Ukraine sees absolute Russian failure in Bakhmut – intelligence

Andriy Yusov, a representative of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, said this in a comment to Ukrinform.

"The defence operation of Ukrainian defenders continues, the Bakhmut fortress is holding. For Ukraine, this is worth a lot of effort, the heroic efforts of our defenders, but the fact that the enemy is forced to transfer additional reserves in order to continue the operation in Bakhmut indicates the failure of their offensive actions in general," Yusov said.

He noted that all the best reserves of the Russian army have already been used in the war.

"The army is no longer fighting with the same formation as it was at the beginning of the invasion, and the fact that these reserves are being transferred to the Bakhmut direction means that they will not be used in other areas of the front. And this is also one of the achievements of the Ukrainian defence," Yusov said.

He added that Russia's winter offensive resulted in unsuccessful operations in several areas.

"We see a completely failed campaign in Bakhmut for the Russian occupiers. After many failures, they had another task to occupy the Ukrainian Donbas by the end of March. This did not work out and was a failure. To occupy Bakhmut by May 9 - now we see that the situation is developing in a different way, when representatives of the occupiers publicly say that they have to retreat," Yusov said.

• On May 19, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine said that the enemy had increased the presence of troops in the Bakhmut sector by several thousand soldiers and was trying to use the advantage in heavy artillery.