The Armed Forces of Ukraine (VSU) have acknowledged that the Russian army and private military company Wagner have made progress in their attempts to capture Bakhmut, the eastern Ukrainian city that has become the epicenter of fighting in the war, Reuters reported.

Yesterday, the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said that Yevgeny Prigozhin's militia was gaining ground in Bakhmut.

"The enemy forces had a certain degree of success in their actions to storm the city," the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in its nightly briefing.

At the same time, he added that Bakhmut's defenders were holding him back and had repulsed a large number of attacks.

Prigogine: Battle of Bakhmut caused serious damage to "Wagner"

The battle for Bakhmut has been going on for several months and is the bloodiest since the war began more than 13 months ago.

The average number of Russian attacks reported each day by Ukraine's frontline general staff fell for the fourth week in a row to 69 in the past seven days, down from 124 in the March 1-7 period.

Yesterday, only 57 attacks were registered, according to Reuters.

Journalists from the agency in the Bakhmut region and further north also reported a noticeable drop in the intensity of Russian attacks.

Yesterday, British military intelligence reported a decrease in Russian attacks in the eastern Ukrainian city compared to previous weeks.

Russia, for its part, claims that its forces continue to gain ground in Bakhmut street by street.