MOSCOW: Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday the capture of the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut was key to launching a further offensive in the wider region.
"This city is an important defensive hub for Ukrainian troops in Donbas," Shoigu said of the industrial east of the country.
"Capturing it will allow for further offensive operations deep into the defence lines of the Ukrainian armed forces," he told a televised meeting of military officials.
The battle for Bakhmut is now the longest-running and bloodiest of Russia's year-long military intervention in Ukraine, and both sides have doubled down in the fight for its control. Russia's mercenary group Wagner, founded by Kremlin-ally Yevgeny Prigozhin, has been spearheading the assault on the city.
Prigozhin said Tuesday that he could not comment on Shoigu's remarks, adding that he "had not met" the minister in Bakhmut, where Prigozhin claims to have gone himself.
Prigozhin is locked in a rift with Russia's military leadership and has accused Moscow of withholding supplies. In remarks carried by his press service, Prigozhin urged against "putting the cart before the horse, saying that we have taken Bakhmut and what will happen after." He estimated that between "12,000 and 20,000" Ukrainian troops were still defending the city.
"It is very complicated to kill between 12,000-20,000 Ukrainian soldiers by tomorrow morning. Such masters only exist in the depths of the General Staff or at Soyuzmultfilm," he said referring to a Soviet cartoon studio.
Fighting ongoing 'day and night'
Bakhmut, an industrial town once known for its sparkling wine production and salt mines, had an estimated pre-war population of some 70,000 people. But Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk told regional media on Tuesday that fewer than 4,000 civilians now remain. "Approximately 38 children, as far as we know, remain in Bakhmut today," Vereshchuk said.
Both Moscow and Kyiv said on Tuesday that the fight for the town was exacting a huge cost in military personnel on both sides. The Ukrainian military said Moscow's forces were launching attacks on Bakhmut and its outskirts "despite significant losses."
Shoigu meanwhile said there had been a "significant increase in losses" among Ukrainian forces during recent fighting for Bakhmut. Prigozhin said that while "very tough battles are ongoing both day and night" in Bakhmut, Ukraine's fighters "are not running away."
"They have ammunition and weapons... They are dying en masse for Bakhmut and surrender only as a last resort," he said.
Neither side has published official tolls from the fighting in the Donetsk region, which Moscow claimed to have annexed into Russia last year. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced this week that he had instructed the army to find forces to bolster the defence of Bakhmut.
Analysts say that despite the massive resources being thrown by both sides at the battle, Bakhmut offers little strategic importance in the broader fight.