Russian sources reported the intensification of battles to control the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, confirming that it is now completely surrounded, while a senior NATO commander announced a huge death toll of the Russian army in the war.

The Russian "Rebar" website, which specializes in military news, said that the Russian forces continue to surround the city of Bakhmut, and that fierce battles are taking place north of the city.

The site added that the fighters of the "Wagner" military group, which is fighting alongside the Russian forces, took control of positions of the Ukrainian army near the town of "Khromova", on the last road leading to Bakhmut.

The "Rebar" website said that the Russian forces are advancing towards the south, and that fierce battles are taking place near the road linking "Bakhmut" and "Konstantinovka", in the southwestern region of the city.

There are only a few thousand left in the city of Bakhmut - which had a population of about 70,000 people before the war.

During the past days, Wagner announced that its fighters had taken control of several towns and neighborhoods in and around the city of Bakhmut, after months of battles.

Almost completely enclosed

The founder of the "Wagner" group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said that the city of Bakhmut had become almost completely surrounded, and demanded that the Ukrainian forces withdraw from it.

In the opposite camp, the commander of special operations of the Ukrainian armed forces, Viktor Khornenko, said that his country's forces in Bakhmut "are working in very difficult conditions, and are doing their best to stop the enemy's attacks."

Khorenko inspected his units participating in the fighting in the city, and pointed out from there the importance of communication and interaction between all units that make up the structure of the Special Forces of Ukraine.

For its part, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu inspected the "East" forces in the south of Donetsk axis, and stressed the importance of ensuring comprehensive support for the forces of this unit, and organizing the work of support units.

without indicating the timing of this visit.


Attempt to storm the presidential brigade

On the other hand, the Al-Jazeera correspondent stated that the Russian bombing targeted the city center of Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine.

On the other hand, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense stated that Russian forces tried to storm the positions of the separate presidential brigade named "Khmelnytsky" in the Avdiivka district of Donetsk province, prompting two army battalions and an artillery unit to deal with them.

The Ukrainian defense added that the affiliated forces were able to inflict heavy losses on the Russian forces, which consisted of 3 tanks and 5 troop carriers, and 6 soldiers of the attacking Russian forces were captured and their repeated attempts to advance were thwarted.

This ministry published a video showing the operation and the destruction of Russian vehicles and tanks and their remnants.

Huge tally

In a related context, the Commander-in-Chief of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Europe, Christopher Cavoli, said that the number of dead and wounded Russian forces has risen to more than 200,000 soldiers, and more than 1,800 officers, since the beginning of the war on Ukraine that began on February 24. 2022.

Cavoli indicated in an interview with the German newspaper "Der Spiegel" that the Russian army fires, on average, more than 23 thousand artillery shells per day.

For its part, the Ukrainian General Staff reported that the number of Russian forces killed in Ukraine has reached 252,000 fighters to date.

It is not possible to verify these numbers from an independent source, but Kiev and its Western allies usually announce periodically losses that they describe as large for the Russian army, while Moscow also provides almost daily statistics on the losses of the other side, and it also admits that there have been losses among its forces.

In the circumstances of the Ukraine war and the expansion of the confrontations, the accuracy of the statistics of both sides cannot be verified.