Relatives, friends and comrades attend the funeral ceremony for Oleg Yurchenko, Ukrainian officer killed in a battle against Russian troops near Bachmut in Donetsk, at Independence Square in Kyiv. Photo: MAXYM MARUSENKO
Russian troops have stepped up an assault on the town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine, as Ukrainian troops face waves of attacks, officials in Kyiv say.
Britain's defence ministry also said Russian and forces of Russia's Wagner contract group were probably now in control of most of the small salt mining town after advances in the last four days.
Soledar, in the industrial Donbas region, lies a few miles from Bakhmut, where troops from both sides have been taking heavy losses in some of the most intense trench warfare since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly 11 months ago.
"Russia's Soledar axis is highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt Ukrainian lines of communication," Britain said in an intelligence briefly.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address Bakhmut and Soledar were holding.
He cited new and fiercer attacks in Soledar, where he said no walls had been left standing and claimed the land was covered with Russian corpses.
"Thanks to the resilience of our soldiers in Soledar, we have won for Ukraine additional time and additional strength," Zelenskiy said. He did not spell out what he meant by gaining time or strength.
Russia's defence ministry did not mention either Soledar or Bakhmut in a media briefing.
Wagner was founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Drawing some recruits from Russia's prisons and known for uncompromising violence, it is active in conflicts in Africa and has taken a prominent role in Russia's war effort in Ukraine.
Wave of attacks
Prigozhin has been trying to capture Bakhmut and Soledar for months. He said its significance lay in a network of cavernous mining tunnels below the ground, which can hold troops or tanks.
Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said fighting in Bahkmut and Soledar was "the most intense on the entire frontline".
"So many remain on the battlefield ... either dead or wounded," he said on YouTube.
"They attack our positions in waves, but the wounded as a rule die where they lie, either from exposure as it is very cold or from blood loss. No one is coming to help them or to collect the dead from the battlefield."
Reuters could not immediately verify battlefield reports.
In an evacuee centre in nearby Kramatorsk, Olha, 60, said she had fled Soledar after moving from apartment to apartment as each was destroyed in tank battles.
"There isn't one house left intact. Apartments were burning, breaking in half," said Olha, who gave only her first name.
Appeal for weapons
Ukrainian officials, led by the commander in chief General Valery Zaluzhniy, have warned that Russia was preparing fresh troops for a new offensive on Ukraine, possibly on the capital Kyiv.
Ukrainian rescuers work on the site following a Russian missile strike on a local market in Shevchenkove village, Kharkiv region. Photo: SERGEY BOBOK
Zelenskiy also appears to be banking on securing more, sophisticated weapons from Ukraine's Western partners to beat off attacks and eventually expel Russian troops.
France, Germany and the United States all pledged last week to send armoured fighting vehicles, fulfilling a long-standing Ukrainian request. Britain is considering supplying Ukraine with tanks for the first time, Sky News reported, citing a Western source. Britain's Defence Ministry did not comment.
Tensions between US-led Nato and Russia increase
One of President Vladimir Putin's closest allies said today the West led by the US wanted to divide Russia into parts and ultimately wipe it from the political map of the world.
"The events in Ukraine are not a clash between Moscow and Kyiv - this is a military confrontation between Russia and Nato, and above all the United States and Britain," Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said.
"The Westerners' plans are to continue to pull Russia apart," Patrushev told the Argumenti i Fakti newspaper.
Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev (left) alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo: Sputnik via AFP
Patrushev, a former Soviet spy who has known Putin since the 1970s, is a hardline ally and seen as one of the few people able to influence the Russian president.
His comments came as a Russian warship armed with hypersonic cruise weapons held exercises in the Norwegian Sea.
"The crew of the frigate Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov conducted an air defense exercise in the Norwegian Sea," the Russia ministry said.
"The crew... conducted an exercise to repel the means of an air attack of a simulated enemy in the Norwegian Sea."
Last week, President Vladimir Putin sent the frigate to the Atlantic Ocean armed with new generation Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles, a signal to the West that Russia will not back down over the war in Ukraine.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev last week warned the US that the hypersonic missiles would soon be close to NATO's shores.
-Reuters