Ukraine says Russian forces make progress in frontline city of Bakhmut

30 March (Reuters) – A Ukrainian military official said Russian forces had had some success in the eastern front city of Bakhmut.

In southern Ukraine, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog said the number of troops in the Russian-occupied Zaporizhia power plant area has grown significantly and can no longer be protected.

The mining city of Bakhmut and surrounding towns in Donetsk’s eastern industrial region have been the focus of many attacks during Russia’s 13-month-long invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

“Enemy forces achieved some success in their actions aimed at storming the city of Bakhmut,” the Ukrainian Armed Forces Chief of Staff said in a regular report late Wednesday.

“Our garrison defends the city and repels numerous enemy attacks.”

The average number of daily Russian attacks on the front lines, as reported by the Ukrainian General Staff, declined for the fourth straight week since the beginning of March, dropping from 124 in the week of March 1-7 to 124 in the past seven days. It became 69 cases. Only 57 attacks were reported on Wednesday.

A Reuters journalist closer to the Bakhmut front west and further north also reported last week that the intensity of the Russian attacks had decreased significantly.

Russian officials say their troops are still occupying ground in street-by-street fighting inside Bakhmut.

Reuters was unable to confirm the battlefield report.

“I can’t protect you”

The Zaporizhia power plant was occupied by Russian forces in the first weeks of the war a year ago, and despite fears of a nuclear disaster, attempts to reduce fighting and artillery fire in its vicinity have failed.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi, who returned to the factory on Wednesday, told Russian reporters that the number of troops in the region had “increased significantly”.

“It is clear that military activity is increasing across the region, so the factories cannot be protected,” he said.

A transcript of the briefing was provided to Reuters.

Grossi said he was putting aside plans for a security zone around the power plant so he could propose concrete safeguards acceptable to both Russia and Ukraine.

The power plant is a valuable part of Ukraine’s energy network, contributing about 20% of the country’s electricity production before the invasion. No power has been generated since September, when the last of the six reactors shut down.

The IAEA has had monitors at the plant since Grossi visited the facility in September amid growing concerns about a possible nuclear accident.

Russian forces have shelled towns in the central Zaporizhia region, including the disputed center of Hlyai Pole, Ukrainian General Staff said.

“Shift Focus”

Oleh Zhdanov, a Ukrainian military analyst who has served in the army, said that attacks on Bakhmut were still intense, but that “the bottom line is that Russian forces are starting to run to and fro.”

“Now the enemy seems to be shifting their focus to the city itself, where the most intense fighting is currently taking place,” Zhdanov said in a YouTube video.

Another Ukrainian military analyst, Colonel Roman Svitan of the Ukrainian Reserve Army, said the situation in Bakhmut was stable and that the Ukrainians’ main task of destroying the Russian army was being fulfilled.

Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Defense, Hannah Maryal, said in a social media post that losses were inevitable, but that “the enemy’s losses are many times greater.”

The Ukrainian military also said there had been renewed shelling of the southern city of Kherson, along with other towns on the west bank of the Dnipro River, which bisects the country.

Ukrainian Air Force shot down a Russian Su-24M bomber. In the past 24 hours, rockets and artillery have hit two of his areas where Russian forces are concentrated: ammunition depots and his two bunkers, he said.

Thousands of troops, tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians and millions of displaced persons on both sides of what Russia called a “special military operation” to mitigate threats to its own security. The invasion also shook the global economy and disrupted international relations.

Ukraine’s UK, US and European allies have provided arms and money, describing the aggression as imperial-style land grabbing by Russia.

Reported by Pavel Polityuk, Olema Harmash, Tom Balmforth, Ron Popeski, and David Ljunggren. Written by Grant McCool and Robert Barthel.Edited by Cynthia Osterman, Stephen Coates and Michael Perry

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