BAKHMUT “MEAT GRINDER”
On the ground in eastern Ukraine, an AFP team heard heavy outgoing artillery fire towards Russian lines around the city of Bakhmut, the main target for Moscow’s attacks.
Ukrainian officials sparked speculation Kyiv’s forces could be getting ready to withdraw after a gruelling months-long battle by restricting access for aid workers.
But the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group said the fight for the symbolic prize was far from over as Ukraine continues to defend house-to-house despite claimed Russian gains in nearby villages.
“Bakhmut will not be taken tomorrow, because there is heavy resistance and grinding, the meat grinder is working,” Yevgeny Prigozhin said.
President Zelenskyy said the situation on the front line, especially in eastern Ukraine, “remains extremely difficult”.
“It is literally a battle for every metre of Ukrainian land,” he said in his evening address.
The fighting is consuming vast quantities of ammunition, straining stockpiles and industries on both sides of the confrontation.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has warned that Kyiv’s current rate of expenditure was “many times higher” than the output in NATO countries.
Allies continue to raid their shelves for the rounds – especially 155-millimetre shells – that Ukraine is firing by the thousands each day.
NATO is scrambling to get its factories to pump out more, and allies are eyeing plans for joint weapons purchases, higher defence spending and longer-term contracts.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said Berlin had signed a deal with manufacturer Rheinmetall to restart production of ammunition for Gepard air defence guns sent to Ukraine.
France and Australia also announced they would produce 155-mm artillery together
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