• Ukraine’s deputy defense minister says the city of Bakhmut is holding.
• Despite Russian efforts to advance, the city is holding, she said.
• Maliar claimed the adversary wants to reach Donetsk by the end of the year.

Despite Russian forces’ concerted efforts to advance, the city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region of the country is holding “courageously”, according to Ukraine’s deputy defense minister Hanna Maliar.

“Bakhmut is really our eastern fortress now. Indeed, the enemy has concentrated most of its efforts, military equipment and weapons there,” Maliar said in an interview with Ukrainian television, adding:

“They have set themselves the task to reach the borders of Donetsk region by the end of this calendar year. They can no longer hold that huge front line, so they choose some parts where they can concentrate their efforts to the maximum, and as it seems to them that this is the easiest aim.”

“But you can see how courageously Bakhmut is holding, how much our soldiers inflict losses on the enemy and the enemy simply cannot advance further,” she said. “There was a slight advance, but the enemy was pushed out,” she added.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported on Tuesday that Russian forces had fired on more than 25 settlements in the Bakhmut and Avdiivka directions, including Bilohorivka, Bakhmut, Klishchiivka, Bila Hora, Kurdiumivka, Vodiane, Pervomaiske, Maryinka, and Novomykhailivka in the Donetsk region.

On Monday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged the “difficult, terrible” nature of the situation in Bakhmut and other parts of the eastern Donbas region.

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