KIEV: The situation around the now-destroyed city of Bakhmut, which saw the longest battle of the Russian invasion, was "managing to stabilise", according to Ukraine's military.
After months of fierce fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces, Bakhmut, which once had an estimated population of 70,000 people, is now almost entirely devoid of civilians.
After speaking by phone with Admiral Sir Tony Radakin of the British Defense Staff, Valery Zaluzny, commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, announced that the frontline situation was "most difficult in the Bakhmut direction."
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"We have been able to stabilize the situation thanks to the excellent efforts of the defense forces," Zaluzhny wrote on Facebook. As the battle progressed, Russian forces painstakingly made small gains around the city, the symbolic value of which far outweighed any military significance.
The latest intelligence report from the British Ministry of Defense on Saturday said Russia's attack on Bakhmut "has largely stalled. This is most likely due to the extreme attrition of Russian forces, said the British statement, which Ukraine was also said to have suffered "heavy casualties".
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A senior Ukrainian military commander, Alexander Syrsky, said on Thursday that a counteroffensive against "exhausted" Russian forces near Bakhmut could be launched soon.
Syrsky made his statement a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed he had visited Ukrainian forces close to the Bakhmut frontline on Wednesday.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group in Russia, announced on Monday that his troops controlled about 70% of the city. During this he met his Chinese counterpart.
New Zealand's Foreign Minister Nania Mahuta expressed concern to China over any provision of lethal aid to support Russia in its war against Ukraine.
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Days after Chinese President Xi Jinping returned from a trip to Moscow that was a cordial affair during which Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin praised each other and spoke of their deep friendship, his press office in Beijing on Saturday provided details of Mahuta's cautionary comments.
Mahuta's four-day visit, which began on Wednesday, was the first by a New Zealand foreign minister to Beijing since 2018. It wanted to prosecute him for alleged war crimes.
Mahuta reiterated to his counterpart Qin Gang the government's criticism of Moscow's "illegal aggression" in the Ukraine war.