Fighting rages in Ukraine’s Bakhmut as battle for Kherson looms

Ukrainian president says fierce fighting is taking place in Bakhmut and Avdiivka in the east, as preparations for Kherson battle continue.

Ukrainian troops are holding out against attacks by Russian forces in two eastern towns, while those on the southern front are poised to battle for the strategic Kherson region, which Russia appears to be reinforcing.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in his daily address to the nation on Wednesday, said fighting remained intense in the eastern Donbas region near Bakhmut, a town Russia’s Wagner forces have made a concerted push to seize.

Much of the front line remains off limits to journalists, but in the main southern front, Russians were apparently fortifying their positions in Kherson city.

At least 70,000 people have left their homes in Kherson province in the space of a week, a Moscow-installed official, Vladimir Saldo, told a regional TV channel. Ukraine has previously dubbed the evacuation “a propaganda show”.

Pro-Kremlin authorities have sought to move residents to the Russian-controlled areas on the left bank of the river but do not plan to pull out any forces, as Ukraine troops are expected to make a bid for the main urban area on the right bank.

Kherson is one of four partially occupied Ukrainian provinces Russia claims to have annexed following its invasion of Ukraine in late February.

It includes the only land route to the Crimean peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014, and the mouth of the Dnieper river, a vital economic artery that bisects Ukraine.

Officials and military analysts say the looming battle for Kherson city will determine whether Ukraine can loosen Russia’s grip on the south, describing it as one of the most consequential since the start of the war.

Agencies