Russian forces have significantly stepped up attacks in eastern Ukraine and are trying to break through Ukrainian defences near the town of Kreminna, a regional governor has said.
Serhiy Haidai, governor of the Luhansk region, said Ukraine's military were holding their ground near Kreminna, which Russian forces have held for months, but said they needed more weapons and ammunition to hold out.
"I can confirm that there has been a significant increase in attacks and shelling. And it is in the direction of Kreminna that they are trying to build on their success by pushing through out defenders' defences," he told Ukrainian television.
"So far they have had no significant success, our defence forces are holding firmly there."
Kreminna, which lies about 100km northwest of the regional capital Luhansk, had a population of about 18,000 before Russia's invasion on 24 February last year.
Breaking through Ukrainian lines near Kreminna would take Russian forces a step closer to the much larger city of Kramatorsk.
The Ukrainian military command said in its morning report that Russian forces were trying to take full control of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
It said that over past 24 hours, Russian troops maintained offensives in the regions of Kupyansk, Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Novopavlivka and Vuhledar.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports.
Meanwhile, the Wagner mercenary group, which has spearheaded Russia's assault on the Donetsk town of Bakhmut, has stopped recruiting prisoners to fight in Ukraine, Wagner's founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said.
"The recruitment of prisoners by the Wagner private military company has completely stopped," he said in a response to a request for comment from a Russian media outlet published on social media.
"We are fulfilling all our obligations to those who work for us now."
Wagner began recruiting prisoners in Russia's sprawling penal system in summer 2022, with Prigozhin offering convicts a pardon if they survived six months in Ukraine.
In December, Reuters reported that the US intelligence community believes that Wagner had 40,000 convict fighters deployed in Ukraine, making up the vast majority of the group's personnel in the country.
After major Ukrainian gains on the ground in the second half of 2022, Russia has recovered momentum, sending tens of thousands of freshly mobilised troops to the front.
They have made incremental progress in winter battles which both sides describe as some of the bloodiest fighting of the war.
During a visit to a tank factory in the Siberian city of Omsk on Thursday, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said that Moscow would increase production of tanks in response to Western arms supplies to Ukraine.
"As we know, our adversary (Ukraine) has been begging abroad for planes, missiles, tanks. How should we respond? It is clear that in this case, it is natural for us to increase production of various armaments including modern tanks," Medvedev said in video footage of his visit posted on the Telegram messaging app.
Medvedev, who was perceived as a relative liberal during his presidency from 2008 to 2012, has since positioned himself as one of the most hawkish advocates of Russia's military campaign in Ukraine, often casting the conflict in apocalyptic terms in his regular Telegram posts.
He made his comments as President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Brussels to try drum up support among allies and obtain more weapons.
Kyiv says it expects Moscow to broaden that offensive with a big push as the 24 February anniversary of the invasion approaches.
Russia launched its "special military operation" last year to combat what it describes as a security threat from Ukraine's ties to the West, and claims to have annexed four Ukrainian provinces. Ukraine and the West say Russia's invasion is an unprovoked land grab.
