Ukraine’s General Valery Zaluzhny admitted this week that Ukraine and Russia have reached a stalemate.
He added: “Just like in the First World War, we have reached the level of technology that puts us into a stalemate.
“There will most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough.”
Meanwhile, Oleksiy Danilov, the head of Ukraine’s security council, has urged his military colleagues to find a “new approach” in the war to help push then Russians back.
Another serviceman in Bakhmut has also told AFP: “We have problems with too many issues. First, the quality of training for our soldiers. Second, we don’t have enough weapons or artillery.
“We’re starved for artillery and it’s getting worse.”
In Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, the public fear that all of the death and destruction could ultimately be in vain if they don’t capitalise on their initial progress in the war.
Krystyn, a 19-year-old resident in the city, told AFP: “We all hoped for the best, but we all prepared for the worst.
“All the guys and girls who died there, and all the civilians, and all the military, everything will have been in vain.”
It comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that the eruption of conflict in Israel and Gaza last month has taken the focus away from Ukraine.
He said: “Of course, it’s clear that the war in the Middle East, this conflict, is taking away the focus.
“We have already been in very difficult situations when there was almost no focus on Ukraine. I am absolutely sure we will overcome this challenge.”
