Russia is ‘slowly’ gaining the upper hand against Ukrainian troops in its desperate, months-long campaign to seize the eastern town of Bakhmut.
The head of the notorious Wagner group of mercenary invaders said they were ‘fighting fierce battles for every street, every house, every stairwell’.
Rejecting Russian media reports that Ukrainian troops had abandoned the town, Yevgeny Prigozhin added his militia were meeting fierce resistance.
‘Ukrainian forces are not retreating anywhere. They are fighting to the last,’ he said on his Telegram channel.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged ‘the situation is getting tougher’ around the town, adding: ‘Nobody will give away Bakhmut. We will fight for as long as we can. We consider Bakhmut our fortress.’
The UK’s Ministry of Defence said Russia had made some ‘small advances’ in its attempts to encircle the Donbas town, where Ukrainian troops were becoming isolated.
If Russian forces manage to capture Bakhmut, which has been decimated by months of artillery shelling, it would be their most important strategic advance since last summer.
Meanwhile, Moscow has fired more missiles at eastern Ukraine.
In Kharkiv, five people were wounded when several buildings were struck, the head of the regional administration Oleg Sinegubov said.
Five others were injured by rocket attacks in the Donetsk region, after four were killed there a day earlier.
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