Ukraine-Russia war – latest: Civilians flee Bakhmut as forces under pressure to withdraw

Pressure from Russian forces mounted on Saturday on Ukrainians hunkered down in Bakhmut, as residents tried to flee with the help of troops that Western analysts say may be preparing to withdraw from the central eastern stronghold.

A woman was killed and two men were seriously wounded by shelling as they tried to cross a makeshift bridge out of the city in Donetsk province, according to Ukrainian troops assisting them.

A representative of the Ukrainian army, who asked not to be named for operational reasons, told The Associated Press that it was now too dangerous for civilians to leave Bakhmut by vehicle and that people had to flee on foot instead.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Sunday that Ankara is working hard to extend a United Nations-backed initiative that has allowed Ukraine to export grain from ports blocked by Russia after its invasion.

The Black Sea Grain Initiative brokered by the UN and Turkey last July allowed grain to be exported from three Ukrainian ports. The agreement was extended in November and expires on March 18 unless an extension is agreed.

“We are working hard for the smooth implementation and further extension of the Black Sea grain deal,” Cavusoglu said in a speech at the United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries in Doha, Qatar.

Cavusoglu also said he discussed the extension efforts with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

On Wednesday, Russia said it would only agree to extend the Black Sea grain deal if the interests of its own agricultural producers were taken into account.

Top commanders of what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine have briefed Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on the current situation and action plans, his ministry said on Sunday.

Shoigu made a rare visit to Russia’s forces deployed in Ukraine, handing out medals to military personnel and meeting with senior commanders during the trip, according to a statement and videos released by the Defense Ministry on Saturday.

The minister held a meeting with commanders of the operation, the ministry said in a statement on its Telegram social media app on Sunday. It was not clear whether the meeting took place during the trip.

“Sergei Shoigu paid special attention to the establishment of all the necessary conditions for the safe deployment of personnel in the field, the organization of comprehensive support for the troops, especially the work of medical and rear units.”

Russia’s top military commanders have visited the front lines in Ukraine only occasionally since Moscow sent tens of thousands of Russian troops into the neighboring country just over a year ago.

Estonians go to the polls today as one of Europe’s most pro-Kiev governments faces a challenge from a far-right party seeking to capitalize on anger over rising living costs and would shut out more Ukrainian refugees.

If, as polls predict, Prime Minister Kaja Kalla’s liberal Reform Party wins the election and successfully forms a coalition, it would cement the Baltic nation’s pro-European direction. Estonia would also stay on course to embrace more green energy and continue to accept refugees from Ukraine.

Polling stations close at 8pm local time, and most constituencies are expected to report their data by midnight.

Reform won an election in 2019 but was then kept from power when three smaller parties formed a government. That coalition collapsed in 2021, allowing Kallas to form a coalition and take the lead.

The far-right Ekre party could come in second, according to opinion polls, as their promises to cut energy bills by opposing the transition to green energy prove popular in some parts of the country, as well as a pledge not to admit any more Ukrainian refugees.

“I hope to stay as prime minister, but it’s up to the voters to decide,” Kallas said, adding that voters had to choose between what she called “two completely different paths for Estonia.”

“We support the open, friendly, European-minded, smart country, I would say, and Ekre sees more in itself, that we should stick to our own interest, not to help Ukraine,” she said.

Russialong-standing Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov drew open laughter from the audience at an international conference in India after he falsely claimed that his homeland was a victim of Ukrainian aggression.

Mr. Lavrov answered a question from the audience at the Raisina Dialogue 2023 series in New Delhi when the 72-year-old made the statement.

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Laying flowers and wiping away tears, relatives, neighbors and friends of eight men executed by Russian forces during the occupation of the Ukrainian city of Bucha gathered on Saturday to mark the first anniversary of the deaths.

The eight had set up a roadblock in an attempt to prevent Russian troops from advancing as they swept towards Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, at the start of their invasion. But the men were captured, Ukrainian authorities say, and executed.

Their bodies lay outside a building on Yablunska Street for a month, and relatives were only able to retrieve them in April after Russian troops pulled out of Bucha.

The death toll from a Russian missile strike that hit an apartment building in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia rose to 11 on Saturday after the body of a woman was found in the debris, state rescue services said.

A child was among those killed in Thursday’s early morning strike at the five-story apartment building, the service said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

Officials from the regional administration said in another post that a Russian S-300 missile had hit the building.

In a post on Telegram shortly after the strike, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky promised to hold Russia accountable.

The Biden administration is close to tightening rules on some foreign investments by U.S. companies in an effort to limit China’s ability to acquire technology that could improve its military prowess, according to a U.S. official familiar with the deliberations.

The soon-to-be-issued executive order from President Joe Biden will limit U.S. investment in advanced technologies that have national security applications — such as next-generation military capabilities that could help China improve the speed and accuracy of military decision-making, according to the official, who was not authorized to comment and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says his country will “no longer rely” on the West for energy trade.

He did this during the G20 meeting of foreign ministers in New Delhi on Friday, March 3.

Mr Lavrov was asked how the war in Ukraine has affected the country’s energy strategy at the Raisina Dialogue, a multilateral conference,

“We would no longer rely on any partners in the West. We would not allow them to blow up the pipelines again,” he said.

Ukrainian forces defending Bakhmut are facing increasing pressure from Russian forces, British military intelligence said on Saturday, with intense fighting taking place in and around the eastern city.

Ukraine is reinforcing the area with elite units, while the regular Russian army and forces of the Wagner private military group have made further advances into Bakhmut’s northern suburbs, the British Ministry of Defense said in its daily intelligence bulletin.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a Facebook post late Saturday that Russian troops tried but failed to encircle Bakhmut, adding that defenders had repelled numerous attacks in and around the city.

The battle has been going on for seven months. A Russian victory in the city, which had a population of around 70,000 before the war and has been reduced to rubble in the attack, would give Moscow the first major prize in a costly winter offensive.

Oleh Zhdanov, a prominent Ukrainian analyst of military affairs, said late Saturday that he could detect no immediate signs that Kiev would order a retreat from the city.

– Currently, the situation is more or less stabilized. As for the advance of the Russian troops, we practically stopped (it),” he said in a YouTube interview.

The British Ministry of Defense said two key bridges in Bakhmut had been destroyed in the past 36 hours, adding that Ukrainian-held resupply routes out of the city were becoming increasingly restricted.