Civilians continued to flee Bakhmut on Saturday as Russian and Ukrainian troops battled in the streets of the besieged city.
A woman was killed and two men badly wounded after trying to cross a makeshift bridge out of the city, according to Ukranian soldiers trying to help them leave.
Oleksandr Marchenko, the city’s deputy mayor, said the city was “almost destroyed”, but that Russian forces do not have control of the conurbation.
The city is now surrounded on three sides by the Russian army and Wagner Group forces, according to the UK’s Ministry of Defence Saturday intelligence update.
The update also said Bakhmut was under “increasingly severe pressure, with intense fighting taking place in and around the city”.
Meanwhile, Russia’s foreign affairs minister, Sergei Lavrov, was laughed at by a crowd in New Delhi when he tried to claim Russia was the victim of the war.
Speaking at a conference Mr Lavrov claimed "The war, which we are trying to stop, which was launched against us using Ukrainian people”, provoking laughter and groans.
