KYIV—Russian forces on Tuesday pressed forward their weeks-long drive to encircle and capture the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut where the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces described the situation as “extremely tense.”
Capturing Bakhmut, scene of some of the war’s bloodiest battles, would open the way for Russia for taking the last remaining urban centers in the Donetsk region, one of four Moscow claims to have annexed in its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the FSB security service on Tuesday to bolster security in the four regions— and also to counter what he described as growing espionage and sabotage operations against Russia by Ukraine and the West….