Russia has kept up its attacks on the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, but the Ukrainian military is able “control the enemy’s actions” and has “enough forces to hold the front line,” a spokesperson for Ukraine’s military said Sunday.
Serhii Cherevatyi, who represents the Eastern Grouping of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, shared the update on national television. He was asked to clarify remarks by the commander in chief of Ukraine’s military, who said Friday that the situation in Bakhmut has been “stabilized.”
“‘Stabilizing the situation’ means that we see and control the enemy’s actions,” Cherevatyi said.
“We understand the direction of the enemy’s actions. We understand the enemy’s plans. We know our forces and the means we rely on. We know we have enough forces to hold the front line. And we know where our reserves are and what we can use to back us up,” he continued. “And we know how we can strike at the enemy in order to bleed the enemy to the maximum, to weaken the enemy and to bring down his offensive potential.”
Cherevatyi said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s recent visit to the front lines helped demonstrate the military’s command of the situation on the battlefield.
“Everyone knows the course of their actions, everyone knows their algorithms, there is coherence, there is an understanding of what to do. This is stabilization,” the spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, the Russian onslaught is fierce, with “dense shelling” and a total of 268 attacks in the Bakhmut sector over the last 24 hours, according to Ukraine’s military. Cherevatyi said Russia made 94 attacks in Bakhmut alone.
Troops engaged directly in combat 17 times in the region over that period, including 13 times directly in the city of Bakhmut.
