Outskirts of Bakhmut littered with bodies of Russian soldiers - Danilov

According to an Ukrinform correspondent, Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said this on Ukrainian television.

"Our military is standing. Our military is defending the glorious city of Bakhmut, because it is our fortress. We cannot imagine now how useful what they are doing will be for us, for our country and for our army in the near future. Because a huge number of those bastards who invaded our territory are being eliminated there," Danilov said.

He noted that according to Ukrainian Ground Forces Commander, Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi, the area around the city is littered with bodies of Russian soldiers, in particular Wagner Group fighters. Danilov said the occupiers do not take the bodies of their soldiers because no one needs them.

At the same time, he added that fighting continues on the outskirts of the city and on some streets.

Danilov said that if the Ukrainian boys and girls had not defended Bakhmut for ten months, the Russians would have won a certain moral victory and would also have reached other cities of the country.

"For them, this is already a kind of Stalingrad, as they think. But they will lose near Bakhmut just as the fascists lost near Stalingrad," Danilov said.

Syrskyi said earlier that the defenders of Bakhmut were holding the eastern front in order to buy time to accumulate reserves and start a spring counteroffensive.