Home » Russia-Ukraine War Live: Bakhmut ‘killing Zone’ Hampering Wagner As Russians Push To Take City, Says UK

Russia-Ukraine War Live: Bakhmut ‘killing Zone’ Hampering Wagner As Russians Push To Take City, Says UK

Bakhmut ‘killing zone’ hampering Wagner advance, says UK MoD

Bakhmut has become a “killing zone” that is probably highly challenging for Russia’s Wagner mercenary forces trying to continue their assault westward, the UK Ministry of Defence has said.

Its latest intelligence update said that over the past four days, Wagner Group forces had taken control of most of eastern Bakhmut, while Ukrainian forces held its west and had demolished key bridges over the Bakhmutka River, “which now marks the front line”.

The ministry said:

With Ukrainian units able to fire from fortified buildings to the west, this area has become a killing zone, likely making it highly challenging for Wagner forces attempting to continue their frontal assault westwards.

However, the Ukrainian force and their supply lines to the west remain vulnerable to the continued Russian attempts to outflank the defenders from the north and south.

The illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is continuing.

The map below is the latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 11 March 2023.

Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/HN8GgP0WNm

🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/GKjKAFzu6S

— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) March 11, 2023n”,”url”:”https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1634445333282291712″,”id”:”1634445333282291712″,”hasMedia”:false,”role”:”inline”,”isThirdPartyTracking”:false,”source”:”Twitter”,”elementId”:”1ed19408-3158-4247-b023-eb283a2d83f9″}}”>

Three civilians were killed in Russian shelling of Kherson in southern Ukraine on Saturday, and another died in Donetsk, regional officials said.

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Reuters reported the governor of Kherson oblast, Oleksandr Prokudin, as saying three people, including an elderly woman, had also been wounded .

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“Today the Russian occupiers have hit Kherson again, on Mykolayivsky road near a shop, debris from a shell killed three people,” he told Ukrainian TV.

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Ukraine recaptured Kherson in November after nearly eight months of occupation by Russian forces who seized it soon after the start of their invasion. The area is now under almost constant bombardment from Russian forces on the opposite side of the Dnieper river.

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The Donetsk regional governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said one person had been killed and at least three injured in the city of Kostyantynivka after several rounds of Russian shelling during the day.

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Bakhmut has become a “killing zone” that is probably highly challenging for Russia’s Wagner mercenary forces trying to continue their assault westward, the UK Ministry of Defence has said.

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Its latest intelligence update said that over the past four days, Wagner Group forces had taken control of most of eastern Bakhmut, while Ukrainian forces held its west and had demolished key bridges over the Bakhmutka River, “which now marks the front line”.

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The ministry said:

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n

With Ukrainian units able to fire from fortified buildings to the west, this area has become a killing zone, likely making it highly challenging for Wagner forces attempting to continue their frontal assault westwards.

n

However, the Ukrainian force and their supply lines to the west remain vulnerable to the continued Russian attempts to outflank the defenders from the north and south.

n

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n”,”url”:”https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1634445333282291712″,”id”:”1634445333282291712″,”hasMedia”:false,”role”:”inline”,”isThirdPartyTracking”:false,”source”:”Twitter”,”elementId”:”73374bf6-76f8-486e-9fd5-f5eb681bd5bb”}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:true,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1678519939000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”07.32 GMT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1678520646000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”07.44 GMT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1678520183000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”07.36 GMT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”07.36″,”title”:”Bakhmut ‘killing zone’ hampering Wagner advance, says UK MoD”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Sat 11 Mar 2023 14.50 GMT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Sat 11 Mar 2023 07.00 GMT”},{“id”:”640bf2128f080fff7c2bb9c7″,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war. This is Adam Fulton bringing you up to speed.

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Fighting in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut had “escalated”, said Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, Hanna Malyar, with another push by Russian forces to break through Ukrainian defence lines that have largely held firm for the past six months.

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Associated Press reported that just west of Bakhmut, shelling and missile strikes hit the Ukrainian-held city of Kostiantynivka on Friday. The regional prosecutor’s office said eight people were injured and more than a dozen homes damaged or destroyed.

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AP journalists in the city saw at least four injured people taken to hospital. Police said Russian forces attacked the town with S-300 missiles and cluster munitions.

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