War in Ukraine: Russian tactics on the Eastern front are crazy, Zelensky says

The town of íc, located in the Donnetsk region and had a population of 70 thousand prewar residents, has been the centre of Russian attacks for months.

Despite possible Ukrainian progress in the key town of Kherson, Zelensky said the attacks continued in force.

Taking the city would be a symbolic victory for Russia.

“Here is the most obvious madness of Russian command”, Zelensky said in his night speech by Kiev. Day after day, for months, they're taking people to death there, focusing the highest level of artillery shock”.

Olexey Arestovych, an adviser to Zelensky, said that one day Russian forces launched eight separate attacks in Bakhmut before lunch and were pushed back in each case.

The town is located on a major road leading to Ukrainian-controlled Sloveniansk and Kramatorsk towns.

Analysts say the city has little military value in itself, though if Bakhmut fell, it would bring other cities within the range of Russian artillery and help change the distance of a conflict in which Moscow's forces have gradually withdrawn.

Regular Russian troops in the region are reportedly being backed by paramilitary mercenaries Wagner, while the founder of the Yevgenity Prigozhin group wants to take the city as a political price.

On Sunday, the manager accepted the slow pace of Russian progress in Bakhmut, saying troops were winning only “100-,200m per day”.

Our “Units are constantly meeting with the most severe resistance of the enemy, and I note that the enemy is well prepared, motivated and works with confidence and harmony”, Prigozhin said in a published statement. “This does not prevent our fighters from moving forward, but I cannot comment on how long it will last”.

Despite intense attacks, Zelensky said Ukrainian forces were maintaining their ground and hailed his troops as “heronij”.