Russian attacks killed two people and injured seven in Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast, on March 4, Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko reported.
Russian forces have been trying to take Bakhmut since May 2022 without success. The Donetsk Oblast city continues to see some of the war’s heaviest fighting since the full-scale war began.
In its daily report on March 4, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said that Russian forces are unlikely to encircle Bakhmut soon.
While Russian offensives into Bakhmut have reportedly been “slow and gradual,” they have, however, managed to “push close enough to critical ground lines of communication from the northeast to threaten Ukrainian withdrawal routes in a classical turning movement.”
Earlier on March 4, Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesman for the eastern grouping of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, said Russian forces have not taken the city of Bakhmut. He said that fighting is ongoing on the outskirts of the beleaguered Ukrainian city.
On March 3, the ISW suggested that Ukrainian forces appeared to be preparing conditions for a planned withdrawal from the city. However, when asked about certain units’ withdrawal, Cherevatyi said that Ukrainian troops are rotating in and out of their positions in a planned manner.
