British Defence Ministry: Russia lacks reserves for Bakhmut fight

Russia's occupying army in Ukraine has hardly any reserves to reinforce the sector around the town of Bakhmut, despite intensified fighting, British military experts said on Saturday in their daily update.

Last week's fighting around the now destroyed city has been among the fiercest on the entire front, after subsiding in June, the Ministry of Defence said in its daily intelligence report on Twitter.

"Russian defenders are highly likely struggling with poor morale, a mix of disparate units and a limited ability to find and strike Ukrainian artillery," the statement said.

But it said the Russian leadership probably considered it politically unacceptable to abandon Bakhmut, which had been one of the few Russian territorial gains in the past 12 months.