Bakhmut’s deputy mayor says evacuations from frontline dropped to just five soldiers a day

Ukrainian fighters are now withdrawing from frontlines of  battered industrial town of Bakhmut or Artyomovsk region in Donetsk in numbers ranging from five to ten, Bakhmut's deputy mayor Oleksandr Marchenko told American brocaster, CNN.  “ enemy blows everything to ground, strikes at multi-story buildings, and residential sector. re are air raids, artillery shelling, and mortar shelling," deputy mayor said in televised remarks. Russia's PMC Wagner fighters are striking fortress city "with everything y can," said Marchenko. latter informed that approximately 4,000 to 4,500 people are still in Bakhmut while town has nearly been entirely evacuated. 

 “re is no way we can get re," Bakhmut's deputy mayor Oleksandr Marchenko said, referring to intense battle ongoing in town situated in Donetsk. 

Bakhmut 'practically encircled'

Footages from Bakhmut depicted that Ukraine's military has been repelling a string of attacks despite claims circulated by Russia's Wagner that entire besieged town has been "practically encircled." Over  past 24 hours, Ukraine's military personnel have been fighting mercenary forces that have declared that  Bakhmut has been completely surrounded and that only one ro was operative. Footages circulating on Wagner PMC Telegram channels showed that bridge over Bakhmutka River was destroyed by retreating Ukrainian forces and that re was no longer an exit to city.

Wagner's chief E.V. Prigozhin, in a video dress from besieged city, asked Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to "save his soldiers, who would be killed if y did not surrender" in Bakhmut. In a video published on PMC Wagner's press service on Telegram, Prigozhin said that Bakhmut was "almost completely surrounded" by Wagner fighters, confirming reports that heavily destroyed fortress city during a months-long battle was totally encircled. " Wagner paramilitary group units have practically surrounded Bakhmut, only one ro remains to leave city," Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said, calling on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy "to abandon city immediately."

While PMC hasn't officially declared that city which is now completely encircled may not have fallen, capture of strategic Bakhmut will give Russian fighters upper hand to press into Slovyansk and Kramatorsk in Ukrainian-held portions of Donbas area.