Ukraine says it has inflicted heavy losses on Russians in Bakhmut

The Ukrainian military claims to have inflicted heavy losses on Russia troops in Bakhmut, the small city in eastern Ukraine that has been the scene of fierce battles for months.

Around 170 Russian soldiers were killed in fighting for control of the bombed-out city on Saturday, the spokesman of the Eastern Group of the Armed Forces, Serhiy Cherevaty, said on Sunday evening.

Cherevaty described it as an "assembly line of death" for the Russian occupiers and said at least 200 more Russians were wounded.

Moscow has not commented and battlefield accounts in the 10-month-old war are often impossible to immediately confirm.

Russian forces have relentlessly sought to capture Bakhmut, which has become a symbolic prize for Moscow even though analysts say it has only modest strategic value.