Ukraine Battles on in Bakhmut as Finland Joins NATO; Zelenskyy on Counteroffensive: RU Still Have Time to Leave, Otherwise We Will Destroy Them; ‘Fortress Bakhmut’: The Bloodiest Battle of the Ukraine War Explained; “We are heading towards military defeat”: Ex-Leader of Russian Militants in Donetsk Creates “club of angry patriots”, LIVE UPDATES and MORE

By admin On Apr 6, 2023

Ukraine battles on in Bakhmut as Finland joins NATO:

Fighting raged in and around Bakhmut as Ukraine mocked Russian claims to have captured the administrative centre of the eastern Ukrainian city, saying Russian forces had raised a victory flag over “some kind of toilet”.

Finland, which shares a 810-mile border with Russia, will later on Tuesday join NATO, just over a year after Russia invaded Ukraine, partly in response to what Russia said the alliance’s aggressive expansion eastward.

The battle for the mining city and logistics hub of Bakhmut has been one of the bloodiest of the conflict with heavy casualties on both sides and the city largely destroyed.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary force spearheading the siege, said on Sunday his troops had raised a Russian flag on the city-centre administrative building even though Ukrainian soldiers still held some western positions.

But Ukraine’s military poured scorn on that claim and said fighting was raging around the city council building, as well as in other nearby towns.

“Bakhmut is Ukrainian and they have not captured anything and are very far from doing that,” Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesperson for the eastern military command, told Reuters.

“They raised the flag over some kind of toilet. They attached it to the side of who knows what, hung their rag and said they had captured the city. Well good, let them think they’ve taken it,” Cherevatyi added by telephone.

The Ukrainian armed forces General Staff said in an evening statement 45 enemy attacks had been repelled in total in the last 24 hours, with Bakhmut at the “epicentre of operations” along with the cities of Avdiivka and Maryinka further south. —>READ MORE HERE

Zelenskyy on counteroffensive: Russians still have time to leave, otherwise we will destroy them:

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that all the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine will be liberated, so if Russian troops do not leave, they will be destroyed.

Source: Ukrinform news agency, quoting a statement made by the President during his visit to the village of Yahidne, Chernihiv Oblast, on 3 April

Quote from Zelenskyy: “I’m not going to talk about specific things, because we cannot give the terrorists from the Russian Federation the opportunity to prepare for our methods and steps to liberation. But we will do it, and they should know that. They still have time to leave, otherwise we will destroy them.”

Details: The President did not specify when the Armed Forces would be ready for the counteroffensive, but stated that the military was preparing “to be strong in battle and liberate our land”.

It is also reported that on the anniversary of the liberation of the village of Yahidne, Zelenskyy visited a school basement where Russian invaders had held civilians hostage for almost a month.

German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, German Ambassador to Ukraine Anka Feldhusen, and Andrii Yermak, the head of the President’s Office, also visited the school with the President.

Looking at the place where the occupiers tortured local residents, Zelenskyy said he wished the Russian president would “spend the rest of his life in a basement, with a bucket instead of a toilet”. —>READ MORE HERE

Follow links below to +++++relevant+++++ and related stories:

+++++Russia-Ukraine News LATEST UPDATES: (REUTERS) (AP) (NY POST) and (WSJ)+++++

+++++‘Fortress Bakhmut’: The Bloodiest Battle of the Ukraine War Explained+++++

+++++“We are heading towards military defeat”: ex-leader of Russian militants in Donetsk creates “club of angry patriots”+++++

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