The situation for Russian forces trying to take the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut is “difficult” because there are no signs that Kiev is ready to order its troops to withdraw, the Russian-appointed head of Ukraine’s Donetsk region said today.

Russian forces — led by the Wagner paramilitary group — have been trying to surround and capture the city in eastern Ukraine for months, in one of the bloodiest battles of the year-long war.

Russia, which refers to the city by its Soviet-era name of Artyomovsk, says its seizure will allow it to launch more attacks deeper into Ukrainian territory it claims it is fighting to “liberate”.

“The situation in Artyomovsk remains complicated and difficult,” Denis Pushilin, the Russian-appointed governor of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, said in an interview on state television today.

“So we don’t see any assumption that the enemy is simply going to withdraw troops,” he added.

The head of the mercenary organization Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said his forces were in control of practically half the city.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly said he will not withdraw his troops from Bakhmut, even as Kiev and Western officials downplay the city’s strategic importance.