Ukraine retains Bakhmut ‘road of life’

Ukraine remains in control of a key supply route into Bakhmut, a military spokesperson said yesterday, as the head of Russia's mercenary Wagner Group threatened to withdraw some of his troops from the eastern city if Moscow did not send more ammunition.

Russian forces have been trying for 10 months to punch their way into the shattered remains of what was once a city of 70,000. "For several weeks, the Russians have been talking about seizing the 'road of life,' as well as about constant fire control over it," Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for Ukrainian troops in the east, said in an interview with local news website Dzerkalo Tyzhnia.

"Yes, it is really difficult there ... (but) the defence forces have not allowed the Russians to 'cut off' our logistics."

Ukraine's top military command said in its daily update yesterday that its forces had repelled 58 Russian attacks over the past day along the part of frontline stretching from Bakhmut through Avdiivka.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of Russia's Wagner Group, who has often claimed unverifiable successes, said that his forces have advanced some 100 to 150 metres (109 to 164 yards) in Bakhmut, leaving just under 3 square km of the city in Ukrainian hands.

But he said he lost 94 troops.

In a nearly 90-minute video interview with Russian military blogger Semyon Pegov published on Saturday, Prigozhin threatened to withdraw troops from Bakhmut, saying they had enough ammunition left only for days.

Meanwhile, a pre-dawn Ukrainian strike on a Russian border village killed four people and wounded two others, the governor of Russia's western Bryansk region said.