MOSCOW: Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Sunday that two of its military commanders were killed in eastern Ukraine, as Kyiv’s forces renewed efforts to break through Russian defences in the embattled city of Bakhmut.

In a daily briefing, the ministry said that Commander Vyacheslav Makarov of the 4th Motorised Rifle Brigade and Deputy Commander Yevgeny Brovko from a separate unit were killed trying to repel Ukrainian attacks.

It said that Makarov had been leading troops from the front line, and that Brovko “died heroically, suffering multiple shrapnel wounds”. The defence ministry rarely announces the deaths of military command in its daily briefings.

It also said Ukrainian forces waged attacks in the north and south of Bakhmut over the past 24 hours, but that they had not broken through Russian defences. “All attacks by units of Ukraine’s armed forces have been repelled,” it said.

Kyiv confirmed on Sunday that Ukrainian forces had captured more than ten Russian positions on the outskirts of the frontline city of Bakhmut.

Kyiv claims capture of ‘ten enemy positions’ in the embattled city

“Today our units have captured more than ten enemy positions in the northern and southern outskirts of Bakhmut,” Deputy Defence Minister Ganna Malyar said on social media. “Enemy soldiers of various units have been captured,” she said.

“Anyone who knows the real situation and is there now understands the gravity of what is happening,” Malyar added.

She said that “fierce” fighting continued in Bakhmut, located in the eastern region of Donetsk, and that Russians were trying to advance and destroying ‘everything’ on their way.

The Russian mercenary group Wagner has been leading the assault for Bakhmut, and its chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has accused some regular Russian troops of abandoning their positions.

After months of stalemate, Kyiv has been preparing to retake ground in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, as well as in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in the south.

‘Vassal state’

Russia has ‘already lost geopolitically’ its war in Ukraine war and is effectively becoming a vassal state of China, French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview published on Sunday.

“De facto, it has entered a form of subservience with regards to China and has lost its access to the Baltic, which was critical, because it prompted the decision by Sweden and Finland to join Nato,” Macron told the Opinion newspaper.

“This was unthinkable just two years ago. So it’s already a geopolitical defeat,” Macron said.

“Let’s be clear, Russia must not win this war militarily. So it’s up to us to see how to help the Ukrainians with their counter-offensive, and how to prepare the issue of security guarantees in the negotiations that will inevitably take place,” he said.

“I’ve always said that in the end, Europe’s security architecture will have to fully defend Ukraine. But it must also envisage non-confrontation with Russia and rebuild a sustainable balance of forces,” he continued. “But there are still many steps that must be taken before we get to that,” he said.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2023