The head of the Russian mercenary group, Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin, said in a video released today that his forces now control more than 80 percent of the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
Wagner's fighters led Russia's months-long effort to capture Bakhmut in one of the bloodiest battles of its 13-month invasion of Ukraine.
Trench warfare and constant artillery fire have been compared to World War I due to the huge casualties inflicted on both sides.
In a video posted by a Russian military blogger on the Telegram messaging app, Prigozhin is seen showing on a map how his forces continue to encircle the now-destroyed city, which was home to around 70.000 people before the Russian invasion.
"In Bahmut, the greater part, more than 80 percent, is now under our control, including the entire administrative center, factories, warehouses and the city administration," Prigozhin said.
Russia is poised to introduce electronic military documents for the first time in its history in a bid to make it harder for men to avoid conscription after the lower house of parliament backed the move.
The State Duma, the lower house, adopted the Law on the Unified Register of Military Conscripts in two separate votes, reports Reuters.
Some MPs complained that the changes were being rushed, and that they were not given enough time to study them carefully.
The move is part of Moscow's push to refine the system it has used to bolster its military forces in Ukraine, although government officials say there are currently no plans to force men to fight in Ukraine.
Russia says it mobilized just over 300.000 people last year to help it prosecute what it calls its "special military operation", but is now focused on trying to recruit professional volunteer soldiers through an advertising campaign.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has said that almost 8.500 civilians have been confirmed killed in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and that they fear there are many thousands more unverified deaths.
OHCHR announced that they recorded 8.490 killed and 14.244 injured in the period from the beginning of the invasion, from February 24 last year to April 9 this year, reports Reuters.
They also state that their data is only the "tip of the iceberg" due to limited access to combat zones.
Most of the recorded deaths are in territory controlled by the Ukrainian government, which is under attack by Russian forces, including 3.927 people in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which have witnessed heavy fighting.
"OHCHR believes that the actual figures are significantly higher, as the receipt of information from some locations where intense hostilities have been taking place has been delayed and many reports are still awaiting confirmation," the statement said.
Russian troops have carried out attacks on nine Ukrainian regions in the past 24 hours, the Damas media center of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reported. Kyiv independent.
According to local authorities, seven civilians were wounded in the Russian attacks.
Russian attacks were reported in Donetsk, Kherson, Chernigov, Kharkiv, Sumy, Zaporozhye, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv and Luhansk regions in eastern, southern and northern Ukraine.
According to the media center, Russia hit a total of 114 settlements using mortars, tanks, artillery, multi-barrel rocket systems (MLRS), drones and tactical aviation.
40 infrastructure facilities were affected.
Russian forces hit the Kherson region 56 times, firing 285 missiles from various weapons, the regional administration said. The attacks reportedly wounded two people in the region and damaged a medical facility, a museum and an administrative building in the city of Kherson.
Five civilians were injured in the Russian attacks in the Donetsk region, Governor Pavlo Kirilenko said.
Russia hit more than seven settlements in the region, damaging over 20 houses, outbuildings, seven skyscrapers and a gas pipeline, Kirilenko added.
Russian forces continued their offensive in the eastern region of Donetsk, where several cities and towns were under heavy bombardment, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Army announced.
Ukrainian forces are said to have repelled several attacks, while the Russian military continued its efforts to take control of Bahmut, Voice of America reports.
A senior Ukrainian commander accused Moscow of using "scorched earth" tactics.
"The enemy has switched to the so-called scorched earth tactics from Syria. It is destroying buildings and positions with airstrikes and artillery fire," said Oleksandr Sirsky, the commander of Ukraine's ground forces.
Ukraine's counteroffensive is long awaited after months of warfare in the east.
No significant progress was made in the Russian winter offensive, and Moscow's troops made only little progress, with huge losses.
Ukrainian defenders also suffered heavy losses.
(MINE)
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