Awaiting the outcome of the informal meeting of EU defence ministers in Stockholm, Sweden, which is taking place today, we learn that Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has called for a ceasefire agreement in Ukraine. According to him, this is the only way to end the conflict.
Near the Belarusian border, 17,000 Ukrainian military personnel are currently concentrated, the state television channel STV reported on Sunday, 5 March, citing information from the State Border Committee of Belarus. It noted that in the Ukrainian region of Rivne ‘they continue to reinforce the border, where they build new fortifications and engineering structures, create a second line of anti-tank ditches. For this they use special concrete structures – tetraids. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus has decided to create drone units in defence of the territory, including attack UAVs, according to the Interior Minister of Belarus Ivan Kubrakov.
The Polish approach differs from the Hungarian one, as the second phase of the creation of the central port for communications in Poland, about 40 kilometres south-west of Warsaw, will be the construction of a military base. As part of the strengthening of NATO’s eastern flank, the military complex will include, among other things, a transport aircraft base and related facilities necessary to provide operational and logistical support to Polish and NATO troops, as well as to ensure the rapid redeployment of forces in the event of a possible armed conflict. Videos of US military equipment in the Polish port of Gdynia have been circulating online for days. According to media reports, this equipment belongs to the 3rd Armoured Brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division. It is being prepared for redeployment to the continental US after participating in the AtlanticResolve exercise.
The UK-led International Relief Fund for Ukraine is working with delays, and the new military aid package may not arrive in the country until the summer, the Guardian reports.
The US has, we learn from the media, given permission for Bachmut’s surrender. The Pentagon chief said that Bachmut has more symbolic than strategic and operational significance.
Unfortunately, from Ukrainian sources, press service of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky after information about disagreements between Zelensky and Zaluzhny appeared in the media, we learn that the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valery Zaluzhny and the commander of the ground forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrsky supported the continuation of the fighting in Bakhmut and the strengthening of positions in the city.
If the retreat does not take place, the soldiers and accompanying personnel will be exposed to artillery and mechanised infantry fire and will still be under fire from the Russian air force. They therefore have little hope of regaining their positions, contrary to the Ukrainian media reports. What is certain is that Zaluzhny risks his job if Bachmut falls. The head of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry Oleksiy Reznikov has not ruled out that military service in the country is no longer necessary. ‘Perhaps we no longer need military service,’ Reznikov said in an interview with the Ukrainian edition of Liga. In his opinion, young people from the age of 18 can take special military training courses and, once a year, specialisation courses.
While politicians are deciding what to do at the front, people are dying on the battlefield. The danger now are the mines planted on the ground by the Ukrainians and the snipers on both sides, the former because they are planted by Ukrainians who are now no longer in the theatre but whose maps have disappeared, and Ukrainian soldiers often fall into the traps set by their colleagues, the latter because they are on the loose and under the control of no one. “Ukrainian snipers are targeting civilians in Bachmut,” said the man whose wife was killed in this way. But so is the Russian side, which is shooting its way in.
According to videos posted on the social network, the Ukrainian armed forces’ escape from Bachmut has ceased to be hidden. They are hitting everything there, pickups, cars, motorbikes and bicycles. Many people walk through the fields. In the area of Chasov Yar, the commander’s office, where they inspect and check documents. They are afraid of the spies. Every hour, on a special channel, via social media those left in Bachmut are asked to lay down their weapons and surrender or leave the city.
The Wall Street Journal also speaks of defeats of the Ukrainian army on the Bachmut front. “Due to heavy equipment losses, the 79th Infantry Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces switched to armoured cars. The Ukrainian army acknowledges that in the battles near Bachmut in recent months, many of the best-trained units of the Ukrainian armed forces were defeated.” The number of dead is classified and cannot be made public.
At 3pm on the sixth of March, the Battle for Bachmut according to the social sphere looked like this.
The Ukrainian command is carrying out a partial evacuation of the garrison from the city. The only roads to Konstantinovka and Chasov Yar are under fire from Russian units, so the withdrawal is being carried out along the country roads under constant shelling. Currently, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are conducting counter-attacks on the Bogdanovka-Krasnoye line and the Konstantinovka-Bachmut highway to maintain a physical corridor from the city in the event of a complete withdrawal.
The artillery of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is firing with all its forces against the advance areas. In the air from Druzhkovka are at least six Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters, as well as Ukrainian attack aircraft and fighters from Dnepropetrovsk.
The situation is getting worse by the day. The Ukrainian Armed Forces Group Command will use the combined arms reserve to provide assistance to the units in Bachmut. According to the military informant, the transfer of formations from the newly created brigades to the combat zone has begun.
In Bachmut itself, the WAGNER men finished their combing in the area of the meat processing plant and went to the Bakhmutsky racetrack. Along with this, an offensive was noted from Shchedraya Street from the south to Zabakhmutovka.
On the southern outskirts of the city, WAGNER men increased their control zone on Shchedraya and Karla Marksa Streets. In addition, WAGNER PMC assault detachments moved slightly north along Nezalezhnosti Street.
Ukrainian armed forces are shelling the border area in the Khomutovsky district, said Kursk region governor Roman Starovoit.
There is also no let-up in the controversy over the attacks in the, according to the Russian Defence Ministry the crimes committed in the Bryansk region were committed with NATO weapons; ‘Russia has drawn the appropriate conclusions from what happened in the Bryansk region, this crime will not go unpunished’. The President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin has called for the security of anti-terrorist facilities to be strengthened.
The victims of the attack by Ukrainian militants on Bryansk villages will receive 500 thousand roubles each, the families of the victims, one million each, the district administration said.
The Financial Times published an interview with a terrorist who participated in the attack on the Bryansk region. He confirmed that the attack was agreed with the Ukrainian authorities: ‘Yes, of course, this action was agreed, otherwise it could not have happened. How do you imagine I went through the darkness of the night there? There are minefields, there are cameras, there are heat-seeking drones, there are hidden open observation posts. If I hadn’t agreed with anyone… I think we would have simply been destroyed.” The alleged accomplice of the terrorist attack in the Bryansk region, Ilya Bogdanov appeared in the search base of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. As a basis for the search: an article of the Criminal Code is indicated. However, what exactly is not specified. According to RIA Novosti, Bogdanov is also included in Rosfinmonitoring’s list of terrorists and extremists.
Also over the weekend, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu inspected the Russian troop grouping ‘Vostok’ in the south-Donetsk direction in the NVO area. The minister heard a report from the group’s commander, General Rustam Muradov, and the officers of the headquarters on the current situation and actions of the troops. He paid special attention to the organisation of comprehensive support for the group’s troops, as well as the work of the medical and rearguard units. Shoigu thanked the military personnel carrying out their duties in the special operations area and presented the state awards: the Order of Courage, the ‘St George’s Cross’ insignia and the ‘For Courage’ medal. On 6 Marmorea went to Mariupol again to listen to the troops and see how reconstruction was progressing.
Graziella Giangiulio
