The Kremlin acknowledged on Thursday that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is “very difficult” and is still far from having achieved all the objectives set by President Vladimir Putin.
“The special military operation continues. It is a very difficult operation and, of course, certain objectives have been achieved in one year”, said the spokesman of the Russian Presidency, Dmitry Peskovin an interview with the Bosnian television channel ATVaccording to statements collected by the official agency TASS.
The Kremlin representative recalled that Putin gave the order to guarantee the “security” of the residents of Donbas in the first place, something that, he admitted, has only been partially achieved.
“This task has been partially solved, but only partially. We are still far from being able to complete it. There are multiple shelling, shelling of Donetsk and other locations and we must drive the enemy back a considerable distance. Therefore, the operation will continue,” Peskov stressed.
The spokesman nevertheless maintained that “important territories in the Donbas” have been liberated, where Russia annexed the Ukrainian regions of Lugansk and Donetsk last September after referendums held without guarantees and in the midst of a war.
The Kremlin spokesman justified the slowness with which Russia is advancing in the war with the fact that it is “a special military operation” and “not a war”.and with the “attempt to save cities and human lives.”
“We are not at war. Waging war is a completely different matter, this is the complete destruction of infrastructure, this is the complete destruction of the cities,” he said. “We don’t. We are trying to save the infrastructure and we are trying to save human lives.”, he emphasized.
Ukraine accuses Russia of committing war crimes over missile and drone attacks on residential buildings and civilian infrastructure.
Ukraine regains ground
The military commanders of Ukrainian Forcesannounced this Wednesday that their troops broke through the Russian positions on the southern flank of the besieged eastern city of Bakhmutwhich forced the Russian units to flee en masse.
Ukrainian army officers and the head of the mercenary group Wagner from Russia, said that Russian troops lost an area of more than 3 square kilometers southwest of the city. This would be the first significant victory for Ukraine in the fight for Bakhmut since he drove Russian forces off a key access road two months ago.
The 3rd Separate Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces confirmed that one of the Russian squads trying to take full control of the city of Bakhmut abandoned their positions leaving behind “500 corpses”.
“It’s official. The information from (Russian private military company Wagner, Yevgeny) Prigozhin about the escape of the 72nd Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Russian armed forces and about ‘500 corpses’ that the Russians left there is true,” it reads. in the message posted on the official account of the Ukrainian brigade.
In one of his videos about the situation at the front, Prigozhin He had previously accused the Russian Army’s 72nd Brigade of abandoning their positions after losing “three square kilometres” in a “strategic” area in which the Russians lost 500 men. “They took their things and fled without further ado”, Prigozhin said.
In his message, the 3rd Separate Brigade of the Ukrainian Army claims to have eliminated in two days 64 Russian fighters and wounded 87 others in southeastern Bakhmutwhere Ukrainian forces continue to defend the part of the city they still control.
“Among the Russian casualties are mercenaries from the Wagner group”, says the note from the Ukrainian brigade, which also reports on the capture of 5 Russian prisoners of war and the destruction of the invaders’ war material.
Russia said it was halting Ukrainian counterattacks on the flanks of the city of Bakhmut after the Wagner Group claimed that a unit of the Russian Armed Forces had fled their positions on Monday.
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Source-www.infobae.com