Ukrainian officials said on Monday that the Russian military is experiencing heavy losses in Bakhmut, the eastern Ukrainian city that Russian forces captured just months ago.
Deputy defense minister Hanna Maliar said in a Telegram post on Monday that Russian forces were launching attacks from the Mariinka, Avdiivka, and Lyman directions throughout Donetsk Oblast, describing the “heavy fighting” taking place in the region “right now.”
The statement comes after reports over the weekend describing Ukrainian successes around the city of Bakhmut, having taken control of key territories to the north and south of the city last week. Ukrainian forces reportedly made new breakthroughs in the northeast, putting Russia on the back foot.
In her Telegram post, Maliar said that Ukrainian troops had reclaimed roughly nine square kilometers on the eastern front in just the last week, and a total of 28.4 square kilometers of territory overall in that same time. The news means that Ukraine has now recaptured more than 37 square kilometers of territory in the Bakhmut region and inflicted heavy damage on Russian forces in the region.
Eastern Command spokesman Serhii Cherevatyi also told Ukrainian national television that Ukrainian troops are making gradual advances in the region and “pressuring” Russian troops.
Watch A Ukrainian Assault Take Place
Incredible video footage released by the Ukrainian military shows how Ukrainian forces open fire against a Russian position in the region in recent days. The footage also shows Russian prisoners of were being captured by Ukrainian forces and given first aid.
In the video, which was recorded from a bodycam mounted on a member of the Ukrainian 3rd Assault Brigade, at least four Ukrainian troops emerge from an armored vehicle and begin firing their weapons into the bushes. As the soldiers approach, they eventually find multiple Russian soldiers cowering in a ditch and holding their hands up to surrender.
Ukrainian soldiers tell the men, “No one will touch you, no one will beat you.” The Ukrainian troops also ask the Russian men, “Who told you that we kill and murder? Who?”
“Believe me, we are more human than anyone else!” the soldier also tells the men, before announcing that two other Russian soldiers had been taken into captivity, given medical aid, and sent to the hospital.
The footage, which appears to span several days, shows other prisoners of war being given medical aid. At one point in the video, a Ukrainian soldier almost loses his life when he approaches a wounded Russian soldier who detonated a weapon and blows himself up, rather than surrendering to Ukrainian troops.
Jack Buckby is 19FortyFive’s Breaking News Editor. He is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.
