Ukraine announced the continuation of Russian attacks on several fronts in the east of the country, stressing that the city of Bakhmut remains the main focus of fighting, and revealed that the death toll of Russian soldiers has risen since the beginning of the war until Sunday.
The Ukrainian General Staff said that Russian forces were trying to break through Ukrainian defenses in the cities of Avdiivka, Marinka and Shakhtar, in the Donetsk region, and Kubyansk in the Kharkiv region, and that Ukrainian forces were repelling them.
The Russian air force has bombed more than 50 towns in the east and south of the country in the past 24 hours, it said.
Bakhmout. Counterattack
On the other hand, Russian media said that Ukrainian forces are trying to launch counterattacks on the positions of Wagner's forces in the city of Bachmot, adding that fierce battles are taking place throughout the city and are getting closer to its center, and that Ukrainian forces are pushing more support for their forces in the city, noting that Wagner's forces continue to advance despite the fierce battles.
In Pakhmot in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, Serhiy Chervaty, spokesman for the Ukrainian forces' Eastern Operations Command, said his units were capable of carrying out operations to evacuate civilians and wounded military personnel from the city.
In turn, Andriy Yermak, director of the Ukrainian president's office, said in a post on social media on Sunday that his country's forces continue to defend the city of Bakhmot, and explained that clashes with Russian forces are still continuing in the city.
On the seventh of March, maps published by the American Institute for the Study of War showed that Russia controls about 40% of the city of Pakhmot, and the Institute said that the decision to defend Pakhmot forces the Russian army to get involved in a costly and bloody war, and that the city has become a strategic dimension from this angle specifically, according to the European network "Euronews".
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy ordered the military to step up military deployment to defend the city, which has been the scene of fierce fighting for months.
The Battle of Bakhmot is the longest since the Russian war in Ukraine began on February 24, 2022, and has taken on a symbolic character for both Kiev and Moscow.
Russia's losses
On the other hand, the Ukrainian Armed Forces announced on Sunday that the death toll of Russian soldiers - since the beginning of the Russian war on the country until today - has risen to 164,910 soldiers, including 710 soldiers killed during Saturday alone.
A statement by the Ukrainian General Staff, on its Facebook page and reported by the Ukrainian National News Agency "Ukrinform" on Sunday, said that Ukrainian forces destroyed 5332,6853 tanks, 2568,507 armored combat vehicles, 268,<> artillery systems, <> multi-launch rocket launcher systems, and <> air defense systems.
The statement added that 305 aircraft, 290 helicopters, 2159,907 drones, 18 cruise missiles, 5408 warships, 262,<> vehicles and fuel tanks, and <> special equipment units were also destroyed.
Putin's Tour
Politically, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that his country was looking for a peaceful resolution of the situation in the Donbass, but the West was preparing Ukraine for the fight and stressed that Russia should make more efforts to develop its forces.
Putin's remarks preceded a tour of Ukrainian territory annexed by Moscow, as the Kremlin announced that Putin visited the city of Mariupol, in the Donbas region, for the first time since the beginning of the war, and inspected a number of facilities and facilities in the city.
The Kremlin said Putin arrived in Mariupol by helicopter, before being picked up by a private car for a tour of the city's streets.
Earlier, Putin visited the Rostov province, southern Russia, where he met with the command center of the military operation in Ukraine.
The Kremlin said Putin had heard reports from the chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov and several military commanders.
Putin's visit to Mariupol was preceded by a surprise visit on Saturday to Crimea, the ninth anniversary of its annexation to Russia. He also visited the port of Sevastopol, which is the headquarters of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea.
In other developments, the British Air Force said that its fighter jet and another from the German air force intercepted, for the second time in a week, a Russian military aircraft, off the coast of Estonia, as part of the work of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) air police.
Britain said the Russian military plane was a transport aircraft and was accompanied by two Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jets as well as another military transport aircraft.
On the other hand, commenting on last week's US drone crash in the Black Sea, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the missions of the planes were not peaceful, and accused what he called "the operators of those drones" of being involved in the conflict against Russia.