Ukraine's crucial spring counteroffensive

1 big thing

Axios

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4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 April 2023

⏱️ 11 minutes

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Summary

Russia and Ukraine have been fighting for months now to control Bakhmut, a city in eastern Ukraine. But the battle has turned into the bloodiest fight of the war so far. It comes as Ukraine prepares to launch an important spring counteroffensive. Plus, the safety issues at dollar stores. And - what about using potatoes in place of Easter eggs this year? Guests: Axios' Dave Lawler, Nathan Bomey and Kelly Tyko. Credits: Axios Today is produced by Niala Boodhoo, Lydia McMullen-Laird, Fonda Mwangi and Alex Sugiura. Music is composed by Evan Viola. You can reach us at [email protected]. You can text questions, comments and story ideas to Niala as a text or voice memo to 202-918-4893. Go Deeper: What Putin's partners gain from standing with Russia over Ukraine Dollar General and Dollar Tree keep prices low, but critics say worker safety neglected Potatoes sprout as cheaper Easter egg substitute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Good morning. Welcome, Naxios, today. It's Thursday, April 6. I'm Nailibutu. Today, the safety
0:10.4	issues at dollar stores. And what about potatoes in place of Easter eggs this year? But first,
0:17.6	the crucial spring counteroffensive by Ukraine. That's our one big thing.
0:25.7	Russia and Ukraine have been fighting for months now to control Bach mood,
0:29.3	a city in eastern Ukraine. And the battle has turned into the bloodiest fight of the war so far.
0:34.6	An estimated 20,000 to 30,000 Russian soldiers and countless Ukrainians have died since fighting
0:41.6	in and around Bach mood begin last May. And that's all before a much anticipated spring counteroffensive.
0:48.2	We're expecting Ukraine to launch. Axios' senior world reporter Dave Lawler joins us to catch us up.
0:53.8	Hi, Dave. Hi, Nailibutu. Let's zoom in on Bach mood. Can you explain what's happening on the
0:58.9	ground right now in eastern Ukraine? So earlier this week, we had a claim from the Wagner group,
1:05.2	which is this group of Russian mercenaries that is quite heavily involved in the fight for Bach
1:10.1	mood that they had taken the center of the city, the administrative center. And so they said they
1:15.3	now legally controlled the city of Bach mood. The Ukrainians denied that. There is really no access
1:21.8	on the ground for journalists at the moment. So it's difficult to very accurately gauge who holds
1:27.5	what, but certainly they're still fighting around Bach mood. This is not over. The White House has
1:33.0	been trying to sort of lay the groundwork for a while for the idea that Bach mood might fall and
1:37.3	it would be no huge catastrophe. This is not a major population center. It's not hugely strategic
1:43.9	in terms of location, but now that the fighting, as you said, has turned into the bloodiest of the war.
1:48.9	It's hugely symbolic. And the Ukrainian rationale for continuing to fight for
1:54.2	Bach mood is twofold. One is that they say that yes, they're taking heavy losses, but the Russians
1:59.0	are taking even heavier losses so that this is falling more hard on the Russian side. And the other
2:05.2	is that if Bach mood falls, Russia will then be able to try to push on to other towns in the area
	...

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