Russia cannot capture Bakhmut in the Donetsk region or facilities in the Zaporizhzhia region.

The Russian occupying forces cannot complete the operation to capture the city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, said Serhiy Cherevaty, the spokesman for the Eastern Group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

A similar statement was made by British intelligence regarding the Zaporizhzhia region. They noted that by declaring Melitopol as the capital of the occupied part of Zaporizhzhia, the Russian Federation recognized its inability to implement its plans. They recalled that on March 3, 2023, the “authorities” of the temporarily Russian-controlled part of the Zaporizhzhia region published a decree declaring the temporarily occupied Melitopol as the regional center.

“The declaration of an alternative “capital” is probably a tacit recognition by the Russian system that its troops are unlikely to capture the previously planned main objects anytime soon,” analysts believe.