Maria Senovilla: “Bakhmut is the darkest point of the war in Ukraine. Up to 400 Ukrainian soldiers are killed every day” | Atalayar
In the last edition of the “De Cara al Mundo” program, Maria Senovilla, a journalist in Madrid, a special correspondent in Ukraine and an employee of Atalayar, participated. Kharkov, the city where it is located, and Bakhmut, where one of the heaviest battles was fought since the beginning of the Russian invasion of the country.
Are the Russians still bombing your position in Kharkiv?
They continue to bomb. In the last attack around nine o’clock in the evening we heard three large explosions, and then for a while we heard that the anti-aircraft defenses were working to neutralize the other species. Soldiers providing air defense said that due to the weather, visibility was very low, less than a kilometer, and it was very difficult to stop the first wave of missiles.
As a result of these three strikes, a 40-year-old man was killed and two other women were injured and hospitalized, one of the rockets landed in the so-called private sector, which is nothing more than a residential area. People are at home by 9pm. As we mentioned here, it gets dark at four o’clock in the afternoon, there are no lights on the streets, and on days like yesterday when there is up to 15 centimeters of snow, you can’t tell the difference between the curb and the sidewalk. you can imagine that everyone is at home. This poor man was there when the rocket hit and couldn’t do much.
Russia responds to Ukraine’s attack on its bases on its territory. This can give it a new dimension. These attacks are not new, but the fact that Ukraine has now decided to attack Russia on its territory is new.
The fact that he attacks with weapons of his own making is also new. The U.S. was quick to say it was not supplying the long-range weapons, while Ukraine stepped forward, saying it would not fire point blank. The problem is that we all know that when Ukraine attacks a Russian target, whether it’s the latest attack in Sevastopol, it’s two airfields on Russian territory that are usually bombed by takeoff bombers here in Kharkiv. A completely legal target from the point of view of the armed forces of Ukraine.
I think this may revive the Kremlin’s intention to continue to attack Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure, which has already destroyed 30 or 35% of it. Zelensky updated these numbers a few days ago, and it appears that 45% to 50% of Ukraine’s electrical infrastructure is now damaged. It’s a miracle we still have electricity.
Cold has become another weapon in the Kremlin camp. In addition to knocking out power and communication lines, these bombings also have the effect of demoralizing Ukrainians, don’t they?
Morality, warmth and life. Here in Kharkiv, the city council is determined to leave no one behind. In addition to installing the two hundred invincibility points we talked about last week, namely places with heat, generators so people can charge their mobile devices, and even stoves where you can cook, the city council has come up with another initiative. distribution of hot meals as power outages lengthen.
Yesterday, I was without electricity for 5 hours, but there are regions where electricity has been without electricity for 9 hours in a row, and if you don’t have gas to cook, you can’t cook. Imagine temperatures ranging from minus 8 to minus 20 degrees this week. So they distribute food in places like big schools with canteens, where they prepare meals for people who can’t cook at home because of power outages. And I thought, given that we have more than no electricity, this initiative would not be in much demand these days. I was very surprised that yesterday they released the figures for the first week of the distribution of these hot meals and I can tell you that in 7 days 140 thousand people came to get a hot meal because they did not have the opportunity to prepare food at home. . The whole winter is waiting for us.
What happens in the Battle of Bachmut? The news we get is that many people are dying.
Yes, we need to look at Donbas, because Bakhmut is the darkest point of the war in Ukraine. This week, the Institute for the Study of War, an influential American think tank, and other international think tanks agreed that up to 400 Ukrainian soldiers are killed and wounded a day in Bakhmut.
Aside from just the numbers, I’ve been able to talk to various military sources over the last few days, both official and combat, and what they’re saying is the haircut. The city is currently under Ukrainian control, but Russian troops have positioned their artillery close enough to fire there, but far enough away not to expose their troops too much. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian army has a lot of infantry, light units, and paramilitary units that do very little against bombs because they have to defend the land. This front line has now become a real human meat grinder. That’s the crudest way I can put it.
Currently, this is one of the main issues that concern Zelensky’s armed forces. Our listeners are probably wondering how important it is for Bachmuth to make such a commitment to defend the position at such a high cost of living. Bakhmut is not a remarkable city like Severodonetsk, where one of the biggest battles of this war took place. Bakhmut is not such a symbolic city. However, it is the main communications center for the supply lines of Ukrainian troops in Donetsk Oblast and is also a buffer containing Kremlin troops advancing towards Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. If the Russian army were to capture these two cities, it would almost certainly take full control of Donetsk Oblast and thus all of Donbas, which Putin could already sell as a major victory. So you can imagine how hard the Kremlin is currently trying to capture Bakhmut and how difficult it is for Ukrainians to defend it.
