"The command unanimously supported" the decision not to withdraw, President Zelenskyy said. "There were no other positions. I told the commander-in-chief to find the appropriate forces to help our guys in Bakhmut."
Zelenskiy's remarks in an overnight address suggested Kyiv had elected not only to stay and fight on but to reinforce the city, apparently convinced that Russia's losses in trying to storm it would be greater than those of the defenders.
Moscow has sent thousands of troops in waves over recent weeks to try to capture the eastern Ukrainian city and secure its first battlefield victory in more than half a year. Ukrainian forces have dug trenches further west and in recent days had seemed to be preparing to pull out.
Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine a year ago and claims to have annexed nearly a fifth of its territory, says taking Bakhmut would be a step towards seizing the surrounding industrial Donbas region, a major war aim.
"The liberation of Artemovsk continues," Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in televised remarks, using the Soviet-era name for Bakhmut, re-adopted by the invading Russians.
Western strategists say the ruined city has limited value, and Russia's assault may aim for a symbolic victory after a winter offensive involving hundreds of thousands of conscripted reservists and fighters from the Wagner private army.
The Ukrainian military command reported a record 1,600 Russians killed over the previous 24 hours. Tolls of enemy dead cannot be confirmed and the sides do not release regular data on their own casualties, but past Ukrainian reports of spikes in Russian losses have corresponded with failed Russian assaults. Moscow said Ukraine's losses in February had risen 40% from January to 11,000.
Reuters journalists have not been inside Bakhmut for a week and could not independently verify the situation there.
Some Ukrainian officials have spoken in recent days of a ratio of as many as seven Russians killed at Bakhmut for every Ukrainian lost.
"The opportunity to damage the Wagner Group's elite elements, along with other elite units if they are committed, in a defensive urban warfare setting where the attrition gradient strongly favours Ukraine is an attractive one," wrote the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War.
Still, not every Western expert agrees with the wisdom of Ukraine fighting on in Bakhmut.
"From artillery ammo shortages, increasingly contested lines of communication, and an attritional battle in unfavorable terrain - this fight doesn’t play to Ukraine's advantages as a force," wrote Michael Kofman, a U.S.-based expert on Russia's military who visited Bakhmut last week.
