BAKHMUT: Ukrainian and Russian forces battled on Thursday in the streets of Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine's devastated "fortress" city, and Ukrainian soldiers said they were ready to launch their long-anticipated counter-offensive once the weather improves.
On the diplomatic front, French President Emmanuel Macron urged Chinese leader Xi Jinping during talks in Beijing to use his influence to persuade Russia to halt the war and come to the negotiating table. Xi said he hoped such talks could start soon.
A French diplomatic source later said China was ready to work with France to "push hard" for negotiations.
However, an adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin rated the chances of peace talks starting this year at "zero".
The months-long battle for Bakhmut, one of the last urban centres in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk province yet to fall to Moscow now in its 14th month.
"The battles for Bakhmut continue," said Andriy Yermak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
"They are underway in the streets, enemy attempts to encircle the city are failing. Our command fully control the situation with the defensive 'fortress'," he said, using the nickname Zelenskiy gave to the city.
The leader of Russia's private Wagner militia, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said fighting was continuing in the west of the city.
"It must be said clearly that the enemy is not going anywhere," he said on his Telegram channel.
Prigozhin has often complained of a lack of ammunition for his fighters in Bakhmut, but Ukrainian border guard Levko Stek, speaking in a video clip released by his service on Thursday amid constant explosions in the city, said Ukrainian forces did not sense any "ammunition hunger" on the Russian side.
In the clip, black smoke billowed into the sky from Soviet-era apartment blocks nearby.
Western analysts have played down the strategic significance of Bakhmut but Ukraine has framed its dogged defence of what is now a completely destroyed city as a way of wearing down Russian forces. Both sides have suffered huge casualties there. — Reuters
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