial realities” could not be ignored. [committing war crimes](https://inews.co.uk/news/world/rape-war-crime-ukraine-investigators-stigma-shame-russian-occupation-2150625?ico=in-line_link) or targeting civilians in Ukraine. [weeks-long fighting ](https://inews.co.uk/news/world/russian-urgency-ukraine-appeals-western-weapons-2127030?ico=in-line_link)as Russia seeks to get Ukrainian troops to surrender or withdraw from the city, which would give Moscow a passageway to other remaining urban centres in the separatist region of Donetsk.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned the “situation is getting more and more difficult” as resistance to Russia's pounding continues.

[Bakhmut](https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/Bakhmut) is in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, part of which is under the control of Russia and its proxy forces. Ukraine is expected soon to launch its own counter-offensive. Russia’s state-run RIA news agency released a video clip it said showed Russian Su-25 fighter jets roaring over Bakhmut. Capturing Bakhmut would be a symbolic win for Russia following its misjudged, morale-sapping invasion. Its defense is already hailed in song. Bakhmut had a pre-war population of around 70,000, but now lies in ruins after months of intense trench warfare.