Biden Says F-16s Could Make a Big Difference in Ukraine’s Defense Strategy

Biden said that Russia suffered more than 100,000 victims in Bakhmut, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky compared the destruction in Bakhmut to the nuclear attack launched by the United States on Japanese Hiroshima in World War II..

Zelensky, who held a private meeting with Biden at the G7 summit in Hiroshima on Sunday, said he was certain that Kiev would obtain F-16 fighter jets from the West after months of pressure to obtain them, noting that “the Russian Federation did not control Bakhmut to this day“.

“I will say it frankly: the images of destruction in Hiroshima remind me of Bakhmut and other similar settlements. Nothing was left alive, all the buildings collapsed,” he added.“.

“The world knows our position. Security and defense guarantees, the return of all our lands and all our people, justice and the implementation of our peace plan,” Zelensky said in his televised Sunday night speech on board a plane.“.

Ukrainian effort to surround Bakhmut

• Ukraine said that its forces are still advancing around the outskirts of Bakhmut, with the aim of encircling it, after Moscow congratulated its forces and the Wagner Special Military Group on capturing the city..
• A senior Ukrainian military commander said that his country’s forces control a “minimal” part of the city of Bakhmut, but it is a foothold that will be sufficient to enter the destroyed city when the situation changes..
• In a post on Telegram, Gen. Oleksandr Sersky said Ukrainian forces were advancing on the outskirts of Bakhmut and were close to a “tactical encirclement” of the city, which was once home to about 70,000 people..
• Sersky, the commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, added Sunday that he had visited some front-line sites near Bakhmut and thanked the forces defending the area..
• Hana Malyar, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, confirmed Sersky’s remarks, in which he indicated that Ukrainian forces were continuing their advance around the outskirts of the city.
• Maliar wrote on Telegram, “Our forces take control of the city by partially encircling it, which gives us the opportunity to destroy the enemy. Therefore, the enemy must defend itself in the part of the city that it controls.”“.
• Malyar added that the Ukrainian forces are still defending industrial facilities and infrastructure facilities in Bakhmut, in addition to a sector in the city, and claimed that her country’s forces controlled part of the high areas overlooking the city..
• A statement from the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said that the Russian offensive around Pakhmut has not subsided over the past 24 hours, including air strikes on the city and the village of Ivanevsky on its western side..
• Kiev says its goal in Bakhmut is to draw Russian forces from elsewhere on the front into the city to inflict heavy casualties there and weaken Moscow’s line of defense in other areas before launching a major planned counteroffensive..

Wagner leaves Bakhmut

• Later Sunday, Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said in an audio message on Telegram that his men had accomplished their mission and would leave the conflict zone within days..
• “Today, Wagner did not seize any lands. We have taken all the lands that we promised to seize to the last inch … We are currently handing over our positions to the (Russian) Ministry of Defense and on May 25 we will leave the conflict zone,” he added.“.

Military analysts say that Bakhmut has no significant strategic value, but Moscow has said that its capture will be a stepping stone towards incursion into the Donbass region, which it says it annexed from Ukraine..

Capturing Bakhmut would mark Moscow’s first major victory in the more than 10-month struggle to capture the city..