Stoltenberg: Russians may capture Bakhmut in the coming days, but this will not change the course of the war

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said that he does not rule out the possibility of Russian military seizing Bakhmut in the coming days.

Source: BBC

Speaking before a meeting with the EU and Ukrainian defense ministers, Stoltenberg commented on the heavy fighting that is taking place near Bakhmut in Donetsk region:

"Russia is trying to compensate for the lack of quality with quantity. They [the Russian military] have suffered heavy losses, but at the same time, we cannot rule out that Bakhmut may eventually fall in the coming days. And so it's also important to emphasize that this does not mean that the war has necessarily reached a turning point. It just emphasizes that we should not underestimate Russia," he said.

On Wednesday morning, observers from the US Institute for the Study of War reported that the Ukrainian army had retreated from the eastern part of Bakhmut across the Bakhmutka River, and the head of the Wagner PMC, Yevheniy Prigozhin, announced that his forces had taken the entire area.

Later, Ukrainian media reported that the commander of the Ukrainian Army, Oleksandr Syrsky, had come to Bakhmut for the fourth time in two weeks. The general's telegram channel posted a video of him presenting awards to the city's defenders.

Background. As a reminder, the day before, President Zelensky warned that if Russia captures Bakhmut, the road to eastern Ukraine will be "open".