America downplays the "fall of Bakhmout." Wagner chief warns of ammunition shortages

Ukraine announces the downing of 13 explosive Russian drones

Ukrainian soldiers fire an artillery shell as Russia's assault on the Zaporizhia region continues. Reuters

The Ukrainian Air Force announced yesterday the downing of 13 explosive drones launched from southern Russia at night, after sirens sounded for hours in Kiev, and at a time when US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, downplayed the importance of the fall of Bakhmout to the Russians, the commander of the Russian Wagner Group warned that Russia's situation around Bakhmot is "threatened" due to the lack of ammunition.

The Ukrainian air force said on Telegram that Russian forces had launched 15 Iranian-made Shahid aircraft from the Bryansk region northeast of Kiev, 13 of which were shot down by Ukrainian forces.

Since October, Russia has been carrying out missile and drone attacks targeting vital Ukrainian infrastructure, prompting Kiev to bolster its air defenses with help from the West.

In Kiev, sirens sounded for hours early yesterday, warning of air strikes, and authorities said air defenses had been activated by an "air target."

Military administration official Sergei Popko said the drones were on their way to Kiev, but were shot down by Ukrainian air defenses, causing no casualties or damage to infrastructure.

Ukraine has beefed up its capabilities to counter Russian air strikes after receiving new missile defense systems from Western allies such as the United States and Britain.

However, a rally attack in late February killed two people and wounded three others in the western Ukrainian city of Khmelnitsky.

Last month, Washington announced $2 billion in additional security assistance to Kiev, after agreeing in December to deliver the Patriot high-performance missile defense system.

AFP reporters recently saw Ukrainian troops on the outskirts of Kiev protecting it from drone attacks with pre-World War II machine guns.

This comes at a time when US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that the eastern Ukrainian city of Pakhmot is more symbolic than operational, and that any progress on it does not necessarily mean that Moscow has regained momentum in the year-long war.

"I think it has more symbolic value than strategic and operational value," Austin told reporters during a visit to Jordan on Monday, referring to the eastern Ukrainian city where fierce battles have taken place.

The US defense secretary added that he "will not predict whether or when Russian forces will occupy Pakhmot," but stressed that "the fall of Bachmot will not necessarily mean that the Russians have changed the course of this battle."

A Russian victory in Pakhmot, a pre-war population of about 70,<>, would give Moscow its first prize in a costly offensive after calling up hundreds of thousands of reservists last year.

Russia says the city will be a stepping stone to complete control of the Donbas industrial zone, one of its main goals.

But the head of Russia's Wagner Special Military Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, warned that Russia's situation around Bakhmot was "threatened" unless his forces received ammunition, in the latest sign of tension between the Kremlin and the leader of the Special Group.

Prigozhin said Russian frontlines near Bakhmot "could collapse" if his forces did not receive the ammunition Moscow pledged in February, and said on his Telegram channel on Sunday: "We are trying to figure out why at the moment: is it just a normal bureaucracy or treason."

In a nearly four-minute video on Telegram's Wagner Orchestra on Saturday, Prigozhin said his forces feared the government wanted to make them a potential scapegoat if Russia lost the war.