it is extremely well fortified, they call it a fortress. beyond that it is like any other town or city in eastern ukraine. it does not hold any important or strategic value, it has taken a lot of symbolic value. a ukrainian commander says it only grows every day. the ukrainians say, if the russians are to take this town, not only would it be a symbolic blow for the ukrainians but also they believe it would make it easier for them to launch more large scale attacks further inside the country. we also saw new video of the head of the wagner private military contractor showing the russians continuing to make slow but steady progress at moving toward the city s center. he claims in the video he is only 1 .2 kilometers from the town administration building.
to the north, two of the west of bakhmut. they also say that, look, their access in and out is increasingly coming under fire. and now, you have the head of the wagner private military contractor, the russian private military group, saying that they have captured this town which is a few miles north of bakhmut. all of these collectively suggests that the russians are in fact making some progress in actually surrounding bakhmut. and we ve seen this before in so many other towns along the front lines, christine. no major breakthroughs, but just a throw grinding forward by the russians. the ukrainians for their part say, look, it s not the russians grinding down the ukrainians, it s actually the opposite. in that the ukrainians are grinding down the russians ability to actually launch more large-scale attacks in that area. but that seems to be a pretty optimistic view of what is a pretty difficult situation right there, right now, christine.
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