As Russian troops wage a ferocious fight for control of strongholds in eastern Ukraine, a parallel battle is unfolding in the top echelons of military power in Moscow. President Vladimir Putin has reshuffled his generals while rival camps try to win his favor. Fighting for the Ukrainian town of Soledar and the nearby city of Bakhmut has highlighted a rift between the Russian Defense Ministry leadership and a millionaire whose private military force known as the Wagner Group has played an increasingly visible role in Ukraine. Putin's shakeup of the military brass was seen as a bid to show that the Defense Ministry still has his support as the troubled conflict nears the 11-month mark.
Ukrainian officials say Russian forces are escalating their onslaught against Ukrainian positions around the wrecked eastern city of Bakhmut. The officials say the intense attack is bringing new levels of death and devastation in the grinding, monthslong battle for control of eastern Ukraine that is part of Moscow's wider war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said there is "almost no life left" around Bakhmut and the nearby Donetsk province city of Soledar. He added that "this is what madness looks like." A deputy Ukrainian defense minister says Russian forces are advancing "literally on the bodies of their own soldiers." The Kremlin is hungry for any victories after its invasion of Ukraine suffered numerous reversals.
By FELIPE DANA and JOANNA KOZLOWSKA Associated Press
The Russian military's top brass is under increasing scrutiny as more details emerge of how at least 89 Russian soldiers, and possibly many more, were killed in a Ukrainian artillery attack on a single building. The scene last weekend in the Russian-held eastern Ukrainian town of Makiivka, where the soldiers were temporarily stationed, appears to have been a recipe for disaster. Hundreds of Russian troops were reportedly clustered in a building close to the front line of the war, well within range of the enemy's Western-supplied precision artillery, possibly sitting close to an ammunition store, and perhaps unwittingly helping Kyiv's forces to zero in on them.
