As Russian forces bear down on Bakhmut, Ukraine admits situation there is ‘more and more difficult’

Officials in Kyiv conceded that the situation is rapidly deteriorating around Bakhmut, a besieged mining city in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine that Russian forces have been hell-bent on capturing for months.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday night that the situation in the Bakhmut area “is getting more and more difficult.”

“The enemy is constantly destroying everything that can be used to protect our positions, to gain a foothold and ensure defense,” he added.

Zelenskyy said those defending Bakhmut — a city that Ukraine has repeatedly described as a “our fortress” due to it being heavily fortified — and the surrounding area were “real heroes” and that Kyiv was trying to ensure its forces have as many weapons as possible there.

Russian forces and mercenary fighters belonging to the Wagner Group have been trying to capture Bakhmut for months, with the city and surrounding area becoming a scene of death and destruction. Despite the relentless fighting, several thousand civilians are estimated to remain in the city.

Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on Telegram Monday that “the situation at the front is difficult. The enemy army is increasing the intensity of its assaults. The most difficult situation remains in the Bakhmut direction.”

She said Russia was employing the tactics of “exhaustion and total destruction” but said that Russian forces were experiencing significant losses, losing between 600 to 1,000 people daily, she claimed. She added that Ukraine’s forces were conducting defensive operations in the face of the “numerical superiority of the enemy.”

Russia also claims to be killing hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers in Donetsk…