Selenski swears by unity in the battle for Bachmut

Kyiv Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has reaffirmed the unity of the military leadership in Kiev in the battle for the city of Bakhmut in the east of the country. The unanimous decision was made not to give way, but to reinforce the troops, said Selenski in his video message distributed on Monday evening. In it he informed about a meeting with generals on the situation around the symbolic city of the Ukrainian resistance, which is located in the Donetsk region and has already been largely destroyed.

“The Ukrainian Armed Forces are defending every part of Ukraine and will continue to do so,” Zelensky said. The time will come when every town and village of the Ukrainian state will be liberated.

With the embassy, ​​Zelensky tried to counteract the impression that the country’s leadership had different opinions on how to deal with the situation in Bakhmut. There is a lot of disinformation, said the head of state. Western experts had also stated that it might be better to abandon the city in order to use the resources elsewhere.

The head of Russia’s private army Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said that Ukrainian forces had reinforced four positions in front of Bakhmut. According to Prigozhin, the Wagner fighters blocked Bakhmut, and now the Ukrainian soldiers are trying to encircle the Russian units and break the blockade.

“Ukrainian armed forces will fight to the end for Artemovsk (Russian name for Bakhmut), that’s obvious. We should also do our work to the end,” said Prigozhin. He again demanded more ammunition from the Russian military leadership.

After the meeting with Zelensky, Colonel General Olexander Syrskyj, commander of the Ukrainian land forces, who was in Bakhmut for the third time within a few days, also spoke in Kiev. “The enemy has thrown additional Wagner forces into the fight. Our fighters are valiantly defending positions north of Bakhmut, trying to prevent the city from being encircled.”

Bakhmut, where according to Ukrainian information only a few thousand of the original 70,000 inhabitants live, has been contested since late summer. The city is the main part of the line of defense between Siversk and Bakhmut in the Donetsk Oblast established after the Russian conquest of Sieverodonetsk and Lysychansk.

If the city falls, the Russian troops will have access to the major cities of Slovjansk and Kramatorsk. This would make a complete conquest of the Donetsk region more likely.

Zelensky condemns video of soldier being shot

In his speech, Zelenskiy also condemned the killing of a Ukrainian prisoner of war who was allegedly shot dead by Russian soldiers after he said the words “Glory to Ukraine”. The scene shown on video caused horror in Ukraine. “Today a video surfaced of the occupiers brutally killing a fighter who bravely said the words ‘Glory to Ukraine’,” Zelenskiy said.

“The squatters are killing us for the very fact that we are Ukrainians. For the simple word Ukraine. For our dream of a Ukraine,” said Zelensky, who repeatedly describes Russia as a terrorist state. The killers would be found and punished, he said. The identity of the soldier seen on the video was still unknown late in the evening.

This is how the Handelsblatt reports on the Ukraine war:

British committee warns of shortages in western arms depots

In view of the steady supply of weapons from Western countries to Ukraine, the Defense Committee of the British Parliament warns against thinning out its own ammunition reserves too much. “Britain and its NATO allies have allowed their own stocks to dwindle to dangerously low levels,” the committee said on Tuesday, according to the PA news agency. This not only jeopardizes further arms deliveries to Ukraine, but also poses a threat to Ukraine’s own security, as it takes many years to replenish reserves.

“Russia’s attack on Ukraine should be a wake-up call for the West,” said the committee’s conservative chairman Tobias Ellwood. Although Russia is also struggling with bottlenecks, other adversaries could maintain or even increase their reserves, the committee warned in its inventory.

Earlier in the week, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace also stressed the urgent need for investment in the military. Wallace is currently struggling to get the highest possible defense budget before the new British budget is presented.

What will be important on Tuesday

Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) wants to hold military-political talks in the EU and NATO country Lithuania and meet the Bundeswehr soldiers deployed there. As a reaction to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, Germany has had a combat brigade ready to defend Lithuania since the autumn of last year.

The new Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang gives his first press conference in Beijing. He is expected to comment on Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. China presented a position paper last month that caused disappointment in many because it showed no initiative to end the war. Since the Russian invasion a year ago, China has backed Russian President Vladimir Putin.

More: Don’t miss any developments in the Ukraine war – everything new in our news blog