Russia says it has captured a village on the northern outskirts of Bakhmut as it intensifies efforts to besiege a front-line town in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. The village of Blahodatne, about five kilometers north of Bakhmut, was captured with the help of air support, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
Capturing Bakhmut, which had a pre-war population of about 75,000 people, would be Russia’s first major battleground achievement since it took the cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk in July. Regional Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said two civilians, including a boy, were killed in a Russian artillery attack on Bakhmut on Tuesday. Russian forces have made several advances in the area in recent weeks, notably capturing the salt-mining town of Soledar to Bakhmut’s north.
Earlier this month, Russia also claimed it had captured Klishchiivka, a village in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, which had a pre-war population of about 400 people. The village sits about nine kilometers (six miles) south of Bakhmut. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday backed a plan to set up joint military training centers with Belarus, reigniting speculation that forces from the neighboring country could join his troops in Ukraine.
At a joint press conference in Paris with his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksiy Reznikov said that, from his €200 million funds set up by France after the Russian invasion, his 18 artillery pieces had already been delivered. Caesar last year, along with other Western-supplied mobile artillery such as the German Panzerhaubitze 2000, helped Ukraine hit targets deep in the Russian front and undermine Moscow’s offensive.
