Ukraine opens door for peace summit with Russia
There is nowhere in Bakhmut which is “not covered in blood” and only a few civilians are left in the city formerly of 70,000 inhabitants, which is host to some of the fiercest fighting on the frontline of Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to Volodymyr Zelensky.
Although “there is no hour when the terrible roar of artillery does not sound”, the Ukrainian president said, he added: “Still, Bakhmut stands”, and analysts have suggested that Vladimir Putin’s forces there are increasingly diminished and stand on the brink of being unable to continue their operations.
Moscow’s troops in Bakhmut appear to be operating in smaller groups of 10 to 15 soldiers, as they did prior to a previous retreat in Kherson in August, according to the US-based Institute for the Study of War.
Earlier, analyst Nicholas Farr of Capital Economics suggested that Russia’s economy was beginning to “feel the pinch” after the G7 and other countries imposed a price cap on the country’s oil exports.
