Russia Bombards Ukraine, Wagner Group Boss Targets Mastery of Bakhmut in April

The impact of Russian airstrikes on Ukraine. (Wikimedia Commons/National Police of Ukraine)

JAKARTA - Russia rained down on Ukraine on Thursday and attacked its biggest oil refinery, Kyiv said, while the head of the Wagner mercenary group predicted the long-siege City of Bakhmut would take weeks if not months to fall.

Following a pattern of heavy bombing after a Ukrainian battlefield or diplomatic advantage, Russia launched 36 missiles in the early hours of the morning, said the Ukrainian Air Force.

Russian missiles set off air raid sirens and landed across Ukraine, including at the Kremenchuk refinery, where the extent of the damage was unclear. Some 16 missiles were shot down, the Air Force added, lower than normal.

Ukraine said the strike included three KH-31 missiles and one Oniks anti-ship cruise missile, which its air defenses were unable to shoot down.

The Ukrainian General Staff said in its evening report that Russia had also shelled more than two dozen eastern and southern settlements.

There was no word from Moscow of the missile strikes or shelling, and Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield reports.

Backed by tens of thousands of reservists, Russia has intensified its ground offensive across southern and eastern Ukraine, and with a year approaching the February 24 invasion, a new major offensive looks imminent.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, destroyed Ukrainian cities, shook the global economy, and displaced millions.

Germany says 1.1 million people arrived from Ukraine in 2022 alone, exceeding the unprecedented influx of migrants in 2015-16.

Russia's current focus is on the small town of Bakhmut in Donetsk, one of the two regions that make up Donbas, Ukraine's industrial center now partly occupied by Russia.

In the fighting led by Wagner's group which was flooded with recruits from prison, the Russians had been pounding and besieging Bakhmut for months. Most of the city's 70,000 population has left, leaving the Ukrainian army behind.

"They (Russia) sent a lot of troops. I think it is unsustainable for them to continue attacking in this way," said Taras Dzioba, press officer of Ukraine's 80th Air Assault Brigade.

"There are places where their bodies are just piled up. There are ditches where... they don't evacuate those who are injured or killed," he continued.

Dzioba spoke to Reuters as he stood by the howitzer battery outside the defensive bunker, near Bakhmut's front lines.

In an interview with a pro-war military blogger, Wagner Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin predicted Bakhmut would fall in April, depending on how many men Ukraine sends into battle and how well its troops are supplied.

“Because there are so many problems that need to be solved. Of course it will also depend on whether we continue to bleed," he added, referring to the end of convict recruitment.

Separately, in his late night video address, President Zelensky said his priority was to contain the Russian offensive, prepare for their escalation and prepare for a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

"Maintaining the situation at the forefront and preparing for enemy escalation measures, those are the priorities for the near future," he stressed.

The capture of Bakhmut would have provided Russia with a springboard for advancing on Donetsk's two larger cities further west, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

But Ukraine and its allies say taking Bakhmut would be a major victory considering the months it has taken and the losses they say Russia has suffered.