There are all prerequisites to keep control over Bakhmut. Serhiy Zgurets' column

Bakhmut is the hottest part of the front. The occupying Russian forces have been trying to break through the defense line for six months, but are wasting their strength on the approaches to the city. Ukrainian defenders show courage and skill. Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Bakhmut, where he met and awarded Ukrainian military personnel. “The east is holding on because Bakhmut is fighting. This is the fortress of our spirit in difficult battles, and at the cost of lives freedom is being fought here for all of us,” Zelenskyy emphasized.

When we talk about why the enemy is so actively fighting around Bakhmut, there are several explanations for this stubbornness: it is the desire to reach the administrative border of the Donetsk region and to gain control of an important logistics hub for further attacks on Kramatorsk and Sloviansk. Units of the Wagner Group operate there and Prigozhin's private company wants to demonstrate that it fights better than the regular Russian army.

Having concentrated significant resources of manpower and artillery in a narrow area, not counting the losses of criminals in the ranks of the Wagner PMC, the Russian enemy has no resounding successes. On the map, we can see a fairly wide section of the front, where the enemy is trying to carry out attacks by assault units, starting from Yakovlivka and Kurdiumivka. Now the Russian forces' attempts to move beyond Yakovlivka were repulsed, and there is no advance there. There were attempts by the enemy to break through to Soledar, but there was no success there either.

The Bakhmut direction looks politically and ideologically important, but the Russian troops do not have the prerequisites for success on this part of the front, although they continue to transfer additional forces. The enemy is already beginning to suffer from 'ammunition starvation', which means that the Russian Federation's reserves are running out. I think that there are all the prerequisites for Bakhmut to be kept. The Ukrainian military controls all supply routes to the city. Even if the Russian forces are able to break through to urban buildings, this will only make it difficult for the enemy to take further action and cause even greater losses on this part of the front.

In the southern Donetsk region, in the villages of Klishchiivka and Kurdiumivka, Ukrainian forces managed to repulse an enemy group that crossed the channels located near Kurdiumivka. Ukraine's Armed Forces drove the Russian troops to the western bank of the reservoir, preventing the enemy from advancing further.

Also, important dynamics are taking place in the east of Bakhmut, where the Russian enemy is trying to move towards low-rise buildings. Ukrainian assault units, interacting with drones and artillery, knocked the enemy out of the city. But the Russians continue to send fresh forces, and the situation resembles a "swing". The Russians are trying to carry out counterattacks, we are also counterattacking, that is, the entire section of this front remains extremely difficult and hot.

Ukrainian units perform an important function, destroying a significant number of the Russian forces' personnel, and this is of significant importance for the situation on all areas of the front.