Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensiy attends a news conference in Kiev February 15.VALENTYN OGIRENKO
The Ukrainian military is inflicting “extremely heavy” casualties on Russian forces near the town of Vuhledar in the eastern Donbass region, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday.
“The situation is very complicated. And we fight. We are crushing the invaders and inflicting extremely heavy casualties on Russia,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.
Referring to several cities in Donbass, where fighting has been concentrated for months, Zelenskyy said: “The more casualties Russia suffers there, in Donbass – in Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Marinka, Kreminna – the sooner we will be able to to end this war with the victory of Ukraine.”
Zelenskyy outlined the defense situation in other sectors after what he called an “extended” meeting of the military command.
Things are under control near the Black Sea port of Odessa, he said, and troops are “protecting” the central region of Zaporizhia, which is partially controlled by Russian forces.
There were “very good results” on the northern border with Russia and its ally Belarus, areas where Ukrainian troops retook towns from Russian forces in September and October.
“Of course, military affairs and intelligence details cannot be shared with everyone,” said Zelenskyy. “But I want our people to have predictability now. And the feeling that Ukraine is getting closer to its goals.”
Zelenskyy says Ukraine will defend Bakhmut from Russia within reason
Zelenskyy said in an interview published on Sunday that Ukraine would maintain its months-long defense of the eastern city of Bakhmut, bearing in mind the price paid in human lives.
Zelenskyi was quoted in the Italian daily Corriere della Sera as debating whether Kiev’s outnumbered forces should remain in the eastern Ukrainian city, which was all but destroyed by Russian shelling.
Bakhmut, in the frontline Donetsk region, had a population of 70,000 before the war, but now Ukrainian officials estimate fewer than 5,000 civilians remain.
“Yeah, it’s not a particularly big city. In fact, like many others in the Donbass, it was devastated by the Russians. It is important that we defend it, but not at any price and not that everyone dies,” Zelenskyi told the daily.
Analysts say the city has symbolic rather than strategic value as a gateway to cities further west in the Donetsk region.
Zelenskyi said that Russian commanders were anxious to advance to the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk further west in the Donetsk region “and as far as (the central city) Dnipro.”
“We will defend ourselves and meanwhile prepare the next counterattack.”
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