Russia intensifies pressure in Bakhmut sector with infantry - National Guard officer Nazarenko

He said this on the air of the Espreso TV channel.

"The situation continues to be tense and Russia continues to be furious. It is trying to further increase the pressure with the number of infantry. I am shocked by the amount of manpower they are using. Groups of Russian soldiers are walking in the fields. We are grinding them with artillery, small arms. They still go and try to storm in large groups," Nazarenko emphasized.

The Ukrainian National Guard officer stressed Russia is suffering huge losses.

"Russian forces do not take away their 200 (Cargo 200 — military code word used in the post-Soviet states referring to the transportation of military fatalities - ed.), fields and forests are dotted with the corpses of Russian soldiers. They dig trenches and fortify dugouts with the dead bodies of Wagner's soldiers. Our task is to grind the Russian troops. They must end sometime, it must come sometime. In the meantime, we repel Russian attacks. Every Ukrainian defender who is in this direction is a hero," Nazarenko emphasized.

• President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the situation at the front in the eastern regions of Ukraine "difficult, acute" and thanked the Ukrainian soldiers for deterring and repelling the Russian invasion

• The head of the Donetsk region said that Russian forces suffer huge losses near Bakhmut, including in private military companies.