Russia increases media efforts around Bakhmut situation to exert psychological pressure

This was announced by Deputy Minister of Defense Hanna Malyar on Telegram.

According to the official, Russia is trying to shift the focus of the battles for Bakhmut and present them as an "apocalyptic event." Russia is convinced that "frightened" Ukrainians will start pressuring the military-political leadership to stop defense in the area.

"This is what the information and psychological reinforcement of military operations looks like. The shifted emphasis to view Bakhmut defense as an apocalyptic event and the battles as a turning point between "before" and "after". Russia uses this psychological trick to impose their ideas and narratives," wrote Malyar.

The deputy minister reported that three main media topics are currently being promoted in Russia:

• the decision to defend Bakhmut is allegedly political;

• it makes no sense to defend it because almost everything is already encircled;

• Ukrainian fighters’ heroism is allegedly only imagined by Ukrainian propaganda.

 Among the main objectives of the enemy, Malyar named:

• to undermine our society’s and military’s trust in Bakhmut command and their decisions;

• to demotivate and psychologically weaken our army;

• to provoke our military leadership into making mistakes.

According to the deputy minister, the defense of Bakhmut is now determined by operational and tactical expediency, and decisions are made competently, carefully and aimed at the implementation of urgent defense tasks. Plus, the AFU defend Bakhmut as desperately as any other settlement, she added.

• Military reports that the enemy is still trying to capture Bakhmut. Intense fire continues in Bakhmut and the outskirts of the city.

• On the night of March 29, anti-aircraft missile units of the AFU Air Force destroyed a Russian Su-24M bomber near Bakhmut.