NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned on Wednesday that the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut could soon fall to Russia after months of intense fighting.
His comments came as Russia's Wagner mercenary group, which led the attack on Bakhmut, claimed it had seized the eastern bank of the industrial city, wracked by the longest war since Moscow invaded Ukraine a year ago.
Wagner chief and Kremlin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin said on social media Wednesday that his forces "have taken all of the eastern part of Bakhmut", a salt-mining town with a pre-war population of 80,000.
The intense fighting around Bakhmut has been the longest and bloodiest in Russia's more than year-long invasion, which has devastated swathes of Ukraine and displaced millions of people.
"What we see is that Russia is throwing more troops, more forces and what Russia lacks in quality they try to make up in quantity," Stoltenberg told reporters in Stockholm on the sidelines of an EU defence ministers meeting.
"We cannot rule out that Bakhmut may eventually fall in the coming days," the head of the US-led military alliance said, adding that "this does not necessarily reflect any turning point of the war".
- Russian troops 'could go further' -
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned in an interview with CNN of what could happen if Bakhmut falls to Russian forces.
"We understand that after Bakhmut, (Russian forces) could go further" and attack nearby cities in the Donetsk region, he said.
"They could go to Kramatorsk, they could go to Sloviansk, it would be an open road for the Russians after Bakhmut to other towns in Ukraine, in the Donetsk direction," Zelensky said in an interview set to air Wednesday.
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