Fight for Bakhmut continues as Russian forces call for more support
To the warned Ukraine now, Saturday Ukrainian troops repelled multiple Russian strikes around the besieged city of Bekmoot. But the battle for the city has now raged on for seven months and the stakes are high for both sides. MTS Taib is in the region. Russian forces are closing in. The battle for Bekmoot is now in such a confined area, Ukrainian soldiers find themselves surrounded on three sides. And yet they keep fighting, despite the enormous cost. In a grim propaganda video, the founder of the Russia-backed Wagner mercenary group, Evgeny Prygozin, points to crudely made wooden coffins saying, we're sending yet another shipment of Ukrainian army fighters back home.
Capturing Bekmoot is unlikely to change the trajectory of the war, and may only move the fighting a few miles to the west. But seizing the city has been an all-consuming goal for Moscow. After a series of major setbacks, President Vladimir Putin is desperate for a win, even if only symbolic. And seizing Bekmoot would be the first territorial gain for his forces in over half a year. In a rare visit inside occupied Ukraine, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoryug showed his support to soldiers by awarding medals, saying, good luck, success, and come home alive. Yet exhausted Ukrainian fighters have other ideas. In this underground bunker, where they rest before heading back out to the battlefield, they say they're determined to defend Bekmoot until the end.
We are really tired, says this soldier. We don't sleep some nights. But we will push the enemy back to Russia, and they can die there. As you can see from our report, there's nothing left of Bekmoot. If this is what the Kremlin sees as a victory, it's not much of one. MTA's time, CBS News, procurves in Eastern Ukraine.
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