A medic treats a wounded Ukrainian soldier at a frontline stabilization ambulance in an undisclosed location near the frontline town of Kreminna, Ukraine, on March 13.
Russia kept up the intensity of its ceaseless assault on Bakhmut and continued to target civilian objectives, causing casualties, the Ukrainian military said on March 15, as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed to keep defending the city in the eastern region of Donetsk and inflict maximum losses to the enemy.
Russia launched more that 90 unsuccessful attacks along the front line in the east, with a focus on Bakhmut, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in its daily briefing on March 15.
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Besides Bakhmut, which has been the epicenter of the months-long battle in the east, Russian forces focused their offensive efforts on conducting operations in the directions of Lyman, Avdiyivka, Maryinka, and Shakhtarsk, the report military reported.
Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar told Ukrainian television on March 14 that heavy fighting was also under way around Kreminna and other settlements north of Bakhmut.
Russian forces launched 40 airstrikes, 12 missile strikes, and more than 100 rocket salvoes over the past 24 hours, the military said.
A rocket attack on civilian infrastructure in the Kherson region settlement of Ivanivka caused victims among the local population and damage to property, the report said.
The Kherson regional military administration chief Oleksandr Prokudin said four people were wounded by Russian shelling the previous day that targeted apartment buildings in Kherson city.
On March 14, a Russian missile hit an apartment building in Kramatorsk, some 50 kilometers northeast of Bakhmut, killing one civilian and wounding three others.
WATCH: A Russian missile hit an apartment building in Kramatorsk, killing one civilian and wounding three others, on March 14.
Separately, the governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyryklenko, said Russian shelling late on March 14 caused the city of Kurakhovo to lose electricity.
Kurakhovo was targeted in the past as well, with the worst Russian attack killing 10 people in December.
Zelenskiy said in his evening video address on March 14 that Ukraine's top military command unanimously favors defending the sector of eastern Ukraine that includes the besieged city of Bakhmut and inflicting maximum losses on the enemy.
The military command's main focus was on Bakhmut during its meeting, Zelenskiy said, adding that there was "a clear position of the entire command: Strengthen this sector and destroy the occupiers to the maximum."
Separately, Malyar said defending Bakhmut was important because Russians have been losing "a huge number of troops" and a lot of military equipment, while their "capacity to advance is being reduced."
Zelenskiy has also removed the governors of the regions of Luhansk, Odesa, and Khmelnytskiy, the government's parliamentary representative said on March 14, without giving any reason for the president's move.
