The Russian army vowed on Tuesday to capture the east Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, a move President Volodymyr Zelensky said would give Moscow an "open road" for offensives deeper into his country, reports BSS.
The intense fighting in the east raged on as Ukraine said it had identified a soldier filmed being shot dead in a video that sparked outrage on social media and as UN chief Antonio Guterres headed to Kyiv for talks.
The battle for Bakhmut -- a salt-mining town with a pre-war population of 80,000 -- has been the longest and bloodiest in Russia's more than year-long invasion that has devastated swathes of Ukraine and displaced millions.
Russia has appeared intent to capture it at all costs.
"Capturing (Bakhmut) will allow for further offensive operations deep into the defence lines of the Armed Forces of Ukraine," Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told military officials during a televised meeting on Tuesday.
In Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the army was intent on defending Bakhmut despite a rumoured retreat under pressure from Russian forces, who have sought to capture the city for months.
Zelensky said Russia would have an "open road" into eastern Ukraine if it captures the besieged city of Bakhmut, CNN reported on Tuesday.
"We understand that after Bakhmut they could go further. They could go to Kramatorsk, they could go to Sloviansk, it would be open road for the Russians after Bakhmut to other towns in Ukraine, in the Donetsk direction," Zelensky told CNN's Wolf Blitzer in an interview due to broadcast in the United States on Wednesday.
Russia's mercenary group Wagner has spearheaded the attack on Bakhmut and its head Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is locked in a rift with Russia's military leadership, appeared to mock Shoigu saying he had "not seen him" near the battlefield.
Prigozhin estimated that between "12,000 and 20,000" Ukrainian troops were still defending the city.
He said that while "very tough battles are ongoing both day and night", Ukraine's fighters "are not running away".
Ukraine got a boost on Tuesday though, when its western neighbour and fervent ally Poland announced the sending of 10 Leopard tanks this week.
Both sides have said the Bakhmut battle has cost a significant number of troops, but neither gave figures.
Outside the town, a Ukrainian soldier told AFP that Kyiv was losing control.
"Bakhmut will fall," one exhausted soldier said Monday in the town of Chasiv Yar, 10 kilometres (six miles) west of the front line.
Some units had started to retreat in "small groups", he said.
Ukrainian officials say around 4,000 civilians remain in the town, which has been virtually flattened.
"Approximately 38 children, as far as we know, remain in Bakhmut," Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk told regional media on Tuesday.
Bd-pratidin English/Tanvir Raihan
