Ukraine troops almost cut off as Russians close net on Bakhmut

Battle for ‘every stairwell’ of Donbas town as Kremlin reportedly using women convicts in fighting force

UKRAINIAN soldiers fighting in “fortress” Bakhmut are close to being separated from their supply lines as Russian forces come within firing distance of the last remaining roads out of the city.

Fighting was said to be “ferocious” yesterday. Yevgeny Prigozhin, who leads the Wagner mercenary group, said: “The armed forces of Ukraine are not retreating anywhere, they are fighting to the last. In the northern quarters of Artemivsk, there are fierce battles for every street, every house, every stairwell.”

Artemivsk was the name of the town until 2016, when it was renamed Bakhmut. Throughout the six-monthlong battle, Wagner mercenaries have led attacks on Bakhmut, in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, capturing the nearby town of Soledar but suffering horrendous casualties.

Ukrainian fighters have described human waves of Russian mercenaries, made up of convicts recruited from Russian prisons, attacking their positions.

Russia is now recruiting women prisoners as they run out of cannon fodder, Ukraine said yesterday.

Control of Bakhmut is still contested, but the British Ministry of Defence has confirmed that Russian forces are gaining the upper hand and that they can now shell the M03 and the H32 roads, Ukraine’s main supply lines into the town. It said: “While multiple alternative cross-country supply routes remain available to Ukrainian forces, Bakhmut is increasingly isolated.”

Bakhmut, which before Russia’s invasion had a population of 73,000, has become perhaps the most fiercely fought-over town on the front line.

Military analysts have questioned its strategic worth but there is no doubting its psychological value.

Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, said “fortress Bakhmut” would never be surrendered, adding that the Ukrainian army was throwing more men into combat in Bakhmut.

Russian forces took control of Soledar last month and have also said they have captured the nearby village of Bilohorivka.

This was denied by Serhiy Haidai, the Ukrainian governor of Luhansk, who said: “Our troops remain in their positions, nobody has captured Bilohorivka, nobody has entered there, there is no enemy there.”

Military analysts have said the Russian army may have been using Bakhmut to keep Ukrainian adversaries distracted while they prepare an assault across the front line.

In Kharkiv, now about 80 miles from the front line, The Daily Telegraph saw the aftermath of a Russian missile strike which hit a residential building and part of a university at about 8.20am. The rector of the university told reporters it was empty except for a few security guards. One of them was lightly injured. News reports later said that altogether, three people were injured in the attack.

Ihor Terekhov, the mayor of Kharkiv, said there were no military targets near the area hit by the Russian missiles and accused Russia of “just trying bit by bit to destroy Kharkiv”.