The battle for the town of Bakhmut is stabilising, says Ukrainian Commander

The high number of Russian victims may be the main reason Ukraine has not withdrawn from the city, analysts say.

On Facebook, Lieutenant General Zaluzhnyi said that while the situation on the Ukrainian front line “is the hardest in running Bakhmut... due to extraordinary defence forces efforts, we are able to stabilise the” situation.

Zaluzhny announced after talking to UK Chief of Staff Admiral Sir Tony Radaki about the situation in Ukraine.

His comments are the latest positive signal by Ukrainian officials for the long battle for Bakhmut.

The United Kingdom Defence Ministry said on Saturday that Russia's attack on Bakhmut has <x0-enged primarily”, citing the Russian forces' extreme “debacle” as a cause and added that Russia is likely to shift its operational focus to the south and north of Bakhmut.

Earlier this week, Oleksandr Syrsky, the commander of the country's land forces, said Russian troops were <x0 ...rractracturing” near Bakhmut.

Syrsky added that while Russia “had not given up on the hope of taking Bakhmut at all costs, despite losses in the workforce and equipment... they are losing considerable power”.

And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently visited the front line near Bakhmu, where he visited him for the last time in December.

The images showed him in an old warehouse by awarding medals to soldiers, whom he called “heronj”.

The Institute for War, a research institute, said on Thursday that although Ukraine is still bigger than the Wagner group, Ukrainian forces “continue to tire out mercenaries, which will enable Ukrainian forces to pursue undeposed offensive operations in the future”.

Wagner, a private mercenary organisation, is at the centre of the Russian assault on Bakhmut. Its leader, Yevgeny Pigozin, has threatened his reputation to conquer the city.

The defence ministry said the Russian situation in Bakhmut would likely be exacerbated by tensions between Wagner and the Russian Defence Ministry.

About 70,000 people lived in Bakhmut before the invasion, but only a few thousand remain.

His capture would draw Russia a little closer to controlling the entire Donnetsk region, one of four regions in Russian's illegally annexed eastern and southern Ukraine last September.