Bakhmut has been the recent target of Russian fire
(Picture: Getty Images)Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has visited the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, the recent focus of some of the most intense fighting of the Russian war.
The eastern city is the scene of "fierce battles" between Ukraine's defenders and Russia's invading forces, the president's office in Kyiv said on Tuesday.
The office said that Mr Zelensky met and chatted with military personnel.
Earlier this month, Mr Zelensky said Russia's efforts to conquer Bakhmut had turned the eastern Ukrainian city into ruins.
"The occupiers actually destroyed Bakhmut, another Donbas city that the Russian army turned into burnt ruins," the president said.
Bakhmut has remained in Ukrainian hands during the almost 10-month war, thwarting Moscow's goal of capturing Donetsk province, part of the Donbas region bordering Russia.
Taking Bakhmut would rupture Ukraine's supply lines and open a route for Russian forces to press on toward Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, which are key Ukrainian strongholds in the province.
Pro-Moscow separatists have controlled part of Donetsk and neighbouring Luhansk province since 2014.
Mercenaries from the Wagner Group, a shadowy Russian military company, are reported to be leading the charge in Bakhmut.
Meanwhile, Russian president Vladimir Putin said the situation in four areas of Ukraine that Moscow has unilaterally declared part of Russia was proving "extremely difficult", one of his clearest public admissions yet that his invasion is not going to plan.
He also called for an increase in surveillance in his comments to mark Security Services Day in Russia on Tuesday. They followed a visit to close ally Belarus that fuelled fears, dismissed by the Kremlin, that the country could help Russia open a new invasion front against Ukraine. Mr Putin was seen shaking hands with Belarus counterpart Alexander Lukashenko on Monday.
