Ukraine war: Zelenskiy vows to defend Bakhmut as ‘no part of Ukraine can be abandoned’

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has doubled down on the defence of Bakhmut despite rumours of an imminent retreat from the besieged city that has endured a nine-month assault.

During his evening address on Monday, Mr Zelenskiy said he had met senior generals where they indicated their support for continuing the defence of the city.

“I told the Chief of Staff to find the appropriate forces to help the guys in Bakhmut. There is no part of Ukraine about which one can say that it can be abandoned,” he said.

After a series of meetings with Mr Zelenskiy, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, “spoke in favour of continuing the defensive operation and further strengthening [Ukrainian] positions in Bakhmut,” Mr Zelenskiy’s office said.

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Ukraine’s ongoing defence of Bakhmut is forcing Russia to engage in a costly battle for a city that “isn’t intrinsically important operationally or strategically”, according to the Institute of Study of War (ISW).

The US military think tank says although there is a risk Ukraine is “expending its own elite manpower and scarce equipment on mainly Wagner prison recruits who are mere cannon fodder”, the large numbers of convicts Wagner has recruited is “not limitless” and “the permanent elimination of tens of thousands of them in Bakhmut means that they will not be available for more important fights”.

Maps released by the ISW showing ground movements as of Monday suggest Russian forces have taken 40 per cent of Bakhmut after a nine-month-long campaign.

Yevgeny Prigozhin – the founder of Russia’s Wagner mercenary force, which is leading the Russian offensive in Bakhmut – said that his representative had been denied access to the headquarters of Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine after Prigozhin repeatedly complained about a lack of ammunition.

Elsewhere, in his first media appearance as foreign minister, China’s Qin Gang has defended the close friendship between China and Russia, a relationship closely watched by the West in light of the war in Ukraine.

He said the ties between Beijing and Moscow “set an example for global foreign relations”. – Guardian