<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday warned that the situation around the frontline hotspot of Bakhmut was getting increasingly difficult.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The situation is getting more and more complicated," Zelensky said in his evening address.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The enemy is constantly destroying everything that can be used to protect our positions," he said, calling Ukrainian soldiers fighting for Bakhmut "real heroes."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The fierce fighting for the industrial city of Bakhmut in the eastern region of Donetsk has been the longest-running battle of Russia's year-long invasion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Zelensky has said Ukrainians will fight for Bakhmut for as long as they can.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Taking Bakhmut would be a major win for Moscow but analysts say its capture would be mainly symbolic as the salt-mining town holds little strategic value.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Speaking in remarks broadcast on Russian television on Monday, Denis Pushilin, the leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, said that all roads leading into Bakhmut were "under fire control" of the pro-Moscow forces. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>