Zelenskiy Says Donbas Fighting 'Painful, Challenging' As Bakhmut Defenders Struggle To Hold On

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy acknowledged that the battle for the eastern Donbas region is “painful and challenging” as the Kremlin's forces continued efforts to encircle the city of Bakhmut, which has been largely destroyed after months of Russian shelling.

“I would like to pay special tribute to the bravery, strength, and resilience of the soldiers fighting in the Donbas” region, which includes Bakhmut, Zelenskiy said in his daily video address late on March 5.

"This is one of the toughest battles. Painful and difficult," he added. "We will endure and drive out the invaders."

The center of the battle remained in and around Bakhmut, the city with a prewar population of 70,000 and which the Kremlin has attempted to take despite suffering massive losses on the battlefield.

Ukraine’s General Staff wrote in its war update late on March 5 that Russian forces are "attacking Bakhmut and the surrounding settlements nonstop," using mortars and artillery.

It did not specify if Russian forces had made progress in their attempt to encircle the city. The Wagner Group, a Russian-led mercenary force, has led the attack on Bakhmut at great loss of life for its fighters.

Previous reports said some Ukrainian civilians and military units were leaving the city along the final remaining escape route, even as Russian forces shelled the road.

Donetsk provincial Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said two civilians were killed over the past day in Bakhmut.

AP journalists near the devastated city on March 5 reported seeing a pontoon bridge being set up by Ukrainian troops to help the few remaining residents flee to the nearby village of Khromove, where the journalists later reported seeing at least five homes on fire as a result of Russian attacks.

In Kharkiv Province, shelling destroyed multiple homes and killed one person, regional Governor Oleh Synyehubov said.

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Ukraine's military said on March 5 that it had repelled more than 130 enemy attacks in 24 hours and claimed to be inflicting massive Russian casualties but gave no definite word on the fate of Bakhmut, where Russian forces were said to have nearly surrounded the devastated city.

Kyiv has sought to emphasize the toll in casualties that it has inflicted on the Russian side amid grinding offensives including Moscow's ongoing efforts to encircle and capture Bakhmut, in the eastern Donetsk region.

Zelenskiy, meanwhile, tried to stress Kyiv's preparations and Western support for early EU entry as another aspect of ongoing international support for Ukrainians defending their country from the unprovoked full-scale Russian invasion that began one year ago.

Zelenskiy said after meeting European Parliament President Roberta Metsola at an event in western Ukraine focused in part on Russian war crimes that "the task is to actively prepare everything for our country's membership in the European Union, increase arms deliveries to Ukraine, and strengthen sanctions against Russia."

In its regular daily report early on March 5, the Ukrainian General Staff cited Russian offensives in the directions of Bakhmut, Avdiyivka, Lyman, and Shakhtar in Donetsk, as well as farther north in Kupyan, in the Kharkiv region.

It also said it had killed 930 Russian troops in the previous 24 hours of fighting.

Both sides in the fighting classify their casualty figures, and RFE/RL cannot independently confirm casualty or other battlefield reports from either side.

Serhiy Cherevaty, a spokesman for Ukraine's Eastern Group of Forces, told CNN on March 4 that its soldiers still controlled Bakhmut.

"There is no mass withdrawal of Ukrainian troops either," Cherevaty said.

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Moscow, meanwhile, tried to project confidence with a second claim in as many days of a visit to the front lines by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, although his exact whereabouts were impossible to confirm.

Russia's Defense Ministry said that Shoigu met with army commanders in the war zone to be briefed on the situation.

An accompanying video showed Shoigu with Russia's top commander, General Valery Gerasimov, and a deputy, General Sergei Surovikin.

Amid reports of battlefield setbacks since the invasion began but particularly in recent months, Shoigu has come under increasing pressure from pro-war advocates inside Russia, including Wagner chief Prigozhin, for the military’s performance.

The Russian Defense Ministry on March 4 said Shoigu had visited near the front lines of eastern Ukraine, without specifying the location.

Kyiv has acknowledged the dire situation around Bakhmut's defense but was said to have been still swapping in troops, while Western military experts said the situation there is critical under "increasingly severe pressure."

"In the direction of Bakhmut, the enemy has not abandoned an attempt to surround the city of Bakhmut," the General Staff said early on March 5.

Western experts have questioned the Russian push for Bakhmut, saying it has less strategic and more symbolic value for the Kremlin.

The Ukrainian General Staff said that by its count, the Russians had lost more than 153,000 soldiers since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022.

U.S. and other Western officials recently estimated that the number of total casualties on the Russian side -- including dead and wounded -- was approaching 200,000.

Moscow has acknowledged "significant" losses but last reported accumulated casualties of under 6,000 by September.

A spokesman for Ukraine's air forces argued on March 5 for the supply of modern Western aircraft, particularly U.S.-designed F-16s, amid an expanding threat from Russian remotely launched missiles, glide bombs, and modified bombs that "can fly tens of kilometers" to hit their targets.

The spokesman, Yuriy Ignat, said in televised remarks that such aircraft could also help Ukrainian forces "drive off" the Russian planes that launch such weapons.