Russia-Ukraine war: Kyiv says it controls key supply route to Bakhmut

The longest and bloodiest fighting since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year was over control of the key city of Bakhmut. As fighting continues in the area, Ukraine said it has the key supply route to Bakhmut under its control.

A spokesperson for the Ukrainian military said on Saturday that its forces have the key supply route to Bakhmut under its control. Ukraine has vowed to hold the defenses around Bakhmut, which Moscow has sought to bring under its control for 10 months already, in the hopes of making territorial gains since suffering significant losses to Ukrainian forces. Moscow also sees taking control of Bakhmut as a stepping stone to attack and capture other Ukrainian cities.

“For several weeks, the Russians have been talking about seizing ‘the road of life’ as well as about constant fire control over it,” said the spokesperson for Ukrainian forces in the east Serhiy Cherevatyi in an interview with local news outlet Dzerkalo Tyzhnia. “Yes it is really difficult there…the defense forces have not allowed the Russians to ‘cut off’ our logistics.”

The so-called “road of life” refers to the road between Bakhmut and Chasiv Yar.

In its military update on Sunday, the Ukrainian military command said that its forces were able to intercept 58 Russian attacks in the past day as part of the frontline expanding from Bakhmut through Avdiivka and to Maryinka in the Donetsk region. Chasiv Yar is likely the next city Russian forces may attempt to capture should they succeed in capturing Bakhmut, according to military analysts.

Last week, Ukraine protested to its allies in the European Union and Poland over the restrictions placed on exports of Ukrainian grain supplies before the bloc’s executive branch announced that a deal was reached in principle to resolve the issue.

The Ukrainian foreign ministry on Saturday said it sent notes to the Polish embassy and the EU representative office in Kyiv, expressing disappointment with the matter and that the restrictions introduced on its grain exports via the EU were “categorically unacceptable.”

The EU said on Friday that it came to a deal in principle to allow the transit of Ukrainian grain products to resume through the five EU countries that introduced restrictions.