Ukraine military may pull back from Bakhmut, official says amid heavy fighting
Global News
In Ukraine, at least nine civilians were killed and 12 others were wounded across the country on Tuesday, the Ukrainian president’s office reported Wednesday morning.
Ukraine’s military could pull back from the key eastern stronghold of Bakhmut, an adviser to the Ukrainian president said Wednesday, amid a relentless Russian offensive that has sought for months to capture the city.
“Our military is obviously going to weigh all of the options. So far, they’ve held the city, but if need be, they will strategically pull back,” Alexander Rodnyansky, an economic adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told CNN. “We’re not going to sacrifice all of our people just for nothing.”
The battle for Bakhmut, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance as defenders hold out against relentless shelling and waves of Russian troops taking heavy casualties in a months-long campaign to capture it.
Rodnyansky noted that Russia was using the best troops of the Wagner Group, a private military company led by a rogue millionaire with longtime links to Russian President Vladimir Putin, to encircle Bakhmut. Recent drone footage shows the scale of devastation in the city, while Zelenskyy has described it as “destroyed.”
Meanwhile, one of Zelenskyy’s top advisers, Mykhailo Podolyak, denied on Wednesday that Ukraine had used drones to attack Russian territory following Russian official statements that Ukraine had targeted infrastructure deep inside Russia.
“Ukraine does not strike on the territory of the Russian Federation. Ukraine is waging a defensive war with the aim of de-occupying all its territories,” Podolyak wrote on Twitter, suggesting the targeting of Russian infrastructure was the result of “internal attacks.”
Ukraine’s western allies have discouraged Ukraine from attacking targets in Russia proper to avoid escalation of the conflict, and Podolyak’s statement could reflect an attempt by Kyiv to maintain a degree of deniability in view of those Western concerns.
In the past, Ukrainian officials have stopped short of claiming responsibility for attacks in Russia, but also insisted that Ukraine has the right to strike any target on Russian territory in response to its aggression.