The battle for eastern Ukraine’s Bakhmut featured fierce fighting Monday, according to both sides, as the months-long struggle for control of the area raged on.

Ukraine’s military said it was using artillery, tanks and other weapons to repel Russian attempts to capture the city.

Britain’s defense ministry has assessed in recent days that Russia’s Wagner paramilitary group controls most of the eastern part of Bakhmut, with Ukrainian forces holding the western portion.

Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin described the situation Sunday as “very tough” with the fighting getting more difficult the closer his forces get to the city center.

Russia has targeted Bakhmut as a key part of its wider goal to seize the Donbas region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has vowed to defend Bakhmut, while some allies, including U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg have cautioned that a Ukrainian defeat would not amount to a turning point in the conflict. (KB/VOA)