The heaviest fighting is raging in Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Mariinka in eastern Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian military, which is focused on the city of Bakhmut with Russian forces trying to wear them down.

Ukrainian forces repelled more than 20 Russian attacks in the last 24 hours, as the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced in an evening briefing. Russian forces launched four missiles and seven airstrikes, the General Staff said, firing “more than 10 times from multiple-launch missile systems against our troop positions and settlements.”

“The enemy continues to focus its main efforts on conducting offensive actions in the directions of Liman, Bakhmut, Bakhmut, Abdiivka and Mariinka,” the General Staff said. “The most intense battles are taking place for the cities of Bahmut, Abdiivka and Mariinka,” he underlined.

Russian forces are continuing their offensive to take full control of Bakhmut, the military said, and Ukrainian defense forces have repelled about 10 enemy attacks in that area alone. More than 15 settlements in the area were targeted by Russian shelling, the General Staff added.

“Bahmut remains the main direction of enemy attacks. Just today, there were 302 shellings of various calibers along the front line by the enemy. There were 22 clashes,” said Serhii Tserevaty, a spokesman for the eastern group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

“Our defenders in Bakhmut are now doing one and the same thing: exhausting the potential of the conqueror, demoralizing them, so that when our reservists, now trained abroad and in Ukraine and equipped with new equipment, are ready, they will drive this evil away from our land once and for all,” Tserevati concluded.