- Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has doubled down on defending Bakhmut despite earlier signals of a withdrawal from the eastern city that is almost surrounded by Russian troops.
- US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said a retreat from Bakhmut should not be seen as an “operational or strategic setback”.
- The battle for the city has lasted almost nine months, one of the most grinding stand-offs since Russia’s president Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
- Kyiv claimed it had identified one of its soldiers from a video circulating on social media on Monday that appeared to show Russian troops executing him as a prisoner of war.
- Capturing Bakhmut would give Putin his first major battlefield victory since his forces captured the nearby sister cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk early last summer.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy doubles down on defending city of Bakhmut
Ukraine’s president shrugs off allies’ concerns about merits of holding on to eastern city under Russian assault
Roman Olearchyk
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