Ukrainian leaders agree to continue Bakhmut defence as casualties mount

In a nearly four-minute video published on the Wagner Orchestra Telegram channel on Saturday, Prigozhin said his troops were worried that the government wanted to set them up as possible scapegoats if Russia lost the war.

Lloyd Austin, the US defence secretary, said on Monday that Bakhmut was of more symbolic than operational importance, and its fall would not necessarily mean that Moscow had regained the initiative in the war.

Meanwhile, Shoigu was in Mariupol on Monday, in a rare visit to occupied Ukraine by a senior Moscow figure.

Suspilne also reported that overnight Russian troops launched a rocket attack on Kramatorsk and destroyed a school, and that 15 apartment buildings were also damaged.