Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday paid tribute to his soldiers combating in the uncomfortable and hard fight for the countrys frontline eastern Donbas region.He was speaking after Ukraines basic staff reported that its forces had actually battled more than 130 opponent attacks the previous day, including in Kupiansk, Lyman, Bakhmut and Avdiivka.

The enemy continues its attempts to encircle the town of Bakhmut, it said early on Sunday, of the eastern city that Moscow has been attempting to capture for months.Ukraine has actually pledged to defend fortress Bakhmut which Russian soldiers seem identified to take.

Analysts state the city, which has been virtually ruined in the battling, has little real tactical value.But, as what has become the longest and bloodiest fight of the dispute drags on, its fate has actually gotten symbolic importance, exceeding its military significance.

I wish to pay unique homage to the bravery, strength and strength of the soldiers battling in the Donbas, Zelensky stated in his daily address.

This is one of the hardest battles.

Painful and difficult.

The Donbas is made up of Donetsk and Luhansk, which Russia claims to have actually annexed despite never fully having actually controlled it.Ukraines soldiers, said Zelensky, had actually pushed back assaults, ruined the occupier, undermined enemy positions and logistics, and safeguarded our borders and cities.

But on Saturday, the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) cautioned that Ukrainian supply routes to Bakhmut were narrowing.

The Russians might have planned to encircle Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut, but the Ukrainian command has actually indicated that it will likely withdraw instead of risk an encirclement, it added.Russian rivalriesPro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk area published a video purporting to reveal Wagner fighters in the suburbs north of Bakhmut, having actually taken control of the Stupki railway station.Wagner, a private army headed by Yevgeny Prigozhin, has taken center stage in the fight for the city, which has actually exposed competitions with Russias standard forces.

Already on Friday, Prigozhin said his fighters had virtually surrounded Bakhmut and only one road remained under Ukrainian control.

Prigozhin, who has for weeks been publicizing the advances of his men towards the eastern city, on Saturday published on social networks, standing to what he said were caskets containing bodies of Ukrainian soldiers being shipped to territory controlled by Kyiv.

Prigozhin frequently posts videos of himself along with mercenaries, on the ground or perhaps in a fighter jet, in contrast with Russian generals slammed for shirking the front line.In a rare exception, Russia on Saturday launched a video of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu checking soldiers in frontline regions in Ukraine.

The Defense Ministry said Shoigu examined an advance command post in the southern Donetsk instructions without defining precisely where or when.He was seen taking a trip in a helicopter and speaking with a soldier in front of harmed buildings.The ISW think tank stated Shoigu went there likely to assess the degree of Russian losses around Vugledar and the possibility of an additional offensive in this direction.

Zaporizhzhia hostageWhile the center of the battling is in the east, the death toll from a strike this week on a home block in southern Zaporizhzhia increased to 13, Ukraines state emergency service stated.

Among the dead was a little kid, the firm added.The Ukrainian presidency also stated Russian shelling had actually eliminated five individuals on Saturday.Zaporizhzhia is among the four regions-- in addition to Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson-- that Russia claims to have annexed but has never ever fully controlled.But Moscows forces have actually held the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant given that March 4, 2022.

The plant has actually repeatedly made headings and revived fears of nuclear disasters similar to the fatal Chernobyl disaster that shook Ukraine in 1986.

The exiled mayor of Enerhodar, which houses the station, informed AFP that Russia uses the plant as a nuclear shield for its troops and equipment.After Kyiv and Moscow blamed each other for shelling around the plant, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) posted observers there.Zelensky said on Saturday that Russia had actually taken the nuclear power plant captive a year back and turned the area of the (power plant) into a de facto military training ground.