Zelensky has been warning for weeks that Moscow aims to escalate its attack on Ukraine after nearly two months of virtual stalemate on the front in the south and east of the country.
Although there was no sign of a new, wider offensive on the border, Denis Pushilin, Russia’s ruler over parts of the Donetsk region it controls, said the forces had established a foothold in Volydar, a coal-mining town whose ruins have been a Ukrainian stronghold since the start of the war.
Jan Gagin, an adviser to Pushilin, said forces from the private military group Wagner had partially taken control of a supply route leading to the city of Bakhmut, which had been the focus of Russian attacks for months.
The head of the group said yesterday that his fighters took control of the village of Blahodatni, north of Bakhmut.
Kyiv said it had repulsed attacks on Blahodatny and Volidar, and Reuters could not verify conditions there. But the battle sites reveal clear Russian gains that are taking place gradually.
Zelensky said that Russia is launching relentless attacks in the east despite the heavy losses it suffered, commenting on that that Moscow is retaliating for Ukraine’s success in expelling Russian forces from the capital, southeast and south at an earlier stage of the conflict.
“I think Russia really wants their revenge to be big. I think they are (already) starting it,” he added.
“Every day they either bring in more of their regular troops or we see an increase in the number of Wagner troops,” he told reporters in the southern port city of Odessa.
Voledar lies south of Bakhmut, near where the eastern front line protects the Russian-controlled railways that supply Moscow’s forces in southern Ukraine with supplies and equipment. Mykola Salamakha, a Ukrainian colonel and military analyst, told Ukrainian radio station NV that Moscow’s offensive there was too costly.
“The town is located on a hill and a heavily fortified defensive post has been established there… This is a repetition of the situation in Bakhmut, the Ukrainian armed forces are crushing wave after wave of Russian forces,” Salamakha added.
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