ukrainian and russian forces are fighting in the northern suburbs of the city of bakhmut which has been battered by seven months of fighting. oleksandr marchenko, the deputy mayor, confirmed the street clashes, but said the russians haven t taken control. western analysts say the scene has been set for ukrainian forces to carry out a fighting withdrawal. a british defence ministry update said ukrainian soldiers are digging new trenches west of the city and are being reinforced by elite troops. the capture of bakhmut would be the first russian victory of note in more than six months of fighting. meanwhile, according to the supreme commander of nato troops in europe, general christopher cavoli said the scale of the war is unbelivable with 2,000 large battle tanks destroyed, more than 200,000 russian soldiers and over 1,800 officers killed or wounded. 0ur diplomatic correspondent, james landale, sent this report from the capital, kyiv. this is bakhmut or at least what is lef
hello and welcome to bbc news. ukraine says it s enduring heavy russian shelling in the city of lysychansk, as the battle for the east of the country intensifies. lysychansk is the last ukrainian held city in luhansk, part of the industrial donbas region that russia is focussing its military power on. these pictures from russia s state owned domestic news agency, ria, show drone images of battles near the city. but kyiv denies russian claims that the city has been encircled. meanwhile, two more britons captured by russian forces in ukraine have been charged with being mercenaries, according to russian state media. it comes after two other british men were sentenced to death last month. joe inwood reports. andrew hill travelled to ukraine to help fight the russian invasion. dylan healy went there to help evacuate civilians. both men now face being tried as mercenaries in an unrecognised separatist court. they would not be the first to appear there. last month, aiden aslin, sha
they need to have deception to keep them guessing, because then they would make a hasty attack and try to catch them off guard. they need a rear guard etc. there is a whole principle which go into a fighting, controlled fighting withdrawal which the ukrainians have been trying to effect but it s a difficult, difficult operation to do really well. ~ , , ., difficult operation to do really well. ~ , ., 1, ~ , difficult operation to do really well. ~ ., ~ , ., well. with the loss of bakhmut be a si . nificant well. with the loss of bakhmut be a significant setback? well. with the loss of bakhmut be a significant setback? there - well. with the loss of bakhmut be a significant setback? there is - significant setback? there is argument over how strategic it is. i think the ukrainians are at a strategic level still playing a blinder. bakhmut is now ruined, so putin is welcome to it. unfortunately there has been a huge political, well, more a blood sacrifice which has made it more political
so one way or the other they ll probably end up in prison. but the main thing is exactly it s not really about the sentence from the russians and their proxies point of view. it s about a show trial that will be splashy and a deterrent. and mark, we re seeing this heavy bombardment. what is the russian strategy there, do you think? i mean, it looks like they ve near enough taken the city and in fact, the ukrainians are conducting a fighting withdrawal. this is part of the current offensive which is pushing slowly but nonetheless very forcefully through into taking the luhansk region. and as as in your package, you heard essentially once they ve taken here, they pretty much will have accomplished most of that goal. clearly having failed to take ukraine as a whole, having failed to take kyiv, the capital. now, what putin is requiring or demanding his generals do is to conquer all of the donbass region. if he can take the donbas region and also the land corridor to crimea, that s somethin
over the country almost with a bloodless coup, instead the ukrainians fought back and fought back hard. and then that sort of played to another modern russian army weakness. sorry? yeah, no, go ahead. tell me what that is. and the other modern russian army weakness is the modern russian army doctrine is not to invade other countries but is in fact a form of active defense. that is lets opponents attack russia just like napoleon did and just like hitler did and try and space the time so they would do a fighting withdrawal. so the modern russian army doesn t have all the defensive systems necessary into a well defended country. so you ve got the wrong arm wae with the wrong doctrine. and the intelligence and the hubris of the russian leadership