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Russian tactics on eastern front 'crazy', says President Zelensky
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russian commanders of "craziness" in their efforts to capture the eastern town of Bakhmut.
"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."
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.
Taking the town would be a symbolic victory for Russia.
Oleksiy Arestovych, an advisor to Mr Zelensky, said on one day Russian forces launched eight separate attacks on Bakhmut before lunchtime and had been pushed back on each occasion.
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.
Ukrainian official: Russia digging in for ‘heaviest of battles’ in Kherson
Separately, Russian-installed authorities in Shakhtarsk, just to the east of Donetsk, said Ukrainian shelling had set ablaze fuel tanks at the town's railway station.
Ukrainian forces, some equipped with artillery supplied by the United States and other allies, have methodically shelled Russian fuel and ammunition bases and railway lines.
Zelenskiy also said that in the latest prisoner exchange between the two sides, 10 Ukrainians had been freed.
