February 13, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

Ukraine on Monday disputed Russia's claim that it had captured the village of Krasna Hora near Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.

The claim that Russians have taken Krasna Hora "is not true," Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesperson for the Eastern Grouping of the Ukrainian Armed Forces told CNN. "There are ongoing battles there. We are keeping it under our control."

Cherevatyi added that Bakhmut remains the focus of Russia's main attacks. 

"The enemy made 85 attacks in the Bakhmut sector. There were 33 combat engagements. In the area of the city of Bakhmut, there were 25 attacks and 19 combat engagements," Cherevatyi told CNN.

Cherevatyi said Russian forces have the ability to fire on the routes to Bakhmut, adding that "we are engaged in counter-battery fighting to reduce it."

"We have the ability to supply weapons, food, equipment, medicines and to evacuate the wounded from there," he said. 

The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine said in a Telegram post on Monday that "the battle for Bakhmut continues."

What Russia is saying: The Russian Defense Ministry on Monday echoed claims by the Russian private military group Wagner that Krasna Hora has been captured.

“In the Donetsk direction, the volunteers of the assault detachments, with fire support from the rocket troops and artillery of the Southern group of troops, liberated the settlement of Krasna Hora in the Donetsk People's Republic," the statement from the daily briefing of the ministry said.

Moscow's claims come as Russian forces continue to attempt to encircle the city. Krasna Hora lies on the main north-south road leading to Bakhmut. It sits just below Soledar, the town that Russian forces captured last month.

Russia's Human Rights Ombudsman Tatyana Moskalkova on Monday asked the Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov to investigate the information that mobilized men from Tatarstan were allegedly sent to fight in Ukraine "practically without weapons."

This follows a video published on social networks in which about two dozen men in camouflage uniforms say that upon arrival to Ukraine, they were divided into different units, transferred to the command of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and sent on a mission without any equipment or support.

Moskalkova said in a statement on Monday, “I sent an appeal to the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, General of the Army Valery Gerasimov, with a request to investigate the information that appeared on the network that soldiers mobilized from the Republic of Tatarstan were sent to perform combat missions as part of a special military operation with virtually no weapons."

The Russian Human Rights Council — serving under Russian President Vladimir Putin — also reported that they will look into another case regarding mobilized men from Smolensk, who turned to the council with a complaint about the actions of the military command.

“I received such an appeal, and I managed to give it a go through the HRC channels: an inspection has been scheduled. Therefore, if any of you are faced with similar issues, reach out. At least we will help someone,” said Eva Merkacheva, a member of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights.

According to Merkacheva, the mobilized soldiers from Smolensk were immediately sent to the front lines, where they stayed for three months. Following that, they were briefly sent to the rear and returned back to the front lines. They were not allowed "neither physically nor mentally to rest."

The Human Rights Council said in a statement that they "will monitor this egregious situation with the mobilized."

What former Wagner fighters saying: Two former fighters of the Russian private military company Wagner have told CNN of their horrific experiences on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine, and how anyone who faltered was immediately shot by their own commanders.

The two fighters were captured by Ukrainian forces late last year. CNN is not disclosing their identities for their own safety. Both are married with children and were recruited while in prison. One was serving a 20-year sentence for manslaughter.

CNN's Tim Lister and Frederik Pleitgen contributed reporting to this post.

The scenes are chaotic: Russian tanks veering wildly before exploding or driving straight into minefields, men running in every direction, some on fire, the bodies of soldiers caught in tank tracks.

Russian military bloggers are calling it a fiasco, and worse.

These scenes have been recorded by Ukrainian military drones over the past two weeks around the town of Vuhledar in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, where successive Russian assaults have failed.

The Vuhledar debacle suggests chronic failures in the command and tactics of the Russians as they gear up for a spring offensive. If replicated elsewhere on the long military front in Donetsk and Luhansk, such failings could jeopardize the Kremlin’s plans to seize more territory.

About 20 videos geolocated by CNN show basic tactical blunders in an area that’s open and flat, where Ukrainian spotters on higher ground can direct artillery strikes and where minefields are worsening Russian casualties.

One video shows a tank running into a minefield and exploding, followed almost obliviously by an infantry fighting vehicle that suffers the same fate. Others show Ukrainian drones dropping small explosive charges on static tanks in open country – and a graveyard of abandoned armor.

At least two dozen Russian tanks and infantry vehicles have been disabled or destroyed in a matter of days, according to the videos, which were released by the Ukrainian military and analyzed by CNN and military experts. Satellite images show intensive patterns of impacts along tree lines where Russian tanks tried to advance.

The Russian Defense Ministry has insisted the assault on Vuhledar, where the 155th Marine Brigade is prominently involved, is going according to plan. In remarks recorded for a Sunday television show, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the “marine infantry is working as it should. Right now. Fighting heroically.”

But the leader of the self-declared, Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Denis Pushilin, acknowledged Friday that the area was “hot” and said, “the enemy continues to transfer reserves in large quantities, and this slowed down the liberation of this settlement.”

Read more here.

The Russian Defense Ministry on Monday echoed claims by the Russian private military group Wagner that the village of Krasna Hora near Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine has been captured.

“In the Donetsk direction, the volunteers of the assault detachments, with fire support from the rocket troops and artillery of the Southern group of troops, liberated the settlement of Krasna Hora in the Donetsk People's Republic," the statement from the daily briefing of the ministry said.

Earlier, Wagner had claimed to have captured the small village that lies just north of the Bakhmut, as the battle for control of the Donetsk region intensifies.  

More background: Moscow's claims come as Russian forces continue to attempt to encircle the city. Krasna Hora lies on the main north-south road leading to Bakhmut. It sits just below Soledar, the town that Russian forces captured last month.

Ukrainian troops have in recent weeks reported heavy fighting around Krasna Hora. Russian forces appeared to have originally bypassed the village, initially pushing further west toward the M-03 road that leads from Bakhmut to the strategically important city of Sloviansk.

A post on the Wagner Telegram channel showed fighters standing in front of a Krasna Hora sign. CNN has geolocated the sign to a southwestern entrance to the village, in the direction of Bakhmut.

Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed the capture of Krasna Hora in a statement on Telegram, and repeated his claim that Wagner was leading the charge in the battle for Bakhmut.

Germany has started to train Ukrainian soldiers on its Leopard 2 tanks, a government spokesperson told journalists on Monday.

The training is taking place in the city of Munster in west Germany, and is scheduled to finish by the end of March when Germany is expected to deliver the tanks to Ukraine, according to the spokesperson.

Remember: The leaders of Germany and the US announced last month that they would send contingents of tanks to Ukraine, reversing their longstanding trepidation at providing Kyiv with offensive armored vehicles and unleashing powerful new tools in Ukraine’s efforts to retake territory seized by Russia.

Russian artillery has blocked the main southern supply route close to the village of Chasiv Yar, which overlooks the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut and remains in Ukrainian hands, according to numerous military sources on the ground and CNN’s own observations.

Wagner, the Russian private military company, on Sunday claimed to have captured Krasna Hora, a small village just north of Bakhmut. Russian artillery can now hit vehicles traveling on the main road to the city.

This leaves Ukrainian forces fighting street to street combat inside the town of Bakhmut, with the prospect of using complicated resupply routes on back roads.

The Ukrainian battle there is now also tougher because the Ukrainian artillery and tanks could not be used in the town, according to Ukrainian military sources and soldiers involved in the fight.

The war in Ukraine is depleting allies' ammunition stockpiles and the meeting of defense ministers on Tuesday will focus on ways to increase stockpiles and defense industrial capacities, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday.

“For example, the wait for large caliber ammunition has increased from 12 to 28 months. Orders placed today will only be delivered two and half years later,” he said during a press conference in Brussels, adding that the depleted stockpile puts defense ministries under strain. “We need to ramp up our production and production capacity.”

Concerns around depleting stockpiles did not appear to sideline NATO's commitment to support Ukraine as Stoltenberg highlighted the need to send Kyiv more weapons.

“The reality is we are seeing the start” of new Russian offensive already, Stoltenberg told journalists. “It’s urgent to provide Ukraine with more weapons."

Russia continued a high pace of attacks in Ukraine’s Luhansk region ahead of what the Ukrainian leader of that region said is a prelude to “massive attacks.”

He said that he believed that Russia was preparing for a “full-scale offensive,” pointing to increased shelling and air strikes. “They have a lot of reserves in personnel and a lot of equipment,” he said. “So we are waiting for them to launch round-the-clock massive attacks in the coming days.”

Allies will “step up and sustain” support for Ukraine, NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday.

“Almost one year of the invasion, President Putin is not preparing for peace. He is launching new offensives,” Stoltenberg said at a press conference.

His comments come ahead of a meeting of NATO ministers of defense on February 14.