They have already lost this war in their minds. "The occupiers of Ukraine are already internally ready for defeat. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed again to defeat the Russians and thanked everyone involved in driving them out of Ukrainian territory. Neither side's claims could be independently verified. In turn, Russia's Defense Ministry said its troops had fought off several Ukrainian attempts to overrun their positions while pounding the Bakhmut-Avdiyivka-Maryinka front line that has seen the fiercest fighting over the past several months. Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said on Telegram that Ukrainian forces had advanced 2 kilometers without ceding any ground elsewhere to the Russians. There was no comment from the Ukrainian side, and the claims could not be independently verified.Įarlier on May 12, Kyiv claimed modest advances in the Bakhmut area. Viktor Volodatsky, a member of the State Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament, was also injured, according to other officials. The Moscow-backed administrator of the Luhansk region, Leonid Pasechnik, said six children had been injured.
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Officials said on Telegram that two Ukrainian-made Grom tactical missiles damaged or destroyed buildings at two disused factories and blew out the windows of five houses. Photos published on Telegram showed a column of black smoke rising over the city. Russian-installed officials in Luhansk on May 12 reported two powerful explosions in the city, which is far from Ukrainian positions. There also were reports of Ukrainian advances to the south, suggesting a coordinated push by Kyiv to encircle Russian forces in Bakhmut. This could lead to the encirclement of his mercenaries inside the city, Prigozhin said. In a separate video message, he said the Ukrainians had seized high ground overlooking Bakhmut and opened the main highway leading into the city from the west. Prigozhin acknowledged it in an audio message, saying that what Konashenkov described "unfortunately is called a rout and not a regrouping." Prigozhin, Russian military bloggers, and the Ukrainian Army had previously reported about the retreat. It is also unclear if the developments were part of a long-planned counteroffensive, which the head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said on May 11 had already begun. The gains, if confirmed, would be the biggest for Ukraine in six months.
The retreat allows Ukrainian troops to control the road to the town of Chasiv Yar, the only highway currently supplying Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut. Konashenkov said Ukraine had launched an assault with more than 1,000 troops and up to 40 tanks after advancing the day before in the Soledar direction "along the entire line of contact" with a length of more than 95 kilometers. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.ĭefense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said at a news briefing on May 12 that Russian forces had "occupied a new frontier" at the Berkhivske reservoir. RFE/RL's Live Briefinggives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensives, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians.
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