Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of the Ground Forces of Ukraine, arrived in Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast, on March 3 to visit the command posts in the frontline city.
"The enemy does not give up hope of capturing Bakhmut and continues accumulating forces to occupy it," Land Forces wrote.
Syrskyi discussed current issues on the Bakhmut front line with the units' commanders and supported the service people, who the ground forces called "an example of stability, courage, and heroism."
"The Russian occupiers threw the most prepared units of the Wagner mercenary group and other regular units of the Russian army to capture the city," reads the post. "Intense fighting is taking place in the city itself and around it."
Syrskyi's visit comes on the same day when Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner Group founder, said in a video address that Bakhmut was "practically surrounded" by his forces and called on Zelensky to withdraw Ukrainian troops from the city.
The Ukrainian military's National Resistance Center called Prigozhin's address "a disinformation campaign designed to create panic among the population."
Overnight on March 3, Russian troops blew up a key bridge connecting Bakhmut with the village of Khromove, CNN reported on March 3, citing an unnamed official from the region's police and a soldier in Bakhmut.
On March 2, Eastern Operational Command spokesman Serhiy Cherevaty said that Ukraine's Armed Forces have the option to withdraw from Bakhmut, but such a decision will only be made if it is "absolutely necessary."
Russia has likely set a goal to capture Donetsk Oblast's "key settlements" in the nearest future and seize control of the Donbas – an industrial heartland composed of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts – before the summer, according to General Oleksii Hromov.
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