‘Hundreds of troops killed in battle for Bakhmut city

Ukraine and Russia have claimed that hundreds of enemy troops were killed over the previous 24 hours in the fight for Bakhmut, with Kyiv fending off unabating attacks and a small river that bisects the city now marking the new front line.

Serhiy Cherevatyi, a Ukrainian military spokesperson, said that 221 pro-Moscow troops were killed and more than 300 wounded in Bakhmut. Russia’s defence ministry said that up to 210 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the broader Donetsk part of the frontline.

While Moscow did not specify Bakhmut casualties, the eastern Donetsk town, now nearly deserted, has been the site of one of the bloodiest and longest battles of the year-long war.

Both sides have admitted to suffering and inflicting significant losses in Bakhmut, while the exact number of casualties is difficult to independently verify. British military intelligence said on Saturday that Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has taken control of most of the eastern part of Bakhmut – an advance that the group’s founder Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed on Wednesday.

“In the city centre, the Bakhmutka River now marks the front line,” the British defence ministry said in its daily intelligence bulletin.

Ukraine insisted that it was holding on in Bakhmut and was giving a “decent rebuff” to Russian forces, with the commander in charge of defending Bakhmut saying its protection was key for a Ukrainian counter-strike. “It is necessary to gain time to accumulate reserves and start a counter-offensive, which is not far off,” the military cited Colonel general Oleksandr Syrskyi as saying.

Moscow says capturing Bakhmut would punch a hole in Ukrainian defences and be a step towards seizing all of the Donbas industrial region.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russian attacks over the previous day killed at least five people and wounded another seven across Ukraine’s Donetsk and Kherson regions, Ukrainian authorities reported on Sunday.

Grain deal renewal talks

Russia’s foreign ministry said on Sunday that Russian representatives had not yet taken part in negotiations on extending the Black Sea grain deal.

“There have been no negotiations on this subject, especially with the participation of Russian representatives,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

The next round of talks on extending the deal will be held in Geneva on Monday.