If Russian forces capture Bakhmut, it will be Moscow's first significant territorial gain since last summer.ĭeputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said no one believed Bakhmut would hold out under such intense attacks for so long. Russia has made the capture of Bakhmut a priority in its strategy to take control of Ukraine's Donbas industrial region. He claimed there was intense fighting along the eastern front line. 'Assault groups of the enemy are trying to advance from the outskirts to the centre of the city but our defence forces are working and destroying them 24/7,' Oleksandr Syrskyi, the Commander of Ukrainian Ground Forces, wrote on Telegram. The months-long battle for the small eastern city has become one of the bloodiest of Russia's nearly 13-month-old war in Ukraine. Kyiv’s forces have repelled Russian attempts to advance into the centre of Bakhmut, a top Ukrainian general has claimed.

The incident follows last week's crash of a US military drone into the Black Sea after it was intercepted by Moscow's jets, in the first known direct military encounter between Russia and the American since the start of the war. 'No violation of the state border of the Russian Federation was permitted,' it said. The ministry said the Su-35's flight was strictly in line with international rules of the use of airspace. The ministry claimed a Su-35 fighter jet took to the air in order to prevent a border violation, adding, 'after the foreign military aircraft moved away from the Russian Federation state border, the Russian fighter returned to its base airfield.' It said the targets were US Air Force B52H strategic bombers.

'On March 20, radar facilities of the air defence forces of the Western military district on duty over the Baltic Sea detected two air targets flying in the direction of the Russian Federation's state border,' the Russian Defence Ministry said on the Telegram. Moscow claims an Su-35 fighter jet was scrambled over the Baltic Sea yesterday after two American strategic bombers flew in the direction of the Russian border, but that it returned to base after they moved away.

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