Ukrainian forces have reported "unprecedented bloody battles" in Bakhmut, as Kyiv continues desperately to hold off Russian offensives in the embattled eastern city,
Euronews reports.
“Bloody battles unprecedented in recent decades are taking place in the middle of the city’s urban area,” said Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern military command.
“Our soldiers are doing everything in bloody and fierce battles to grind down [the enemy’s] combat capability and break its morale," he told Ukrainian media.
In the latest statement that openly acknowledged Wagner's key role in the fight near Bakhmut, Russia's Defence Ministry on Sunday announced that assault units from the mercenary group had captured two neighbourhoods in the city's suburbs - with the support of airborne units from the regular Russian army.
Bakhmut, a former mining hub now largely reduced to ruin, has been a key target of Russia's months-long grinding campaign in eastern Ukraine.
Capturing it would give Russian forces a long-awaited battlefield victory, and potentially pave the way for them to threaten major Ukrainian-held cities in the region, such as Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.
