Russia Presses Assault in Eastern Ukraine in a Bid to Encircle Kyiv Forces

Russia pressed its assault against eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, the U.K.’s Defense Ministry said Saturday, while Ukraine’s general staff said it was holding off Russian attacks in the region aimed at encircling Kyiv’s positions there.

Bakhmut has been a priority for Russia since the end of the summer, when Russian forces suffered a setback in the country’s south and the Russian paramilitary group Wagner began a push there.

The eventual capture of the city has limited operational value, but could give Russian troops a launchpad to restart attacks on the biggest Ukraine-held Donbas cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk, the Defense Ministry said.

 “Russia’s plan is likely to encircle the town with tactical advances to the north and south,” it said. Ukraine’s general staff said Russian troops were shooting at Bakhmut and surrounding towns with tank assaults, air attacks and small artillery.

Following Russia’s withdrawal from the southern region of Kherson last month, focus in the war has centered on Moscow’s efforts to advance in Donbas, which includes the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Seizing Donbas is among chief war goals for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who declared the area Russian territory to great fanfare in the fall and pledged to defend it.

Russia’s Defense Ministry Saturday said it was shelling Ukrainian positions in the region, disrupting defensive lines.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Mr. Putin would visit Donbas, though he gave no time frame for the trip.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces put Russian troops on the defensive over the weekend in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, and Russia responded with two missile attacks on a village in the region, the governor said.

Some analysts say Ukraine could launch an offensive in that area in a bid to cut off the uninterrupted stretch of land—dubbed the land bridge—that Moscow controls along Ukraine’s Black Sea coast and that is crucial to Russian forces’ ability to launch offensives.

Meanwhile, in the neighboring Kherson region, regional authorities began to encourage residents to evacuate from the eastern bank of the Dnipro River where Ukrainian troops have continued pushing on Russian forces following their withdrawal from Kherson city.

The announcement suggests Ukraine could launch a fresh offensive across the river that has become a new front line in the south. Alternatively, it could be a feint by Ukraine aimed at diverting Russian forces from other theaters.

Travel on the Dnipro River has been restricted in recent months, but those restrictions have been partially lifted to allow people to cross over to the western bank, further away from fighting.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky held a meeting with the country’s top defense officials Saturday to discuss repairs to Ukraine’s critical infrastructure following successive waves of Russian attacks on power and water facilities in Kyiv and across the country. Those strikes have left millions without power, as Moscow seeks to sap the morale of Ukrainian civilians as the winter sets in.

Mr. Zelensky said issues regarding Ukraine’s spiritual independence also were discussed, a reference to Ukraine’s recent moves to curb the Russian influence within the Orthodox Church.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church, canonically linked to the Moscow Patriarchate, is one of the country’s two main Orthodox denominations and used to be the dominant one before many faithful and parishes switched to the rival Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

On Friday, Mr. Zelensky announced plans to curb the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, or UOC, following a series of raids by the Ukrainian security services of church properties.

Ukraine’s intelligence agency has said it has found evidence of UOC priests possessing Russian citizenship, contacting Russian intelligence agents and owning literature denying the right of Ukraine to exist.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu also visited Belarus, a close Russian ally, on Saturday, Russian state wires said, where he had talks with his Belarusian counterpart.

Ukraine has accused Belarus of allowing Russia to use the country as a launchpad for attacks on Ukraine, but Mr. Putin has pressured Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko to take an even more active stance in the conflict, Russian analysts say.

Serhiy Nayev, commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said Kyiv was gathering intelligence on a growing number of Russian and Belarusian soldiers in Belarus, though he said there was no direct threat as of yet from Belarus itself.