Ukrainian snipers hold weapons at their positions, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in the front line city of Bakhmut, Ukraine on February 17, 2023.
Yevhen Titov/REUTERS
Footage released by Ukrainian forces shows intense scenes of border guards firing at Russians.
There has been heavy fighting in the city recently, ahead of the war’s first anniversary.
On Saturday, the US determined that Russia had committed crimes against humanity.
Footage released by the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine shows Ukrainian border guards firing at Russians in house-to-house battles in the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.
The footage appears to show Ukraine fighters shooting out of windows in houses or other buildings destroyed by the war. In the video released last Tuesday on Facebook, the Border Guard Service said four Russian “occupiers” were killed, and five were wounded.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Russian paramilitary organization Wagner Group, said the Russian fighters in the area would “storm house by house, square meter by square meter.”
There has been heavy fighting in Bakhmut for the past week as Russian troops aim to take the city that has “acquired emblematic importance to both sides,” according to Al Jazeera.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin wants to capture Bahkmut by the war’s one-year mark on February 24, Sky News reported.
Meanwhile, an unverified video circulating on social media showed close-quarter trench fighting between Russian and Ukrainian soldiers firing machine guns, RPGs, and throwing grenades, as fighting intensifies in eastern Ukraine as the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of the country draws near.
Ukrainian forces have held off shelling of 20 settlements near Bakhmut as of Friday, General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a Facebook post.
On Friday, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister urged any civilians still living in Bakhmut to leave as Ukrainian soldiers clash with Russians encroaching on the small city.
“If you are rational, law-abiding, and patriotic citizens, you should leave the city immediately,” Iryna Vereshchuk said in a message on Telegram.
World leaders met in Munich, Germany, on Saturday to assess the war that has been marked by thousands of civilian casualties over the past year.
“Give us more military equipment, more weapons, and we will deal with the Russian occupier, we will destroy them,” a serviceman in Bakhmut named Dmytro said to the conference, Reuters reported.
Vice President Kamala Harris said at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday that the US had determined that Russia had committed crimes against humanity.
Russian forces are responsible for a “widespread and systematic attack” against Ukrainian civilians, she said, including execution-style killings, rape, and torture.