Sherivati reported that the Russians launched 16 attacks in 24 hours, with 23 engagements taking place in Bakhmut.
“During the battle, 221 enemy personnel were killed and 314 were wounded,” he told the national parliament television station.
Pro-Moscow forces have been fighting for months for control of Bakhmut in the eastern Donbass region.
Both sides admit significant losses and exact figures are difficult to verify.
Moscow says capturing Bakhmut would blow a hole in Ukraine’s defences, and would be a step towards capturing the entire industrial Donbass region, which is a key target.
Britain is talking about heavy losses
The British Ministry of Defense said in its latest regular Twitter updates that units of the Wagner paramilitary group have captured most of eastern Bakhmut, with a river flowing through the city center and now representing the front line.
However, the assessment added that it would be a “major challenge” for Wagner’s forces to advance, as Ukraine had destroyed key bridges over the river, while Ukrainian sniper fire from fortified buildings farther west had made the thin strip of open ground in the center a “killing zone”.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces and supply lines in the mining town remain vulnerable to “continuous Russian attempts to outflank the defenders from the north and south, while Russian forces attempt to approach them in a pincer-like motion,” the ministry said.
Russian military bloggers and other pro-Kremlin accounts claimed via Telegram on Friday that Russian forces entered a mineral processing plant in northwest Bakhmut.
A Washington-based think tank also pointed late Friday to geo-located footage showing Russian forces within 800 meters of the Azum factory, a fortified complex.
The Institute for the Study of War assessed that Moscow’s apparent focus on capturing the factory, rather than opting for a “wider encirclement of western Bakhmut” by attempting to capture nearby villages, would likely result in another wave of Russian casualties.
Across Ukraine, repair work continued on Saturday, after a Russian missile and drone attack two days earlier killed six people and left hundreds of thousands without heat or electricity.
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