Headline Roundup • March 4th, 2023
Russian Forces Close In On Bakhmut
Summary from the AllSides News Team
After months of intense fighting, Russian forces are close to fully capturing the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
The Details: Russian forces, including many mercenaries from the Wagner Group, are nearing full encirclement of the Ukrainian mining town of Bakhmut, after seven months of intense fighting. Ukrainian officials have been instructing the few remaining civilians to leave via the one evacuation route still controlled by Ukrainian forces.
For Context: Russia's first notable battlefield gain since the capture of Soledar, Bakhmut is strategically important for capturing the Donbas industrial region, one of Moscow's key objectives. It's also a significant win for Wagner CEO Yevgeniy Prigozhin, who has been critical of the Russian state’s military strategy and recently accused top Kremlin brass Valery Gerasimov and Sergei Shoigu of “treason”.
Key Quotes: The US Institute for the Study of War has concluded, “Ukrainian forces appear to be setting conditions for a controlled fighting withdrawal from parts of Bakhmut.” Volodymyr Nazarenko, a deputy commander in the National Guard of Ukraine said, “The task of our forces in Bakhmut is to inflict as many losses on the enemy as possible… There are many more Russians here than we have ammunition to destroy them.”
How The Media Covered It: Sources across the spectrum covered the events similarly.
Featured Coverage of this Story
RFE/RL/SERHII NUZHNENKO/Reuters
War breeds euphemism and metaphor. In the battle for the Donbas city of Bakhmut, threatened with a closing encirclement by Russian forces after seven months of bitter fighting, there are “White Angels” and “Dark Angels”, the “road of life” (the Bakhmut-Lysychansk highway, which is anything but) and the “Invincibility Centre”.
The White Angels, a police evacuation group, scour the lethal districts of the shell-ruined city to evacuate children and the elderly.
Their counterparts, the Dark Angels, take out the dead. The Invincibility Centre is where the few thousands of civilians...
REUTERS/Anna Kudriavtseva
Russian artillery pounded the last routes out of Bakhmut on Friday, aiming to complete the encirclement of the besieged Ukrainian city and bring Moscow closer to its first major victory in half a year after the bloodiest battle of the war.
The head of Russia’s Wagner private army said the city, which has been blasted to ruins in Russia’s more than seven-month onslaught, was almost completely surrounded with only one road still open for Ukraine’s troops.
Reuters observed intense Russian shelling of routes leading west out of Bakhmut, an apparent...
Libkos/AP
Russian forces are nearing their first major tactical victory as they close in on the besieged city of Bakhmut, Ukraine.
The head of a Russian paramilitary mercenary organization, the Wagner Group, said on Friday that his troops have the area nearly surrounded. Wagner troops are leading the fight in the area.
"Units of the private military company Wagner have practically surrounded Bakhmut," Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said, appearing in combat uniform. He also urged Ukrainian leaders to withdraw troops from the city.
Conversely, Ukraine’s Centre for Strategic Communication said that "this is part of...
AllSides Picks
Red Blue Translator
U.S.S.R.
Headline Roundup
Judge Blocks Trump Immigration and Asylum Policies, Orders Processing to Resume
June 6th, 2026
Blog
Euthanasia Malpractice, Migrant ‘Abuses’ and a Racism Ruling: Latest News You Likely Missed
Malayna J. Bizier
June 6th, 2026
