Kiev speaks of Moscow’s war of attrition against the Ukrainian forces. Russia escalates hostilities in Ukraine a year after it invaded the country in a deliberate attempt to exhaust Ukrainian forces, the Ukrainian military said Thursday.

Brigadier General Oleksiy Gromov said Russia aims to capture all areas it does not control in eastern Ukraine’s two Donbas provinces – Donetsk and Luhansk – by the summer.

The heaviest fighting is taking place around the town of Bakhmut, a senior Ukrainian officer said during a briefing, a day before the first anniversary of the Russian invasion.

“The Russian military, which has the advantage of human resources, is deliberately intensifying hostilities in an attempt to exhaust the units of the armed forces of Ukraine,” estimated Gromov. “In the short term it is important for the Kremlin to capture key settlements in Donetsk province and in the future all of Donetsk and Luhansk provinces before the summer,” he added.

Kiev has pointed out that Russia is suffering heavy casualties as it sends newly trained reservists into the battlefield, but Gromov said Moscow is using its most trained soldiers from regular units in the battle for Bakhmut, while in the region the mercenary group Wagner is also active.

“The most difficult situation remains in the area of ​​Bahmut where the Russian army, despite its significant losses, does not stop its attempts to encircle” the city, he added.

“The invaders are using the most well-prepared units of the regular army to capture Bahamut,” he noted.

Donetsk and Luhansk are two of four Ukrainian regions that Russia has announced it has annexed, although it does not fully control.

If it captures Bakhmut, Russia will be able to advance on Donetsk’s two largest cities: Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

Russia controls almost a fifth of Ukraine, but has also suffered some losses in recent months as Ukrainian forces fight back.

After these defeats, Moscow announced that it had scored gradual progress in recent weeks. Gromov did not elaborate on the situation on the front, but said Ukrainian forces would continue to fight until they pushed Russian troops across the country’s borders.

Gromov pointed out that Russia maintains troops in the Russian border regions of Bryansk and Kursk in order to keep the Ukrainian army there and prevent it from going to fight in other areas.