Ukraine Has 'No Possibility' of Retreat in 'Sealed Off' Bakhmut—Reports

Moscow's forces have reportedly "almost sealed off" Ukrainian fighters in Bakhmut, offering "no possibility to retreat."

Kyiv's fighters have been "edged out to the western outskirts" of the eastern Ukrainian city, an advisor to the head of the Russian-backed authorities in the Donetsk region told Russian state television on Thursday.

Ukrainian fighters have "now been blockaded, almost sealed off," he said, according to the state media outlet TASS. However, Ukraine's military on Thursday said Moscow had been "unsuccessful" in capturing the city through renewed offensives.

The embattled Donetsk city of Bakhmut has seen months of the heaviest fighting in Ukraine, destroying the settlement's infrastructure and largely emptying the eastern city of its residents. Ukraine has committed to defending the city, which has long been a target of Russian military and mercenary Wagner Group forces.

Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested that Ukraine could order a withdrawal from Bakhmut if its forces risked being encircled without the possibility of retreat.

In that case, "the corresponding correct decisions will be taken by generals there," Zelensky said during a visit to Poland last week, also stating that Russian fighters did not control the city.

On Thursday, the commander of Ukraine's ground forces, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrsky, said they had destroyed a Russian ammunition depot in the area of Bakhmut. Ukraine's General Staff of the Armed Forces said on the same day that in the past two weeks, almost 4,500 Russian fighters had been killed or wounded in and around Bakhmut.

Newsweek reached out to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry via email for comment.

Fighting for Bakhmut has racked up high casualty counts on both sides. The U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, previously labeled Bakhmut a "slaughter-fest" for Russian fighters.

Wagner mercenary fighters "continued high-intensity combat operations" alongside Russian airborne troops to push Ukraine "from the central quarters" of Bakhmut, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday. The airborne troops blocked Ukrainian supplies and possible retreats from the city.

"The toughest remains the Bakhmut direction," Ukrainian Brigadier General Alexei Gromov said. Russia carries out up to 50 offensive attacks each day in the area, the Ukrainian commander said.

In Bakhmut, Russian forces continue to launch offensives in the central areas, as well as working to "surround the city from the north and south," Gromov added.

Russian forces had continued to launch ground attacks in and around Bakhmut, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank said on Wednesday, adding that the Kremlin's fighters had not made any confirmed gains in Bakhmut on April 12. Russian forces regained momentum in Bakhmut in early April, according to the British Defense Ministry, after a period of stalling in late March.

On Tuesday, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Group fighters who have played a prominent role in Russia's Bakhmut operations, said Russian forces controlled more than 80 percent of Bakhmut. "All administrative buildings are already controlled by our forces," Moscow-backed Donetsk region official, Denis Pushilin, then told Russian media.

As of Wednesday, Russian forces were confirmed to have established control over 76.5 percent of Bakhmut, the ISW said.

On Sunday, Syrsky said Moscow's forces had "switched to so-called scorched earth tactics from Syria" in Bakhmut and that Russia's fighters were "destroying buildings and positions with air strikes and artillery fire."

But "it is in Bakhmut where the enemy is concentrating their main efforts," Deputy Ukrainian Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said this week, meaning Ukraine must prevent Moscow from moving deeper into Kyiv-held territory