(CNN) Russian forces were exhausted Bakhmut and a Ukrainian counter-offensive is about to be launched, one of Kyiv’s top generals said, raising the prospect of an unlikely return to the besieged city.
Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, said on his Telegram channel on Thursday that “[Russians] is losing significant force [in Bakhmut] and running out of energy.”
“As soon as possible, we will take advantage of this opportunity, as we did in the past near Kyiv, Kharkiv, Balakliya and Kupyansk,” he said.
His comments came days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a surprise trip to the front lines of the Donetsk region, and will raise hopes in the West that Kyiv’s controversial decision to keep the troops in Bakhmut will pay dividends.
Ukrainian servicemen were seen moving towards Bakhmut on Wednesday.
Russian troops have launched more than 200 strikes in the area in the past 24 hours alone but are losing hundreds of men each day in their efforts, a spokesman for the Eastern Grouping of the armed forces said on Thursday. CNN could not verify those numbers.
“In the direction of Bakhmut, there is only Wagner, when there is a lack of forces, they are reinforced by Russian airborne troops, sometimes by infantry,” said Serhii Cherevatyi. “We knocked them out. In fact, there will be no more Wagner fighters in a while if they continue the same dynamics.”
Cherevatyi said another area seeing heavy fire was northeast of Bakhmut, on the front line running north from the town of Kreminna. He claimed that Russia “conducts several hundred attacks per day, usually more than 300, sometimes more than 400. There were 344 attacks and 17 battles in the last day.”
A counteroffensive seemed an unlikely prospect for weeks, as troops from Russia’s Wagner mercenary group bombarded Bakhmut and moved closer to seizing control of the city.
But that effort has come at a huge cost in manpower and resources, and now appears to be slowing down.
Ukrainian troops fired a D-30 howitzer at Russian positions near Bakhmut, where heavy fighting had been going on for several weeks.
Syrskyi said Russian forces continue to try and take the city “at any cost, despite losses in both manpower and equipment.”
“Under constant fire from enemy artillery and aircraft, our soldiers at the front are showing superhuman resilience, courage and bravery,” he said. “In particular, the units of the 93rd, 10th, 57th and 5th Brigades are now defending our homeland in the east of the country.”
His optimism reflected an update Wednesday from the Ukrainian military’s General Staff, which said in a statement that while Bakhmut is still expected to see heavy fighting, Russia’s “offensive potential is decreasing” there.
“The enemy continues to try to take the city, losing a large amount of manpower, weapons and military equipment,” it said on Wednesday.
Western intelligence has a similar tone. “The tempo of Russian operations around Bakhmut appears to be slowing,” the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank wrote in its Wednesday update on the conflict.
But that shift could also signal a shift in Russia’s priorities. “There is a realistic possibility that the Russian attack on the town is losing the limited momentum it has gained, partly because some Russian MoD units have been transferred to other sectors,” the British Ministry of Defense said on Wednesday.
Zelensky presented awards to troops defending Bakhmut during a morale-boosting trip on Wednesday. “It is an honor for me to support our warriors who defend the country in the most difficult conditions on the frontline,” he said in his nightly speech.
The long resistance of Ukrainian troops may still justify his decision to ignore some Western calls to tactically withdraw from Bakhmut as the Russian offensive winds down.
“This is tactical for us,” Zelensky told CNN earlier this month, laying out his decision-making and insisting that Kyiv’s military brass is united in extending its defense of the city.
“We understand that after Bakhmut they can go further. They can go to Kramatorsk, they can go to Sloviansk, it will be an open road for the Russians after Bakhmut to other towns in Ukraine, in the direction of Donetsk ,” he says.
CNN’s Tim Lister and Victoria Butenko contributed reporting.