Bakhmut situation remains 'tough' as brutal battle continues on Monday

Fierce fighting was on in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine on Monday. Ukrainian forces are reportedly facing relentless Russian attacks on Bakhmut, with both sides reporting mounting enemy casualties. The situation in Bakhmut was difficult, the commander of Ukrainian ground forces said. He added that his forces were repelling all Russian attempts to capture it.

"All enemy attempts to capture the town are repelled by artillery, tanks, and other firepower," Colonel general Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Telegram.

The battle for Bakhmut is raging across a small river bisecting the ruined town and which now marks the front line. Ukrainian forces are in control of the west of Bakhmut, while Russia's Wagner mercenary group controls most of the eastern part, according to an update by British intelligence.

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Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin described the situation in Bakhmut as "tough, very tough".

"The closer we are to the centre of the city, the harder the fighting ... The Ukrainians throw in endless reserves. But we are advancing and we will be advancing," Prigozhin said.

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Prigozhin also updated about the arms it had received from the Russian army members. "Yesterday, we got 15 truckloads, today we got 12. And I think we will continue to receive them," he said. Prigozhin also clarified that there was no conflict between his fighters and Russian troops. Earlier reports suggested that Prigozhin was unhappy with Russia's top brass for "deliberately" not giving ammunition to his men.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky also gave an update about the battle ofBakhmutin his Sunday night address. He said that his forces had killed more than 1,100 Russian soldiers in the past few days.

"In less than a week, starting from the 6th March, we managed to kill more than 1,100 enemy soldiers in the Bakhmut sector alone, Russia's irreversible loss," Zelensky said in his nightly video address.

Zelensky informed that the Russian forces sustained 1,500 "sanitary losses", which means soldiers who were wounded badly enough to remain out of action. On the other hand, Russia's defence ministry said that its forces had killed more than 220 Ukrainian service members in the last 24 hours in the Donetsk region.

(With inputs from agencies)

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