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Live: Ukraine readies counteroffensive as Russia advances in Bakhmut
Issued on: 12/03/2023 - 10:44
Ukrainian servicemen prepare to fire a Howitzer artillery weapon towards Russian positions near the city of Bakhmut on March 11, 2023. © Aris Messinis, AFP
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The Ukrainian military was preparing Sunday for a counterattack in Bakhmut after more than seven months of fighting in the region, a top commander has said. Ukraine's foreign minister has urged Germany to speed up supplies of ammunition and to start training Ukrainian pilots on Western fighter jets. Read FRANCE 24's live blog below to see how the day's events unfold. All times are Paris time (GMT+1).
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3:34pm: Swiss president defends neutrality, Ukraine arms ban
Swiss neutrality is more important than ever, President Alain Berset said in an interview published Sunday, defending the controversial ban on transferring Swiss-made arms to Ukraine.
"Swiss weapons must not be used in wars," he told the NZZ am Sonntag weekly.
The long tradition of neutrality has been hotly debated since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
While the wealthy Alpine country, which is not a member of the European Union, has followed the bloc's lead on sanctions targeting Moscow, it has so far shown less flexibility on its military neutrality.
Despite pressure from Kyiv and its allies, Switzerland has continued to block countries that hold Swiss-made weaponry from re-exporting it to Ukraine.
To date, requests from Germany, Spain and Denmark have ben rejected under the War Materiel Act, which bars all re-export if the recipient country is in an international armed conflict.
11:54am: ‘No confirmed advances’ for Russian troops in Bakhmut, says US think tank
Russia’s advance seems to have stalled in Moscow's campaign to capture the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, a leading think tank said in an assessment of the longest ground battle of the war.
The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said there were no confirmed advances by Russian forces in Bakhmut. Russian forces and units from the Kremlin-controlled paramilitary Wagner Group continued to launch ground attacks in the city, but there was no evidence that they were able to make any progress, ISW said late Saturday.
Ukraine: USA's 'The Study of War' think tank
The report cited the spokesperson of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ Eastern Group, Serhii Cherevaty, who said that fighting in the Bakhmut area had been more intense this week than the previous one. According to Cherevaty, there were 23 clashes in the city over the previous 24 hours.
10:05am: Situation in Bahkmut ‘very, very difficult’ for Ukrainian troops
Ukraine’s commander in chief says the situation in Bakhmut is “increasingly difficult” after more than seven months of fighting in the region, FRANCE 24's Emmanuel Chaze reports.
While Russia’s
Wagner group has made unverified claims of gains in region, “one thing is for sure: the situation is very, very difficult for Ukrainian troops,” Chaze added.
01:24
7:39am: Russians living in richest cities ‘relatively unscathed’ by high casualties of war toll says UK intelligence
Russian casualties of war are concentrated among people living in east Russia while wealthier families based in Moscow and St Petersburg are "relatively unscathed" the British Ministry of Defence said on Sunday. In some cases, ethnic minority groups are disproportionately impacted, it added.
"In many of the Eastern regions, deaths are likely running, as a percentage of population, at a rate 30+ times higher than in Moscow. In places, ethnic minorities take the biggest hit; in Astrakhan some 75% of casualties come from the minority Kazakh and Tartar populations," it said in a Tweet
Live: Ukraine readies counteroffensive as Russia advances in Bakhmut