Kyiv’s forces have made some progress around Bakhmut and have held off Russian advances to the west of the Donetsk town, according to British defense officials.
The U.K. Ministry of Defense (MOD) said on Tuesday that troops from the Wagner Group of mercenaries led by Yevgeny Prigozhin were making “gradual progress” in clearing Ukrainian positions in the centre of the town fought over for months. But, over the last four days, Ukraine’s troops had also made “tactical progress stabilizing the flanks of Bakhmut to their advantage.”
Ukrainian forces have pushed ahead in the south of the town and forced back the Russian frontline to its northwest. This is likely to have allowed Kyiv’s troops to re-establish more secure use of a key supply road, the British defense update said.
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“Ukraine is holding Russia’s western advances along the line of Donets-Donbas Canal,” which is turning the waterway into “part of a deep defensive zone” around the town of Chasiv Yar, around six miles to the east.
Newsweek has emailed the Russian defense ministry about the British MOD update, which emphasizes Ukrainian gains and Russian losses.
The Washington Post wrote this week that Prigozhin had offered to reveal Russian troop locations to Ukrainian intelligence in return for Kyiv’s forces retreating from Bakhmut. Prigozhin denied the allegations, which followed the publication of leaked Pentagon documents.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said that the Kremlin probably knew of Prigozhin’s communications with Kyiv and so would be unlikely to try to remove him, given the strategic importance of Wagner’s troops on the frontline.
Meanwhile, Yuriy Sak, an adviser to Ukraine’s defense minister Oleksii Reznikov, said that Kyiv wants up to 50 F-16 fighter jets. It is a request that Ukraine hopes will be at the top of the agenda at the G7 summit in Japan, starting May 19.
Sak told Politico that he had received “assurances” from Western leaders that they would discuss the matter in the coming days. Poland and Slovakia have already given Ukraine Soviet-era MiG-29s, but the Ukrainians have been calling for the U.S.-built F-16s.
On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who said that providing Ukraine with fighter jets was “not a straightforward thing.” However, the U.K. would play a key role among Kyiv’s allies in providing military support.
It comes after the Ukrainian capital was hit on Monday night by an airstrike of “exceptional intensity,” according to the Kyiv City Military Administration. It said that Russian forces likely used drones, ballistic and cruise missiles from many directions.