After the turmoil of the last 10 days, Ukraine’s Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar yesterday said that Russian troops are advancing in 4 areas in the east of the country with some “fierce fighting”, but local forces are making some ground in the south. But there are conflicting reports about what’s happening around Bakhmut – the eastern city that’s of no particular strategic importance but saw heavy losses before Russia prevailed and took control in May. On the weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said 21,000 Wagner fighters from Russia were killed in eastern Ukraine in the war, and another 80,000 had been wounded. Zelensky’s claims about the “enormous” losses come a week after the mercenaries’ boss Yevgeny Prigozhin led his men in a rebellion against Moscow before calling it off and felling to Belarus.