Ukraine says Russian forces fall back to defensive positions in Bakhmut

Kyiv, June 1 (EFE).- Ukraine’s military Thursday said Russian forces had fallen back to “the defensive” positions on the frontlines in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

“There is a significant decrease in any active actions of the enemy with an increase in the number of strikes from heavy weapons, mainly from artillery and mortars,” Oleksandr Syrskyi, the Commander of Ground Forces for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, wrote on Telegram.

Syrskyi posted a video purportedly showing how the Ukrainian soldiers destroyed the Russians in the trenches in the Bakhmut direction with the help of drones.

“Aerial reconnaissance of the 24th Separate Assault Battalion ‘Aidar’ decimates the occupiers in trenches,” the post reads.

Serhiy Cherevaty, who heads the eastern military command of Ukraine, also said the activity of Russian troops in the Bakhmut direction had decreased.

A day earlier, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on her Telegram channel that the Russians were no longer conducting offensive actions in Bakhmut.

She said Ukrainian forces had suspended their advance on the Bakhmut frontlines to perform other military tasks to increase their combat capabilities.

However, she warned the lull in fighting would not last long as “both sides are preparing and reinforcing for new operations.”

She said Russia has already withdrawn most of the Wagner mercenary units and deployed a regular army in Bakhmut.

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin on May 21 declared that his fighters had completed the mission to completely seize the city, which witnessed some of the fiercest battles and was under siege for months.

He said the mercenaries would now withdraw from Bakhmut and hand over control to the Russian military. EFE

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