Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is determined to fight for the eastern town of Bakhmut, his office said on Monday, despite reports of a partial withdrawal and discord over the plan.
The town has been fought over for months and if Russia takes control, some military analysts say a path to the major cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk would open up for Moscow's troops. They would then be closer to the complete conquest of the Donetsk region.
However, other experts say the encirclement of the cities is now impossible after Kremlin forces were ousted from the Kharkiv region to the north and that the value of Bakhmut would merely be a symbolic morale-boost for the Russians.
Zelensky held a meeting with Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhny and the head of the Ukrainian land forces Oleksandr Syrskyi amid reports of a disagreement about the way forward.
"They expressed their support for the continuation of the defence operation and the further strengthening of our positions in Bakhmut," Zelensky's office said in a statement.
But the US-based Institute for Studies of War (ISW) believes a partial Ukrainian withdrawal may be under way in the town.
"Ukrainian forces may be retreating from their positions on the eastern bank of the Bakhmutka River, given the destruction of the railway bridge over the river in the north-east of Bakhmut on March 3, as confirmed by geolocation imagery," the ISW said.
According to Russian military bloggers, mercenary Wagner forces have taken parts of eastern, southern and northern Bakhmut, which had a population of 74,000 before the war but is now inhabited by just 5,000 civilians amid the ruins.
In its situation report on Monday, the Ukrainian general staff reported continued fighting in the area and there has been no verified confirmation of a pull-back.
The destroyed town itself as well as several suburbs were shelled by the Russian side.
Russia also attacked other areas of Ukraine by air during the night, Ukrainian officials said, with 13 of 15 drones shot down.
"The drones had taken off from the north," Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said on television.
Kramatorsk, a city in the Donetsk region, still under full Ukrainian control, was particularly hit.
"The rocket attacks overnight have destroyed a school and damaged 15 apartment buildings," city mayor Olexander Goncharenko wrote on Facebook, adding that no one was killed nor injured.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu meanwhile visited the occupied Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which was almost completely destroyed by Russian bombardments last year.
Shoigu checked the work of construction crews in Mariupol during his tour of the eastern Donetsk region, the Defence Ministry said.
In a video released by the ministry, Shoigu can be seen in a newly built military hospital and in front of the civil defence building.
He was also said to have received an update on the construction of a water pipeline from the southern Russian region of Rostov to Donetsk.
There has been growing criticism that those in charge of the war in Moscow were only running it from their offices and not paying attention to the concerns of the soldiers and the local population, whom Russia claims to have liberated from Kiev.
Moscow said at the weekend that Shoigu had paid visits to front line areas in the Donetsk. A soundless video showed him alongside the Chief of General Staff and commander of the Russian troops in Ukraine, Valery Gerasimov, as well as his deputy Sergey Surovikin.
