Ukrainian soldiers in Bakhmut, urgent evacuation from Donbass

Ukrainian soldiers in Bakhmut, urgent evacuation from
Donbass.

The 356th day of the war in Ukraine has passed. Basic information:

The Russian Foreign Ministry called Moldova's statement that Russia is trying to destabilize the situation in this country "baseless and unsubstantiated."
Lieutenant General Oleksandr Pavlyuk was appointed first deputy to Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, who led the defense of Kiev at the beginning of the war. In addition to Reznikov Pavlyuk, former ambassador of Ukraine to Canada Andriy Shevchenko and the founder of charity organization "Vernis zhivym" Vitaly Deynega were also nominated for his deputy.
The situation in Bakhmut
According to the reports of Western military experts, the situation of the Ukrainian armed forces in Bakhmut (the city in the Donetsk region has been under heavy fighting for half a year) is getting worse. The National Security Council of the US presidential administration noted that the Russian military "has made incremental advances over the last 24-48 hours", but that the capture of Bekhmut will not be of strategic importance in the course of the war.

Experts of the American Institute for the Study of War, on the other hand, believe that the decision of the Ukrainian armed forces to defend the city until the end is strategically based, because the Kremlin is forced to spend a large amount of resources in the battles for this city. At the same time, American defense planning experts note that Ukraine may not be able to launch a major counteroffensive in the spring due to the large deployment of forces for the defense of Bekhmut — analysts believe that the Ukrainian command should now focus primarily on the spring campaign.

On February 14, the founder of "Wagner" Yevgeny Prigozhin called the battles for Bakhmut "tough" and equated it with "scratching". Earlier, Prigozhin said that the capture of the city would allow the Russian troops to "move under more favorable conditions". The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation did not mention Bakhmut in its latest press release.
Volodymyr Zelenskyi said Ukrainians would defend Bakhmut for as long as necessary and ordered Ukrainian armed forces to hold the city until new Western military equipment arrived.
Evacuation against the backdrop of Russia's advance in the Donetsk region
Volunteers helping an elderly woman during evacuation from Chasiv Yard. One of the supply routes to Bakhmut, 20 kilometers to the east, passes through Chasiv Yar. Because of this, the city has recently been shelled by Russian troops
Red Cross volunteers send one of the residents of Sloviansk by ambulance to the MSF (Doctors Without Borders) medical train, which evacuates people on the front lines to relatively safe areas. Sloviansk is located about 50 kilometers northwest of Bakhmut, where Russian troops are currently attacking.
Representatives of the Chasiv Yar population are carrying rabbit cages and other items on a sledge
MSF medical train workers help an elderly man living in Pokrovsk. The settlement is about 70 kilometers from the occupied city of Donetsk and is under attack by Russian forces.