Ukraine, Russia Locked in Brutal Battle in Bakhmut, Casualties Mount

Rescue workers connect fire hoses to start extinguishing the fire after shelling by Russian forces of residential neighborhood in Kostiantynivka, Ukraine, Friday, March 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Rescue workers connect fire hoses to start extinguishing the fire after shelling by Russian forces of residential neighborhood in Kostiantynivka, Ukraine, Friday, March 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
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Ukraine, Russia Locked in Brutal Battle in Bakhmut, Casualties Mount

Rescue workers connect fire hoses to start extinguishing the fire after shelling by Russian forces of residential neighborhood in Kostiantynivka, Ukraine, Friday, March 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Rescue workers connect fire hoses to start extinguishing the fire after shelling by Russian forces of residential neighborhood in Kostiantynivka, Ukraine, Friday, March 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Ukrainian forces faced relentless Russian attacks on Bakhmut in its eastern Donetsk region on Monday, with both sides reporting mounting enemy casualties as they battled across a small river that bisects the ruined town and now marks the front line.

The situation in the nearly deserted town was difficult, the commander of Ukrainian ground forces said, though adding that his forces were repelling all Russian attempts to capture it, Reuters reported.

"All enemy attempts to capture the town are repelled by artillery, tanks, and other firepower," Colonel general Oleksandr Syrskyi was quoted as saying on the Ukraine's Media Military Centre Telegram messaging platform.

Ukrainian forces control the west of Bakhmut, while Russia's Wagner mercenary group controls most of the eastern part, with the Bakhmutka River that flows through the town marking the front line, British intelligence said in a weekend update.

Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Sunday the situation was "tough, very tough". "The closer we are to the center of the city, the harder the fighting ... The Ukrainians throw in endless reserves. But we are advancing and we will be advancing," Prigozhin said in comments released by his press service.

He also said Russian army members helped his troops with ammunition.

"Yesterday, we got 15 truckloads, today we got 12. And I think we will continue to receive them," he said, adding there was no conflict between his fighters and Russian troops.

Prigozhin had previously complained that Russia's top brass was deliberately starving his men of ammunition, an allegation the defense ministry rejected.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the report. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said late on Sunday his forces had killed more than 1,100 Russian soldiers in the past few days as they fought for control of Bakhmut.

"In less than a week, starting from the 6th March, we managed to kill more than 1,100 enemy soldiers in the Bakhmut sector alone, Russia's irreversible loss," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.

Russian forces sustained 1,500 "sanitary losses", soldiers wounded badly enough to keep them out of action, he added.

Russia's defence ministry said earlier in the day that its forces had killed more than 220 Ukrainian service members over the past 24 hours in the Donetsk region.

Prigozhin said Wagner "will begin to reboot" and start hiring once Bakhmut is captured. Wagner has opened recruitment centers across 42 cities to replenish its ranks.

Neither side gave details of their own casualties.

WAITING FOR TANKS
While Bakhmut's strategic value is debatable, Russia sees capturing it as a step towards a major aim of the war - now in its second year - of seizing all of Ukraine's Donbas industrial region. Donetsk and Luhansk regions make up the Donbas.

Ukraine has decided to stay and fight on in the mining town, after initial signs it was planning to withdraw, to grind down Russia's best units ahead of an expected spring offensive by Ukrainian forces.

Analysts expect a Ukrainian counter-offensive to begin in earnest over April-May as the weather improves and more military aid arrives, including heavy Leopard and Challenger tanks.

Western tanks will significantly change war tactics, Leonid Khoda, a decorated Ukrainian tank brigade commander, told Reuters.

"Everyone is waiting, 1st Tank Brigade is waiting too. Not long ago we sent personnel to learn to operate (Leopard) 2A6," said Khoda, who commands the 1st Siversk Tank Brigade which is fighting in the south of Donetsk.

Elsewhere, Russia's air defense shot down four missiles over its Belgorod region bordering Ukraine on Monday, its governor said, adding that one person was injured.

Vyacheslav Gladkov did not say who was behind the attacks but in the past he has accused Ukrainian forces on the other side of the border of similar attacks.

The Russia-controlled Ukrainian city of Donetsk was shelled four times on Sunday, with residential areas and power lines hit and Russian-installed officials blaming Ukraine.

Ukraine almost never claims responsibility for attacks inside Russia and on Russia-controlled territory in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has urged Germany to speed up supplies of ammunition and to start training Ukrainian pilots on Western fighter jets.

Kuleba made clear he did not expect Western allies to give Ukraine the aircraft it has been asking for any time soon, but said pilots should be ready for when the decision was taken.

A senior EU official said the European Union could soon top up a fund for purchasing weapons for Ukraine by 3.5 billion euros ($3.7 billion).



France Plans to Take Iran to Int’l Court over Citizen Detentions

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (R) during a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Ministers of Foreign Affairs meeting in Brussels, Belgium, 03 April 2025.  EPA/OLIVIER HOSLET
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (R) during a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Ministers of Foreign Affairs meeting in Brussels, Belgium, 03 April 2025. EPA/OLIVIER HOSLET
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France Plans to Take Iran to Int’l Court over Citizen Detentions

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (R) during a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Ministers of Foreign Affairs meeting in Brussels, Belgium, 03 April 2025.  EPA/OLIVIER HOSLET
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (R) during a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Ministers of Foreign Affairs meeting in Brussels, Belgium, 03 April 2025. EPA/OLIVIER HOSLET

Two French citizens held in Iran for almost three years have not had consular services for more than a year prompting Paris to prepare a complaint at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), France's foreign ministry said on Thursday.
Cecile Kohler and her partner Jacques Paris have been held since May 2022. Iranian state television aired a video later that year with them appearing to confess to acting on behalf of French intelligence services, something categorically denied by Paris.
Held in Tehran's Evin prison, France has accused Iran of keeping them in conditions akin to torture.
French officials have toughened their language towards Iran, notably over the advancement of its nuclear program and regional activities, but also the detention of European citizens in the country.
Speaking after a rare cabinet meeting to broadly discuss Iran on Wednesday, France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot indicated Paris would soon take the matter of violating the right to consular protection to the ICJ.
"We are putting together a complaint that we will file at the ICJ," Foreign ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine told reporters at a news conference on Thursday, adding that the Kohler and Paris were being held in "shocking" conditions.
According to Reuters, Lemoine declined to say when it would be filed and acknowledged that procedures at the ICJ were long, but insisted that Tehran needed to be called out on the issue because the embassy and consulate had not had access to their citizens for more than a year.
"It's in violation of Iran's obligations," he said, citing the Vienna convention on consular relations.
In recent years, Iran's Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals and foreigners, mostly on charges related to espionage and security.
Rights groups have accused Iran of trying to extract concessions from other countries through such arrests.
Iran, which does not recognize dual nationality, denies taking prisoners to gain diplomatic leverage.