NEAR BAKHMUT, Ukraine — Russia’s defense minister on Tuesday gave an indication of why his country is ready to send so many soldiers into the grueling battle to capture the small industrial town of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. Sergei Shoigu said capturing the city would allow Russian forces to push further into Ukraine and capture more ground in the Donbass region that Russian President Vladimir Putin appears desperate to capture in its entirety.
Ukrainian forces fighting street to street to hold the city are surrounded on three sides but have refused to back down. Some of the troops who have held that front line have told CBS News they cannot understand why Russia was willing to sacrifice so many lives, but it hasn’t weakened their resolve.
Shoigu said on Tuesday that taking Bakhmut was essential for Russia’s “further offensive” in Donbass. This admission could strengthen Ukraine’s commitment to prevent this.
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Ukraine struggles to hold Bakhmut as Russian troops surround the city
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday night that his military commanders had told him they were not ready to give up, and that he and other senior leaders “unanimously supported that position.”
“I told the commander-in-chief to find the right people to help our people in Bakhmut,” Zelenskyy said.
And these guys appreciate any help they can get.
Ukrainian forces took our team to a vital vantage point just about a mile and a half from the decimated center of Bakhmut. We were close enough to see smoke rising from the ruins. From a secret vantage point, the Ukrainian soldier Ishak kept a close eye on the nearby Russian positions.
“Our greatest fear is artillery,” he said, “because it can hit us at any time. You don’t know when, where or how.”
Russian mercenaries on the ‘lies’ that lured them to Ukraine
Russian regular forces and Wagner Group mercenaries who led the attack on Bakhmut have said they are on the verge of completely encircling the charred and devastated city. But the leader of Wagner’s private army, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has clashed with Shoigu and other senior military officials over resources in recent weeks, said Monday his forces needed reinforcements and more ammunition.
“I’m knocking on all doors and sounding the alarm about ammunition and reinforcements and the need to cover our flanks,” Prigozhin said, highlighting a rift that may have already complicated Russia’s attempt to take Bakhmut.
“If everyone is coordinated, without ambition, mistakes and tantrums, and does this work, then we will block the Armed Forces of Ukraine. If not, then everyone gets screwed,” he said bluntly.
A Ukrainian tank drives towards a front line near Bakhmut, Ukraine, on March 6, 2023. Evgeniy Maloletka/AP
The strain on Russian troops, who are being ordered to step up the battle for Bakhmut against Ukrainian forces promised support from Kiev and more weapons from Western partners, was brutally exposed as they face accusations of horrific atrocities .
This week there was a wave of international outrage over a gruesome video showing the apparent execution of a Ukrainian soldier by Russian forces near Bakhmut.
Ukrainian soldier stands in a forest and smokes a cigarette. He is heard calmly chanting the chorus “Honour of Ukraine” before being struck down by gunfire. A Russian voice, apparently from one of the gunmen, says, “Die, b****.”
The 30th Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine identified a soldier seen in apparent execution video as Tymofiy Shadura on March 7, 2023. The Post said he disappeared in fighting near Bakhmut more than a month ago. social media
Responding to the video — the latest evidence of alleged Russian war crimes in his country — Zelenskyy praised the slain soldier Monday night, repeated his “Honour to Ukraine” salute and vowed to “find the killers.”
In a Facebook post, the 30th Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces identified the killed soldier as one of their own and named him Tymofiy Shadura. The Post said he disappeared in fighting near Bakhmut on February 3.
Masik, a Ukrainian soldier who had just returned from Bakmut, told CBS News that he and his comrades understood the risks and brutality of fighting for the city.
“Many of us were killed,” he said. “But this is our country and we have to keep fighting.”
While some military analysts have described Bakhmut as a largely symbolic struggle for a city of little strategic value, Masik told CBS News that its elevated topography is partly explained by the vantage point it offers to points further west and its position in the road network could be why Russia fought so hard to conquer it. But he couldn’t explain the seemingly World War I tactics of throwing more and more men to die at the front.
In the high-tech battle for Bakhmut
“The Russians said they have been surrounding Bakhmut for half a year now,” he said. “But here we are, on the outskirts of Bakhmut. Bakhmut will stand. Right now we’ve got elite soldiers there repelling them, chewing them up… I think they’re just throwing more forces at it to show that they’ve got a goal – that there was a goal in this ‘special operation’.
“But they fall in such numbers that I don’t understand why. I can’t explain why their commanders are ordering them to sacrifice so many lives with so little success,” Masik said.
At a nearby location, deep in the forest, CBS News met members of a tank unit who had also witnessed the horrors of the Battle of Bakhmut firsthand. Vladyslav said his unit fought on almost every front line of the war, and he didn’t hesitate to call Bakhmut the “hottest” they’d ever seen.
The video captured the moment the tank he was driving was directly hit by Russian fire.
“There was fire everywhere,” he said. “People were walking around. I don’t know how they live there – it was a ruin. There was a strike at every turn.”
Ukrainian soldier Vladyslav, a member of a tank unit, speaks to CBS News near the front line in Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine, with his tank behind him in early March 2023. CBS News/Agnes Reau
He admitted his fear that the city might fall to the Russian invaders.
“If the Russians take Bakhmut, Ukraine will be at a serious breaking point,” he said. “It will be difficult to get them out of there, and they will control many roads, making it impossible to resupply our people.”
But he was defiant.
“We are Ukrainians and we need to get our country back and we don’t even talk about that,” he said. “Bakhmut holds. There are intense fights, we were there. And I’ll say it’s scary, but it has to be done.”
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