One street away from the government building in central Bakhmut, Wagner fighters broadcast a video of flagging on the roof of a high-rise structure.
“Snowfall has engulfed Bakhmut. The “musicians'” flag is raised in a controlled manner “On March 31, a statement and remarks by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Russian private security firm Wagner, were released. gunmen in a video erecting flags in the city’s core.
The flag placement was allegedly found by open-source intelligence gathering accounts, who claimed it was in the heart of Bakhmut just a few streets from from the parliament building. Several Western experts, however, are still dubious about the seriousness of this action, stating that there are no indications of a significant increase in soldiers or armoured support vehicles in the region.
The Russian Defense Ministry and Ukrainian officials have not commented on the report.
In a previous statement, the Ukrainian military claimed that Russian forces had continued to shell numerous nearby areas in the Donetsk region while attempting to strike Bakhmut.
On March 31, Colonel Yevhen Mezhevikin, commander of a Ukrainian battalion close to Bakhmut, declared that Russia was running low on reserve men and that the threat of being entirely surrounded had been removed by the city’s defence forces. “Numerous times, the attack density dropped. Formerly, the adversary could launch many attacks at once with detachments of 20–40 individuals, but this number has greatly diminished, “said Mezhevikin.
Russia and Ukraine are both paying attention to the conflict in Bakhmut. According to Kyiv, the battle at Bakhmut will be crucial in containing Moscow’s soldiers on the eastern front. Oleksandr Syrsky, the commander of the Ukrainian army, stated this week when visiting Bakhmut that the defence of the city was “extremely vital militarily.” General Syrsky’s remarks are interpreted as a signal that Ukraine will maintain its grip on Bakhmut despite suffering significant losses and the possibility of being completely encircled.
On March 27, Andrei Marochko, a retired military chief of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), stated that due to the perilous nature of the situation, Ukraine had to send numerous elite special forces units to Bakhmut to engage in infantry combat.
On March 29, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that if Bakhmut were to fall, his government would quickly come under intense domestic and international pressure. “The people will get tired, and will want me to compromise with Russia,” he said.
