Battle For Bakhmut: Ukraine holds out assaults

Ukrainian forces continued to withstand Russian assaults yesterday on the ruined city of Bakhmut, as officials said China’s President Xi Jinping will travel to Moscow next week to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Xi’s visit to Moscow is a diplomatic coup for Putin, whose country has been placed under unprecedented international sanctions since he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

Beijing and Moscow struck a “no limits” partnership shortly before the invasion and US and European leaders have said they are concerned Beijing may send arms to Russia.

China has denied any such plan, criticising Western weapon supplies to Ukraine, which will soon extend to fighter jets after Poland and Slovakia this week approved deliveries. The Kremlin said the jets would simply be destroyed.

A Russian official said Xi and Putin would discuss the conflict in Ukraine as well as “military-technical cooperation”. The Kremlin said earlier that “important” bilateral documents would be signed, without elaborating.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Xi’s visit to Russia – his first in nearly four years – would strengthen economic partnerships and promote “peace”, although he made no explicit mention of the Ukraine war.

An international agreement to allow the safe export of grain from several Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea expires today. Russia has agreed to extend the deal for 60 days while Ukraine, along with the United Nations and Turkey which brokered the original deal, have called for a 120-day rollover.

Russia has not specifically said why it is insisting on the shorter period, although it has complained that its own food and fertilizer exports are being hindered by Western sanctions.

The United Nations Office in Geneva said yesterday that discussions were ongoing on the renewal of the deal, needed to prevent global food shortages because Ukraine is a big exporter. A shorter extension period would further restrict exports from Ukraine, which remain well below pre-invasion levels.

On the battleground, Reuters reporters roughly 1.5 km (1 mile) from the front lines could hear the constant boom of artillery and the crackle of small arms fire.

Ihor, a 36-year-old soldier at the mortar position, said Ukrainian forces had been targeted by air strikes, mortar fire and tank shelling.

British intelligence said yesterday some Russian combatants had crossed the river that bisects the town but that Ukrainian armed forces were still defending the western part.

Russian forces also conducted four air strikes on the frontline town of Avdiivka south of Bakhmut yesterday, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, wrote on Telegram, posting a picture of a ruined apartment block.

“The city is being shelled almost around the clock,” he wrote, adding that there had been no casualties yesterday.