Weeks of a brutal and deadly assault.
The Russian mercenary group
Wagner claims
it has captured
the eastern Ukrainian city
of Bakambu
to Wagner posted a video of its soldiers
holding up the Russian flag and claiming
that they
had captured the town
after 224 days of brutal fighting.
Now, the leaders of Ukraine deny this.
They say
Ukrainian forces are still in control
of buildings flanking back.
CNN's Nic
Robertson is in eastern Ukraine for us.
And Nick, you're near the front lines.
Is this a potential defeat problem attic
for Ukraine in the long run?
Yes, it is.
It's a morale issue.
It's a moral issue for them
and for the Russians.
The Russians gained something.
This is a tough war for the Ukrainians.
They've lost this.
It makes many soldiers question
their political leaders
that they made the right decision,
lose so many soldiers.
The kind of narrative is
sucked up
and and killed a lot of Russian troops.
But if Russia pushes through back
mud and comes over the hill
and through the countryside beyond,
it moves on to the next towns.
And there's no doubting that
that's their target
as we were along the front lines
that are very, very close to back mud.
And you get the real sense
from soldiers there that this war just is
giving them a kick in
barely out of the armored troop carrier,
incoming artillery
but I'm up.
We're just going to wait
in this little basement
until the shelling is over.
Then they think it will be safe
to move forward from positions
a few minutes later.
Safe to come out at this army
outpost a few miles from back.
Last night was hard.
A lot of shelling
for both of them
in the city of Choice of callsign.
Gambit tells us
the soldier is still shell shocked
from an anti-tank rocket attack.
We're going to get back in the vehicle,
try to get a little closer
to the front lines.
Ten days ago,
these troops pushed the Russians back
around, back mud.
But their advance is slowing
and harder as
we get to a small HQ.
Callsign Fox, a former farmer,
is readying his troops
for that coming shift
on the front line,
stopping the Russians in back
much from advancing.
How hard is that?
It's only very large.
It's impossible
to describe these feelings he says.
You can only experience it.
No words can express it.
They shell a lot of it as we talk.
It is clear this war is taking its toll.
You only have to look at the soldiers
faces here
to know how tough this battle is.
They all look worn.
They say morale is high,
but their faces
are telling a different story.
We move on towards other positions
and stop as the shelling increases.
We've just been told
the place that we were going to
is under heavy shelling.
So we're going to pull back from here.
You might go somewhere else
in the battalion bunker.
The commander tells us
the Russians have ramped up
their shelling on his troops.
Since they advanced.
We'll look at CU,
tons of ammo,
shrapnel tanks, firing everything
from his unit's
drones recorded their recent successes.
But now the Russians have regrouped.
And in a moment of candor,
following losses
the previous night
admits morale is flagging.
So let's be honest,
he says we are fighting heavily
for more than a year.
My soldiers went through many battles
and two rotations near back.
Much more troops are exhausted,
but we endure back, which is just over
the hill in
that direction
has become an object lesson
in how Russia's
wealth and men and ammunition can prevail
and that unless Ukraine gets the modern
weaponry support from its allies,
it's going to struggle
to tip the balance.
The president's
callsign, Fox and his unit, load up
for their hard miles at the front
and end of war.
Getting back to their families,
what drives them into the shelling
and in another bizarre development,
some separatist
Russian forces
who are allied with Ukraine
have crossed the border
and actually invaded Russia
Yeah, look
what the troops are doing in
and around back
in another places along
the front line
is to try to find a weakness
in the Russian lines
to force the Russians
to pull more resources, more troops
in from one area to another.
And that's happened around back month.
And I think what we're
witnessing at the border
that I mean, how bizarre
that Ukrainian essentially Ukrainian
allied forces
can drive across the border into Russia.
Russia is at war with Ukraine. Okay.
They call it
a special military operation.
But how can the border be so weak?
A handful of Ukrainian armored
vehicles can drive
across the border,
create havoc
in a town, cause injuries
apparently take prisoners,
put the governor there
or the local mayor,
at least on the back
foot, under assault from citizens
who are saying
you're not doing enough to protect us.
What is it actually designed to do
It appears as if the Ukrainians
are trying
to force
the Russians
to redeploy troops
out of the fight
in Ukraine
to get along the border
and defend these many,
many hundreds of small border crossings
that apparently they're not defending.
I think that's Ukraine's ploy right now
because it wants to create weaknesses
so it can get through with
a big counter offensive.
And this is one way to try to do it.
Nic Robertson, please stay safe
in eastern Ukraine. Appreciate it.