Sawt Falasteen - Ukraine says fighting 'difficult' near Bakhmut as Russia claims gains

Ukraine has called on the West to send more weapons, but NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg warned that the alliance needed to ramp up the production of ammunition to keep up with Kyiv's needs.

The Ukrainian presidency said the situation was "difficult" near the eastern city of Bakhmut and the neighbouring town of Soledar.

"The village of Paraskoviivka is (coming) under intense shelling and assaults," the presidency said, referring to a hamlet on the northern outskirts of Bakhmut.

As the one-year anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine approaches, Moscow is seeking to ramp up hostilities in the eastern region of Donetsk in an effort to score its first significant victory after months of setbacks.

Ukraine is determined not to cede more ground there, but Russia has made incremental gains towards capturing the destroyed city.

The Ukrainian general staff said that Russian troops had shelled 16 settlements near Bakhmut with tanks, mortars and artillery on Sunday.

"Bakhmut is still the main area attacked by the enemy," Ukrainian military spokesman Sergiy Cherevaty said on national television on Sunday.

- Symbolic prize -

Even though military observers have downplayed Bakhmut's strategic importance, the city has turned into a key political and symbolic prize for Moscow.

Russia's defence ministry said on Monday that Russian forces had captured Krasna Gora, a village near Paraskoviivka.

The ministry in Moscow said "volunteer assault units" with fire support from Russian artillery had "liberated" the settlement.

The announcement came after the Wagner private military group claimed to have captured the village at the weekend, without any ground support from regular Russian forces.

The months-long battle for Bakhmut has exposed tensions between the paramilitary group and Russia's regular forces.

In January, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed his fighters had taken control of Soledar. The Russian defence ministry said only two days later that Moscow's forces were controlling the town.

"Within a 50-kilometre (31 miles) radius, more or less, only Wagner fighters remain, and they will take Bakhmut," he said.

Russian forces have cut three out of four Ukrainian supply routes to Bakhmut, the Kremlin-appointed leader of the Donetsk region Denis Pushilin said last week.

- 'Explosions every day' -

North of Bakhmut, the war-scarred city of Lyman retaken from Russia in October saw "record artillery shellings", Cherevaty said.

In the streets of Kupiansk, also to the north, AFP journalists saw flattened buildings pockmarked with bullets and burnt-out and overturned cars.

Residents said they feared a new Russian assault on the city that was occupied last year.

"There's been shelling in front of my house. It broke all the windows," said 62-year-old Olga. "There are explosions every day, so it's very scary."

Ukraine also reported a "tense" situation near Vugledar, another town in the eastern region of Donetsk under Russian attack.

In the southern region of Kherson three people died and another was injured over the past 24 hours due to Russian attacks, the presidency said.

Ukraine is hoping to receive a flurry of promised Western weapons to repel Russian troops and regain territory.

Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, who has faced pressure over corruption claims at his ministry, said he would take part in a meeting of defence ministers of NATO countries in Brussels on Tuesday.

NATO's Stoltenberg however warned that the military bloc could not keep up with Kyiv's needs.

"The current rate of Ukraine's ammunition expenditure is many times higher than our current rate of production. This puts our defence industries under strain," he said.

But he said he was confident steps taken so far meant that NATO members were "on the path that will enable us both to continue to support Ukraine, but also to replenish our own stocks".

Y.AlMasri--SF-PST