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Ukrainian counterattacks have ousted Russian forces from some positions in the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut, but the situation remains “difficult”, a top Ukrainian general said in comments released Monday.
During the past few months the battle for Bakhmut has become the fulcrum of a conflict that has seen little shift in front lines since late last year, leaving both sides looking for a breakthrough.
“The situation is quite difficult,” said Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of ground forces, in a statement on Telegram.
“At the same time, in certain parts of the city, the enemy was counter-attacked by our units and left some positions.”
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[ Wagner fighters have captured two more parts of Bakhmut, says Russia ]
Gen Syrskyi made the remarks while visiting front-line troops on Sunday, the military said.
He said new Russian units, including paratroopers and fighters from the Wagner mercenary group, were being “constantly thrown into battle” despite taking heavy losses.
“But the enemy is unable to take control of the city,” Gen Syrskyi said.
Russian forces have steadily made incremental gains in Bakhmut, but a Ukrainian military spokesman said on Sunday it was still possible to supply the defenders with food, ammunition and medicine.
Ukraine said on Monday its forces had repelled more than 36 enemy attacks on the part of the eastern frontline that stretches from Bakhmut to Maryinka, just west of Donetsk.
Kyiv is preparing to mount a widely expected counteroffensive to retake swathes of territory in the east and south that was occupied by Russian forces following the invasion, which Moscow calls a “special military operation”, 15 months ago.
Meanwhile, Russian missiles have struck warehouses reportedly storing ammunition at a railway depot in the Ukrainian city of Pavlohrad, in an apparent effort to slow Kyiv’s preparations for its much-anticipated counteroffensive expected to start shortly.
Video posted on social media showed secondary detonations amid a significant blaze at the site of the strike, which came amid overnight missile launches against a number of Ukrainian cities by Russian strategic bombers.
Pavlohrad was struck twice during the night. Among the buildings damaged or destroyed were an industrial zone, 19 apartment buildings and 25 homes, said Mykola Lukashuk, the head of the Dnipro region council.
“There were also fires. Emergency services are at work,” Mr Lukashuk said.
Vladimir Rogov, an official in the Russian-backed administration of the Zaporizhzhia region, posted late on Sunday what he said were pictures and videos of fires in Pavlohrad and said that Russian forces struck at military targets there.
Russia says some recent strikes are designed to hamper Kyiv’s plans for a long-planned counteroffensive in the east.
Related: When Russia targets ordinary homes: the attacks that mean no one is safe in Ukraine
The size of the fire in Pavlohrad suggests Russia may have hit an important arms depot and comes after Ukraine’s recent attack on an oil storage facility in Sevastopol, Crimea.
The Ukrainian military reported that air defence crews had destroyed 15 out of 18 missiles launched by Russian forces in the early hours of Monday morning with air raids sirens and air defence batteries audible in Kyiv and across the country.
“Around 2.30am (11.30 GMT), the Russian invaders attacked Ukraine from strategic aviation planes,” a post on the Telegram channel of Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, read.
Mr Zaluzhnyi’s said the statement the missile launches involved nine Tu-95 aircraft and two Tu-160 aircraft which were detected airborne before the attack. Kyiv’s city officials wrote on the Telegram messaging app that all missiles directed at the capital were destroyed.
“According to (preliminary information), no casualties among the civilian population and no destruction of residential facilities or infrastructure have been recorded,” the city administration said.
Air defence systems were also called into action to shield the Kyiv region, which is a separate administrative entity from the city, from Russian missiles, officials said. Ukrainian media also reported blasts in the Dnipropetrovsk and Sumy regions.
The latest wave of attacks, comes as Moscow appears to be stepping up its missile strikes on Ukrainian cities before a much-anticipated Ukrainian counter-offensive, which senior Ukrainian officials have suggested may be imminent.
“If in a global sense, in a high-percentage mode, we are ready, then the question is for the General Staff, for the command,” Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, said during a press conference in Kyiv on Friday.
“As soon as there is God’s will, the weather, and the decision of the commanders – we will do it.”
On Friday, 25 people died in Russian missile strikes, including 23 in an apartment block in the city of Uman.
Almost all of the 23 victims of the attack died when two missiles slammed into an apartment building in Uman. Ukrainian interior minister Ihor Klymenko said six children were among the dead.
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