Ukrainian forces have recaptured the heights over Bakhmut and are successfully encircling Russian troops in the city, a defence minister in Kyiv has said.
Hanna Maliar also warned of a “nightmare” situation farther north after 12,000 civilians in the Kharkiv region were ordered to evacuate.
In an interview with the Guardian, Maliar said Russian soldiers could no longer move around Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region and progress was being made in outflanking enemy forces after months of deadly battle.
With Ukraine on the advance on the outskirts of the city, she claimed that Russia had been seeking to draw their combat units away by attacking areas of the Kharkiv region liberated from Russian occupation last September.
On Thursday, the Ukrainian authorities ordered a mandatory evacuation of thousands of civilians from 37 towns and villages in the Kupiansk district, in the Kharkiv region, which lies north of Bakhmut.
The local military administration described the evacuation order as mandatory but said people could stay if they signed a document stating they would do so at their own risk. “Given the difficult security situation and the increasing amount of shelling by Russian terrorist forces in [the] Kupiansk community, you have the opportunity to evacuate to a safer place,” the city administration said.
Residents were told to evacuate to Kharkiv, about 56 miles west, where they would have the option to move to safer regions, with children, elderly people and those who were sick in particular urged to leave.
Russia’s defence ministry announced its soldiers had “improved their position” in the area.
Maliar said: “The main focus of the Ukrainian army is the south, and the Russians are focused on the east. The Russians are infiltrating in two main areas – Kupiansk and Lyman. It’s a nightmare there.
“In the direction of Bakhmut in the north, Russians are attacking. We are attacking on the southern flank of Bakhmut.”
She added: “Why are the Russians doing this? We were making good progress on both flanks in Bakhmut. We have taken almost all the key heights there. The Russians were trapped there, they couldn’t get out and now they can’t move around the city of Bakhmut because the Ukrainians are shelling the city from the heights.
“And in order to pull our forces away from Bakhmut, the Russians moved forward in other directions so that we would throw our forces to save them. And they exposed their rear near Bakhmut. That’s why they launched an offensive in other places to stop our attack on Bakhmut.”
Maliar said Russian forces were also fighting hard to take back the village of Staromaiorske, farther south in Donetsk. Its liberation last month had been hailed by Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Soldiers fighting in the village said that they had come under constant shelling in recent days. Maliar said that Ukrainian forces were nevertheless pushing on in an attempt to take the next village along.
She said: “The Ukrainian armed forces are moving forward towards the village of Urozhaine. The key task of the Russians is to stop us by all means, while our task is to move forward. The exhaustion continues. This confrontation can end quickly, if one side is weak, then the other side will win quickly. But when both sides are strong, it can’t be quick.”
In the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, it was reported that two young female musicians, named as Khrystyna Spitsyna, 19 and Svitlana Semeykina, 21, and a man had been killed in an overnight missile attack that hit a church. Nine other people were wounded, Ukrainian officials said on Thursday.
