Russian offensive weakens as Wagner advances in Bakhmut.

As Russian offensive power seemed to peter out across Ukraine’s eastern front, mercenary forces from Russia’s Wagner Group doubled down on attacks against the Ukrainian defenders of Bakhmut city in the Donetsk region during the 55th week of the war. Ukrainian Colonel Oleksiy Dmytrashkivskyi said Russian ground attacks had decreased over the past week across the front from a high of up to 100 per day to below 30 per day, while there were between two and nine attacks at night. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington, DC-based think tank, believed Russia’s offensive in the Luhansk region, which neighbours Donetsk, was petering out.