Remarks highlight Moscow’s growing acknowledgement that invasion is not going to plan
Vladimir Putin has made a rare admission of his country’s military challenges in the 10-month-old war in Ukraine asvisited a key city in eastern Ukraine that Moscow has failed to capture despite months of relentless shelling.
In a video message to Russia’s security services, Putin said the situation in the four Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions was “extremely complicated”, and urged security agencies to intensify their efforts to identify “traitors, spies and diversionists”.Putin’s speech once again highlighted Moscow’s growing acknowledgement that the war inis not going to plan.
Putin’s message on Tuesday came hours before Zelenskiy’s office announced that the Ukrainian leader made a surprise visit to the embattled city of Bakhmut, which has largely been ravaged after nearly five months of fighting and has been referred to by both sides as the“It seems to me that the Bakhmut heroes should get the same that every person gets,” Zelenskiy said in a video posted by the local Freedom TV channel while handing out awards to Ukrainian soldiers.
Russian army soldiers, alongside fighters from the Wagner private military group, have been trying to seize Bakhmut after reaching the outskirts of the city in July following a series of successful offensives during which Moscow captured the nearby cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk. However, Russia has since suffered a string of dramatic defeats in the north and south of Ukraine, and the battle for Bakhmut is widely seen as an opportunity for Moscow to regain lost prestige after months of military setbacks. Russia and Ukraine have recently moved troops from the Kherson region and elsewhere to reinforce their efforts, with both sides believed to be suffering heavy casualties.
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