Wagner group appears to be taking ‘tactical pause’ in Bakhmut, think tank says
Forces of the Russian mercenary group Wagner — thousands of whom have been fighting in Ukraine — are believed to be taking a “tactical pause” in the eastern city of Bakhmut, which has been entirely destroyed by fighting, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a U.S. think tank.
“The Wagner Group’s offensive operation in eastern Bakhmut appears to have entered a temporary tactical pause and it remains unclear if Wagner fighters will retain their operational preponderance in future Russian offensives in the city,” the ISW wrote in a Twitter post.
The bloody battle for Bakhmut has been waging for months and has been likened to a “meat grinder” for the volume of casualties being produced by the fighting there. Moscow says Ukrainian forces are surrounded, which Kyiv denies.
Ukrainian officials say they are determined to hold the ravaged city, because a Russian victory there would mean a direct access route for its forces to the rest of Eastern Ukraine.
— Natasha Turak
Ukraine reels from barrage of Russian hypersonic missile attacks
A view of bus depot after an artillery attack as one killed and another wounded in Volnovakha on the Russian-controlled territory on March 09, 2023.
Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
At least nine people in Ukraine are confirmed to have been killed by a wave of Russian hypersonic missile attacks fired Thursday. It is the first time Russia has used its powerful Kinzhal missiles, which can get past air defense systems, since the early months of its invasion — and the most intense day of strikes since late January.
The strikes hit critical Ukrainian energy infrastructure, which local emergency services are working rapidly to fix.
Russian defense ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said of the attack: “High-precision long-range air, sea and land-based weapons, including the Kinzhal hypersonic missile system, hit key elements of Ukraine’s…
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