Ukraine holds out in Bakhmut while Russia shows its nuclear power

The city of Bakhmut, in the Donbass region, is currently the main focus of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. With a year of conflicts over the Ukrainian lands, Russia took advantage of Defender of the Fatherland Day to once again show off its nuclear power.

“The enemy continues to attack the positions of our forces in the direction of Bakhmut (…) and is conducting active air reconnaissance to adjust the fire of its artillery,” the Ukrainian command admitted on Thursday (23), noting that more than 20 nearby cities were bombed in the last day.

“Over the past 48 hours, heavy fighting has continued in the Bakhmut sector, where Ukrainian forces maintain control of supply routes, despite Russia gradually tightening the noose over the past six weeks,” British intelligence said.

According to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Army, the clashes are taking place in this city “street by street”, because controlling the area will allow either side a safe passage for the transfer of weapons and soldiers.

Capturing Bakhmut, which Russian forces had unsuccessfully besieged for more than seven months, would allow the Russian army to advance towards the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, key Ukrainian strongholds in the Donetsk region.

The Ukrainian command also noted an increase in Russian activities in the Kharkiv region, where the defenders repulsed “attacks near Kobyansk, in the east of the Kharkiv region, near neighboring Lugansk.”

On Russian soil, celebrations have begun for the Defender of the Fatherland Day, a celebration inherited from the Soviet era, which on February 23 each year celebrates the founding of the Red Army and this year seeks to unite ranks in support of the Russian military campaign in Ukraine.

Aiming to unite Russians around Russia’s military conflict in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, located in the Alexander Gardens, near the western side of the Kremlin wall, and honored the memory of those killed with Russia’s anthem in the background.

Putin took the opportunity to show strength once again and emphasized that “a modern and efficient army and fleet are a guarantee of the country’s security, sovereignty, stable development and future,” when he declared that Russia would continue to develop its armed forces, which would receive “advanced equipment.”

He said when announcing further supplies of Kinzhal and Tsirkon hypersonic missiles to the Russian army.

Sarmat ICBMs, code-named Satan II by the Western military, are capable of delivering multiple nuclear warheads. And according to what was reported by “CNN”, Russia was going to carry out a failed test of a Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile moments ago or during the visit of the President of the United States, Joe Biden, to Kiev, which was denied by Moscow.

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