Ukraine's top military leaders are determined to face down the Russian onslaught in Bakhmut, President Voldoymyr Zelenskyy said. He discussed Bakhmut with the military command, who told him they were unanimously in favour of defending the eastern sector that includes Bakhmut. "There was a clear position of the entire general staff: Reinforce this sector and inflict maximum possible damage upon the occupier," Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address. Bakhmut has been the site of months of intense fighting with Russia pushing to take control of the area in Ukraine's Donetsk province. Although it would provide a stepping stone for Russia to advance on two bigger Donetsk cities, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, many analysts have repeatedly said it has little strategic value. "I think it is more of a symbolic value than it is strategic and operational value," US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said earlier this month. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander in chief of Ukraine's armed forces, however, disagrees. "The defensive operation in (Bakhmut) is of paramount strategic importance to deterring the enemy. It is key for the stability of the defense of the entire front line," he said during the meeting with Zelenskyy. As fighting rages in Bakhmut, Ukraine has signaled it will undertake a counteroffensive. Many are pinning their hopes on new Western weaponry including German-made Leopard tanks. So will Ukraine break the stalemate and take back more territory?

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