The Ukrainian city of Bakhmut has become a "slaughter-fest" for Russian solders, a senior US official has said.
Chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff General Mark Milley said Russian forces have failed to make any profess in or around Bakhmut.
Milley had been asked at a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Wednesday (March 29) about Russia's attempts at trying to capture Bakhmut after months of trying.
The US official responded: "It's a slaughter-fest for the Russians. They're getting hammered in the vicinity of Bakhmut and the Ukrainians have fought very very well."
"The Ukrainians are doing a very effective area defence that is proving to be very costly to the Russians."
But Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has refuted the US official's claims and admitted Russian troops had managed to gain some ground.
During their regular reports, the General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said: "Enemy forces had a degree of success in their actions aimed at storming the city of Bakhmut.
"Our defenders are holding the city and are repelling numerous enemy attacks."
Bakmut has been the focal point of much of the conflict in Putin's widely ill-conceived war in Ukraine.
There has been much bloodshed since the start of the war.
Western officials estimate that between 20,000 and 30,000 Russian troops have been killed or injured in the city.
Soldiers now refer to the conflict as the 'Bakhmut meat grinder' as many Russian soldiers have been forced to embark on suicide missions in an attempt to exhaust Ukrainian resources
President Zelensky had warned if Ukraine loses Bakhmut to Russia, Putin would "sell this victory to the West, to his society, to China, to Iran."
He warned the Associated Press: "If he will feel some blood - smell that we are weak - he will push, push, push.
"We can't lose the steps because the war is a pie - pieces of victories. Small victories, small steps."
"'Our society will feel tired. Our society will push me to have compromise with them."
Some officials in the West, including former US president, Donald Trump, have questioned whether Washington should continue providing Ukraine with billions of dollars in military aid.
And Zelensky has shared his worries that changing political views in Washington could impact the war.
"The United States really understands that if they stop helping us, we will not win", he said.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, the chief of the UN atomic watchdog said he was working on a security plan for the Moscow-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.
There have been growing concerns for the safety of the plant in the Southern Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhia and calls have been made for increased military activity around it.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, said he was working to find a compromise that would suit both Moscow and Kyiv.
"I am trying to prepare and propose realistic measures that will be approved by all parties", he said.
"We must avoid catastrophe. I am an optimist and I believe that this is possible."
