Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has captured two more areas of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, according to Russia’s Defence Ministry.
“On the Donetsk direction, the fiercest fighting has been continuing in the city of Artyomovsk,” the ministry said in a daily statement, referring to the settlement by its Soviet-era name.
“Wagner assault units successfully advanced, capturing two areas on the northern and southern outskirts of the city,” it said.
The statement said Russian army paratroop units were supporting the claimed advance by holding back Ukrainian forces on the flanks. Reuters could not independently confirm the report.
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Wagner has spearheaded Russia's attempt to take Bakhmut since last summer in what has been the longest and deadliest battle of the war for both sides. Its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has frequently complained of poor support for his forces from the regular military.
Britain said in an intelligence update on Friday that Ukrainian troops had been forced to cede some territory in Bakhmut as Russia mounted a renewed assault, with intense artillery fire over the previous two days.
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Bakhmut, which had a pre-war population of about 70,000 people, has been Russia’s main target in a winter offensive that has so far yielded scant gains despite infantry ground combat of an intensity unseen in Europe since the second World War.
Elsewhere, the death toll from Russian missile strikes on the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk on Friday has risen to 11 as rescue crews tried to reach people trapped in the rubble of an apartment building, Ukrainian authorities said.
Ukraine’s air force said the country will soon have weapons with which to try to prevent attacks like that on Sloviansk.
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The delivery of the Patriot air defence system promised by the US is expected in Ukraine some time after Easter, Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said.
The primarily Orthodox Christian country is preparing to observe Easter on Sunday.
Speaking on Saturday on Ukrainian state TV, Mr Ihnat declined to give a precise timeline for the arrival of the defensive missile system but said the public will know “as soon as the first Russian aircraft is shot down”.
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A group of 65 Ukrainian soldiers completed their training at Oklahoma’s Fort Still Army Post last month and returned to Europe to learn more about using the defensive missile system to track and shoot down enemy aircraft.
Officials said at the time that the Ukrainians would then go back to their country with a Patriot missile battery, which typically includes six mobile launchers, a mobile radar, power generator and an engagement control centre.
Germany and the Netherlands have also pledged to provide a Patriot system each to Ukraine.
In addition, a SAMP/T anti-missile system pledged by France and Italy “should enter Ukraine in the near future”, Mr Ihnat said this week.
The Ukrainian military is looking to beef up its ability to intercept missiles as it prepares for an expected spring counter-offensive to retake Russian-occupied areas of the country.
Although more than a year of fighting has depleted weapons supplies on both sides, Russian forces have intensified their eight-and-a-half-month campaign to seize the city of Bakhmut, the focus of the war’s longest battle so far.
Bakhmut and Sloviansk are about 28 miles (45km) apart in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk province.
[ Ukraine war: Inside the bloody battle for BakhmutOpens in new window ]
Rescue teams in Sloviansk had recovered the bodies of two people from under the rubble of a house hit in Friday’s missile strikes, according to the State Emergency Service.
They also searched on Saturday for five people who remained trapped in the wreckage of the apartment building, as well as the residents of three units who were reported missing, Vadym Liakh, the head of the local government, said.
Meanwhile, a new law signed by Russian president Vladimir Putin on Friday allowing military offices to send draft notices electronically instead of delivering them in person is part of Russia’s preparation for a protracted war in Ukraine, the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) said in a Saturday morning assessment.
According to British intelligence, a “unified registry of individuals eligible for military service” will be digitally linked to other government services, allowing Russian authorities to “punish draft-dodgers by automatically limiting employment rights and restricting foreign travel”.
Since the law does not come into force until later in the year, the MoD said the e-notices do not automatically point to a “major new wave of enforced mobilisation” but rather form part of a “longer-term approach to provide personnel as Russia anticipates a lengthy conflict in Ukraine”.
Meanwhile, 52,000 young Russian men have already received draft orders as part of the country’s regular spring call-up, and 21,000 of them qualified for military service, Col Andrey Biryukov, who is in charge of mobilisation, said on Saturday.
Col Biryukov addressed concerns that the new electronic conscription law presaged a broader mobilisation of reservists, like the one Mr Putin ordered in September.
“I’d like to stress that all army deferrals for citizens will still be valid. And e-draft orders will not be mailed in bulk,” Col Biryukov said. – Reuters/AP