KYIV: Ukraine said on Tuesday its troops were under mounting pressure in the battered frontline city of Bakhmut in the industrial east, a key prize for the Kremlin after months of brutal combat.

As the fighting raged, Moscow said it shot down Ukrainian drones targeting civilian sites in Russian territory while another one crashed near the capital.

An aerial footage released on Tuesday showed that almost all buildings in Bakhmut in ruins and smoke rising over the city once known for its sparkling wine production and salt mines.

“The situation around Bakhmut is extremely tense,” said the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces Oleksandr Syrskyi.

“Despite taking significant losses, the enemy has dispatched its best-trained Wagner assault units to try to break through the defences of our troops and surround the city,” Syrskyi added, referring to the Russian mercenary group.

Drone crashes near Moscow, two others from Ukraine downed in south Russia

Bakhmut, which once had a population of around 70,000 people, has seen a gradual exodus and now only 5,000 civilians remain including some 140 children, the regional governor said this month.

Drones downed over Russia

The assessment of fighting in the east came as Russia said it had downed drones that were closing in on civilian targets.

The incidents are the latest in a series of suspected attacks in recent months inside Russia that Moscow has blamed on Kyiv.

Officials said they downed drones over the southern Krasnodar region, the Adygea Republic and over the border region of Bryansk.

The governor of the Moscow region Andrei Vorobyov meanwhile said that a drone that was likely targeting civilian infrastructure also crashed near the capital.

“There are no casualties or damage on the ground. The FSB (security services) and other competent authorities are investigating,” he said.

In a meeting with the FSB, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the security services should bolster their work to secure Russia’s borders.

Bakhmut ‘will fall’

“I think Bakhmut will most likely fall,” a Ukrainian soldier with the call sign “Fox” told journalists in Bakhmut this week, conceding that Russian forces were making gains around the city.

“They say (Russians soldiers) are idiots, alcoholics and drug addicts,” the 40-year-old said.

“But they have smart people there, people who know how to fight... They think, they learn, the same way we do.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who visited the devastated city in December, has said his forces would continue to fight for Bakhmut as long as possible.

He has also urged allies to send more weapons to help Ukraine both hold the city and reclaim territory in the Donetsk region.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2023