Ukrainian forces continue to defend against Russian attacks in the battered city of Bakhmut according to Ukraine’s General staff. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russian troops will have an “open road” to capture other key cities in eastern Ukraine if Russian troops seized control of Bakhmut. The Ukrainian president defends his decision to keep Ukrainian forces in the city and, in his nightly address, he announced the death of Dmytro Kotsiubaylo, a celebrated Ukrainian fighter who was killed in Bakhmut. On March 7, 2023, nearly 4,000 people remained inside Bakhmut according to the country’s vice prime minister- Iryna Vereshchuk. She says Ukrainian workers were still working to evacuate the remainder of the population, but with their current situation, it makes their jobs even more difficult.
While most attention has been focused on the battle for Bakhmut, fierce battles continue a short distance to the north in the Luhansk region, according to Ukrainian officials. The Ukrainian military said Russian officials also continue to focus their offensive on four other Ukrainian cities: Kupiansk, Lyman, Avdiivka, and Shakhtarsk. While in battle, the Ukrainian army identified a soldier seen being executed in a video that began circulating on March 6: Tymofii Mykolayovych Shadura. US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the department is aware of the “gruesome video” of the execution. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the disturbing video of the unarmed Ukrainian soldier being executed in the forest shows the Russians attitude toward prisoners of war.
The Russians “don’t have any laws of war or international law or any conventions,” Zelensky told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in an interview on March 7. The video shows the difference between the two sides, the president says; “For us, it’s war for our freedom, for democracy, for our values. For them it’s terrorism- that’s the attitude. And they posted this video,” he said. “They just killed a guy who refused to surrender, and [the soldier] said ‘Glory to Ukraine” -that’s what you got. This is the face of war. This is the face of the Russian Federation,” Zelensky added. The video of the execution of the untamed Ukrainian soldier, who was allegedly in Russian captivity, spokesperson Ned Price says on March 7: “The harrowing imagery of this unarmed Ukrainian being executed after making a single statement of ‘Glory to Ukraine’ it’s just breathtaking in terms of its barbarity,” Price said during a State Department briefing. “Russia, we believe, should be ashamed of itself,” he continued, “it is flouting the basic rules of war, basic humanity, basic decency… when its forces take part in atrocities like this.”