KYIV (Reuters) -- Russian forces are pressing attacks in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, focusing on two cities and pounding Ukrainian positions with airstrikes and artillery barrages, Kyiv said on Monday.
The commander of Ukraine’s ground forces said the Russians were destroying buildings and positions in besieged Bakhmut in what he called “scorched earth” tactics.
Russia’s assault on Bakhmut, a small city in Donetsk at the edge of a chunk of Russian-controlled territory, has for months been the focus of the biggest battle of the war, now in its second year.
Ukraine’s Armed Forces General Staff said on Sunday fighting was heaviest along the western approaches to Bakhmut. The Russians were also targeting the city of Avdiivka, it said.
On Monday, ground forces commander Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi said the defense of Bakhmut continued.
“The situation is difficult but controllable,” he said in comments quoted by Ukraine’s Media Military Centre.
Moscow is sending in special forces and airborne assault units to help their attack as members of Russia’s private mercenary Wagner group are now exhausted, Syrskyi said. Wagner mercenaries have spearheaded the Russian assault on Bakhmut which has left it largely in ruins.
Ukraine’s general staff said Russian forces had made unsuccessful advances on areas west of Bakhmut and at least 10 towns and villages had come under Russian shelling. The Russians had also made no headway in attacks on Avdiivka, it said.
Donetsk is one of four provinces in eastern and southern Ukraine that Russia declared annexed last year and is seeking to fully occupy in what appears to be a shift in its war aims after failing to overrun the country soon after the war began in February 2022.
Western analysts say both sides have been losing large numbers of troops in the battle for Bakhmut, a regional transport and logistics hub prior to the war.
Control of Bakhmut could allow Russia to directly target Ukrainian defensive lines in Chasiv Yar in the east and open the way for its forces to advance on two bigger cities in the Donetsk region - Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
While Ukraine has said it wants to inflict as many casualties as possible on the Russian forces as its prepares its own counteroffensive, President Volodymyr Zelensky last week acknowledged that if troops risked being encircled they could be pulled back.
Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said Russian forces controlled the center of Bakhmut, with much of their assault now focusing on the railway station.