‘Unprecedented’ bloody fighting over Bakhmut, says Kyiv
Ukrainian and Russian armed forces are fighting extraordinarily bloody battles in the ruined eastern city of Bakhmut, but pro-Kyiv forces are still holding on, Ukraine’s military says.
Reuters reported that Russia’s defence ministry said earlier on Saturday that fighters from the Wagner mercenary group had captured two more areas of Bakhmut, the main target of Moscow’s offensive in eastern Ukraine.
Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern military command, told the 1+1 television channel:
Bloody battles unprecedented in recent decades are taking place in the middle of the city’s urban area.
Our soldiers are doing everything in bloody and fierce battles to grind down [the enemy’s] combat capability and break its morale. Every day, in every corner of this city, they are successfully doing so.
The Russian defence ministry said Wagner units had taken two areas on the northern and southern outskirts of the city. Russian army paratroop units were supporting the claimed advance by holding back Ukrainian forces on the flanks, it added.
Reuters could not independently confirm the report.
The UK said in an intelligence update on Friday that Ukrainian troops had been forced to cede some territory in Bakhmut as Russia mounted a renewed assault there.
Key events
Volodymyr Zelenskiy made no mention of Bakhmut in his daily video address on Saturday and reiterated Kyiv’s desire to join Nato as soon as possible.
Ukraine’s president said his country would need effective security guarantees before that happened, without giving details, Reuters reported.
‘Unprecedented’ bloody fighting over Bakhmut, says Kyiv
Ukrainian and Russian armed forces are fighting extraordinarily bloody battles in the ruined eastern city of Bakhmut, but pro-Kyiv forces are still holding on, Ukraine’s military says.
Reuters reported that Russia’s defence ministry said earlier on Saturday that fighters from the Wagner mercenary group had captured two more areas of Bakhmut, the main target of Moscow’s offensive in eastern Ukraine.
Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern military command, told the 1+1 television channel:
Bloody battles unprecedented in recent decades are taking place in the middle of the city’s urban area.
Our soldiers are doing everything in bloody and fierce battles to grind down [the enemy’s] combat capability and break its morale. Every day, in every corner of this city, they are successfully doing so.
The Russian defence ministry said Wagner units had taken two areas on the northern and southern outskirts of the city. Russian army paratroop units were supporting the claimed advance by holding back Ukrainian forces on the flanks, it added.
Reuters could not independently confirm the report.
The UK said in an intelligence update on Friday that Ukrainian troops had been forced to cede some territory in Bakhmut as Russia mounted a renewed assault there.
Opening summary
Welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. This is Adam Fulton bringing you the latest developments.
Ukrainian and Russian armed forces are engaging in extraordinarily bloody battles in Bakhmut but pro-Kyiv forces are holding on, according to Ukraine’s military.
Russia claimed earlier on Saturday that Wagner fighters had captured two more areas of the eastern Ukrainian city, site of the war’s deadliest battle.
A Ukrainian military spokesperson said: “Bloody battles unprecedented in recent decades are taking place in the middle of the city’s urban area.”
More on that story soon. In other news:
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The death toll from a Russian missile strike on the eastern Ukraine city of Sloviansk has risen to 11. A block of flats was badly damaged and rescue crews were continuing on Saturday to try to rescue people trapped underneath rubble.
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Russian shelling in Kherson killed two women on Saturday, the Ukrainian president’s office said.
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A Russian official has claimed four people were killed and 10 injured in Ukrainian shelling of a town in Russian-controlled Donetsk. Denis Pushilin said a seven-year-old girl was among those wounded in Yasynuvata.
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Russia has been using drones to attack Ukrainian police in Kherson, according to the region’s police force. It said a police car was attacked in the Korabel area, injuring two officers and damaging the car, while in Beryslav one officer was injured and cars damaged.
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A new international economic support package of $115bn is giving Ukraine more confidence it can prevail against Russian forces amid growing recognition the war could continue for longer than expected, the Ukrainian finance minister said on Saturday. Serhiy Marchenko said Group of Seven (G7) finance ministers assured him during International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Washington this week that they would support Ukraine for as long as needed.
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Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke to the French president, Emmanuel Macron, on Saturday. In two tweets, the Ukrainian president said they had discussed Macron’s recent visit to China to meet President Xi Jinping.
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Poland and Hungary have banned imports of grain and other food from Ukraine to protect local farmers, officials from both countries said on Saturday. Ukraine’s grain exports have been transiting through the European Union to other countries since Ukraine’s Black Sea routes were blocked by Russia’s invasion, leading to prices being driven down.
Worshipers including President Vladimir Putin crowded into Moscow’s vast Christ the Saviour Cathedral for Easter services led by Russian Orthodox Church head Patriarch Kirill, a supporter of Russia’s military actions in Ukraine.
The services began late on Saturday and were to extend long into Sunday as phalanxes of white-robed clerics circulated through the cathedral swinging smoking censers and a choir sang and chanted, the Associated Press reported.
Most western churches observed Easter on 9 April, but the Russian Orthodox Church follows a different calendar.
In a video message broadcast on state televison before the start of the service, Kirill lamented the “grave events taking place on our Russian historical land”, echoing the claim of Putin and other Russian officials that an independent Ukraine is essentially a fiction.
Kirill called for prayers “so that peace and a common good life, fraternal relations again unite our peoples, who were once the one people of united Russia”.
Putin was shown among the standing worshipers, holding a thin red candle.
