Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russian commanders of “craziness” in their efforts to capture the eastern town of Bakhmut.
The town – which sits in the Donetsk region and had a pre-war population of 70,000 – has been the centre of Russian attacks for months.
Despite a looming Ukrainian advance on the key city of Kherson, Mr Zelensky said the attacks continued in force.
“This is where the craziness of the Russian command is most evident,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly address from Kyiv. “Day after day, for months, they are driving people to their deaths there, concentrating the highest level of artillery strikes.”
Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Mr Zelensky, said that on one day, Russian forces launched eight separate attacks on Bakhmut before lunchtime and had been pushed back on each occasion.
The city sits on a main road leading to the Ukrainian-held cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. While Russia is struggling elsewhere in Ukraine, its forces have made progress around Bakhmut in recent weeks.
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Analysts say the city has little military value in itself, though if it were to fall, it would bring other cities back within range of Russian artillery and help change the narrative of a conflict in which Moscow’s forces have been gradually retreating.
Regular Russian troops in the region are reportedly being supported by Wagner paramilitary mercenaries. The group’s founder, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, is said to want to capture the town as a political prize.
On Sunday, the mercenary chief acknowledged the slow pace of the Russian advance on Bakhmut, saying troops were gaining only “100-200 metres a day”.
Despite the intense attacks, Mr Zelensky said Ukrainian forces were holding their ground and hailed his troops as “heroes”.
While Mr Zelensky did not offer a direct update on the advance, he said his troops were “strengthening our positions everywhere at the front, reducing the capabilities of the occupiers, destroying their logistics and preparing good news for Ukraine”.
But officials in Kyiv have warned that Russian forces are digging in around the city, while intercepted radio reports suggest that newly “mobilised” Russian recruits have been sent there to shore up defences.
Ukraine’s air force said more than 20 Iranian “kamikaze” drones were launched by Russian forces overnight, mainly targeting the southern regions of Mykolaiv and Odesa, and that 19 were destroyed. Local officials said Russian forces also targeted the Kyiv region and said initial reports indicated no-one was hurt.