Russians fail to surround Bakhmut 

He said this on the air of the telethon.

"Russian forces cannot complete the operation of capturing Bakhmut. There are intense battles, they just keep attacking and suffer huge losses," he said.

Cherevaty also said that Prigozhin’s statements are a call for help.

"Ukraine’s Armed Forces are exhausting the enemy, draining its combat capabilities, and breaking their morale. These ‘freaky’ Prigozhin’s statements are probably a SOS signal to their leadership," the spokesman said.

Russians launched 197 artillery and MLRS attacks in one day in Bakhmut, and attacked the AFU positions 35 times.

"Only in the Bakhmut region, the enemy launched 73 attacks and attempted to advance 25 times. In the battles in the northern part of Bakhmut and in the settlements of Horikhove, Vasylivka, Hryhorivka, and Bohdanivka, 96 were eliminated and 153 were wounded," Cherevaty added.

• According to ISW analysts, Yevgeny Prigozhin seeks to  justify the Wagner Group’s inability to completely surround Bakhmut.