On Thursday, April 6, Ukrainian troops continued to fight for Bakhmut.
“The fight for Bakhmut continues,” said Andrii Yermak, head of the Ukrainian president’s office. “They are fighting in the streets, the enemy’s attempts to encircle the city fail. Our command perfectly controls the situation with the defense of the “fortress”.
Russian PMC chief “Wagner” Yevgeny Prigozhin also said fighting in the west of the city continued.
“It must be made clear that the enemy is going nowhere,” he said in Telegram.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian army declared that it was ready to launch a counter-offensive as soon as the weather improved.
Ukrainian military expert Vladislav Seleznyov said Ukraine could defend positions in the more fortified western Bakhmut as long as the “road of life” to the west remains open for the evacuation of wounded and supplies.
Zelenskyy said Wednesday that Ukrainian troops could withdraw from Bakhmut if they were in danger of being cut off.
Zelenskyy’s adviser, Andriy Sibikha, said in an interview with the Financial Times that Kiev would be ready to discuss Crimea’s future if its troops reached the peninsula’s border.
“If we manage to achieve our strategic goals on the battlefield and when we find ourselves on the administrative border with Crimea, we are ready to open a (diplomatic) page to discuss this issue,” Sibikha said in an interview. .
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron, during a meeting in Beijing with Xi Jinping, called on the Chinese leader to use his influence to convince Russia to stop the war and start negotiations with Ukraine. .
“Russian aggression in Ukraine has dealt a blow to (international) stability,” Macron told the Chinese leader during a meeting in Beijing. “I know I can count on you to bring Russia back to its senses and bring everyone back to the negotiating table.”
Xi said he hoped such talks could begin soon and indicated he was ready to take the time to call Zelenskyy.
A French diplomatic source later said China was willing to work with France to “perseverely pursue” negotiations, and that Macron also urged China not to supply arms to Russia.
Earlier, The Eastern Herald reported that Kiev sent assembled elite troops for a counteroffensive near Artemovsk (Bakhmut).
