Russia Claims Major Gains as Fighting in Donetsk Continues to Rage

A Ukrainian soldier of an artillery unit fires towards Russian positions outside Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine, on Nov. 8, 2022. Bulent Kilic/AFP via Getty Images

Russian forces have made significant territorial gains in and around the strategic town of Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine, pro-Moscow sources have claimed.

Located roughly 55 miles north of the Donetsk city of Bakhmut (Artyomovsk in Russian) and its surroundings have remained the scene of fierce fighting for the past several months.

Russian forces deployed in the area are said to include the Donetsk People’s Republic Militia and the Wagner Group, a shadowy paramilitary organization directed by the Kremlin.

According to military analysts, the fall of Bakhmut to Russian forces would severely disrupt Ukrainian supply routes to the frontline.

It would also open the way for a Russian advance on the towns of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, key Ukrainian strongholds to the northwest.

A Ukrainian soldier stays covered in Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Sept. 25, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Juan Barreto/AFP via Getty Images

Russia ‘Liberates’ Town 

On Nov. 30, Ivan Prikhodko, the Moscow-appointed mayor of the nearby town of Horlivka, claimed that the town of Kurdyumivka had been taken by Russian forces, giving the latter “full control” of the Horlivka–Bakhmut highway.

“Kurdyumivka, where fighting had lasted for over five days, was taken this morning,” he was quoted as saying by Russia’s TASS news agency.

“It is one of the crucial locations, along with [the nearby town of] Kodema, which was taken two months ago.”

According to Prikhodko, “mop-up” operations are now underway in Kurdyumivka, which, he said, had been used by Ukrainian forces to shell Russian-held Horlivka and surrounding areas.

He went on to claim that Russian forces had also made gains near the town of Avdiivka, located north of Donetsk city, and were now advancing northward toward the town of Toretsk.

The Russian Defense Ministry is also reporting major breakthroughs in the region within the past 24 hours.

“As a result of offensive actions by Russian troops, the settlements of Bilohorivka and Pershe Travnya [in Donetsk] have been fully liberated,” the ministry stated in its Nov. 30 daily briefing.

The Epoch Times was unable to verify the claims.

A man walks in front of a destroyed school in the city of Bakhmut in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas on May 28, 2022, on the 94th day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images

‘Destructive Vortex’

Officials in Kyiv have provided relatively scant information about the ongoing fighting in the Donetsk region.

But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described “the situation at the front” as “difficult.”

Even the Western press has admitted that Ukrainian forces were struggling to hold flashpoint positions in Donetsk.

The New York Times recently reported that the town of Bakhmut had become a “destructive vortex” for both sides of the conflict.

In an article published on Nov. 27, the paper asserted that Kyiv was sending “floods of reinforcements” into Bakhmut, where they continued to suffer “heavy casualties.”

In a televised address on the evening of Nov. 29, Zelenskyy said that “despite extremely large losses, the occupiers are still trying to advance” in Donetsk, Luhansk, and the northeastern Kharkiv region.

Donetsk and Luhansk together make up the Russian-speaking Donbas region, which has remained the main focus of Moscow’s ongoing “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Days before launching its invasion in late February, Moscow recognized both territories as “independent people’s republics.”

Moscow and pro-Russian figures in Donbas say that, since 2014, the region has suffered widespread abuses—ignored by the Western media—at the hands of the Ukrainian army and paramilitary groups.

Kyiv, for its part, denies the claims.

Ukrainian service members fire a shell from a towed howitzer FH-70 at a front line, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in the Donbas region on July 18, 2022. Gleb Garanich/REUTERS

Redeployments Eastward

In late September, Donetsk and Luhansk, along with the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, were formally incorporated into the Russian Federation.

Since then, Moscow has viewed all four regions as Russian territory.

Kyiv and its Western allies refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the annexations, while Ukrainian military officials have repeatedly vowed to recover the lost territories by force of arms.

Earlier this month, Russian forces withdrew from the northwestern bank of the Dnieper River, including the city of Kherson, the provincial capital of the Kherson region.

In the immediate wake of the Russian withdrawal, Ukrainian forces moved into the city and other strategic positions along the northwestern bank of the river.

While the move was widely hailed as a major victory for Kyiv, it also served to free up substantial amounts of Russian manpower and equipment.

Over the past two weeks, these have reportedly been redeployed to the eastern front—especially in Donetsk—and the neighboring Zaporizhzhia region.

Russian defenses along the 680-mile frontline have also been recently reinforced by the arrival of roughly 300,000 fresh army reservists.

Reuters contributed to this report.