Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the Donetsk region in the east remains the “epicenter” of fighting in the conflict, with hundreds of Russians being killed every day.
“The Donetsk region remains the epicenter of the greatest madness of the invaders,” Zelensky is quoted as saying.
“They are killed by the hundreds every day. The ground in front of the Ukrainian positions is filled with the bodies of the invaders.”
The towns of Bakhmut and Avdiivka are the focal points of the fiercest fighting in the region, which has been partially occupied by Moscow-backed separatists for eight years.
Earlier in the war, the eastern regions of Donbas – Donetsk and Luhansk – were unilaterally annexed by Russia along with the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia after Kremlin-installed authorities held so-called referendums on their independence from Ukraine.