Zelenskyy says Ukraine losing 60-100 service members daily in intense eastern fighting

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine is losing between 60 and 100 service members daily as fighting in the Donbas intensifies.

"The most difficult situation is in the east of Ukraine and southern Donetsk and Luhansk," he said in a late-night interview with Newsmax Tuesday.

"The situation is very difficult," he continued. "We're losing 60-100 soldiers per day as killed in action and something around 500 people as wounded in action."

UKRAINIAN TROOPS HOLD BACK RUSSIA FROM TAKING PRIORITY CITY IN DONBAS

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office on Sunday, May 29, 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy looks on as he visits the war-hit Kharkiv region. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces were "holding" the "defensive perimeters" but reports Wednesday suggested Russia was continuing to make gradual gains in the brutally contested city of Sievierodonetsk.

If Russian forces are able to capture the city, this would give Moscow complete control over the Luhansk region and would allow it to more easily push its forces west into north Donetsk and potentially beyond. 

The U.K.’s defense ministry said Wednesday that "Russian ground operations remain tightly focused" in Luhansk with significant firepower concentrated in the streets of Sievierodonetsk.

The ministry said Russian troops were "pushing closer to the town center" and assessed they had gained control over half of the city.

Servicemen of the Ukrainian Military Forces wait out the shelling in a shelter on a position in the Luhansk region on March 5, 2022.  (ANATOLII STEPANOV/AFP via Getty Images)

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Sievierodonetsk has become the site of one of the most fierce ground assaults in Ukraine since the war began with the infamous Chechen fighters believed to have joined the fight there – prompting some to be concerned Ukraine could see a repeat of the brutality that was carried out in Mariupol. 

Zelenskyy said Tuesday that the situation in eastern Ukraine was challenging because forces there lacked adequate weaponry.

"In the east, it is difficult for us because of the lack of appropriate weapons," he told reporters from Kyiv.

A Ukrainian multiple rocket launcher BM-21 "Grad" shells a Russian troop position near Luhansk in the Donbas region on Sunday. (ANATOLII STEPANOV/AFP via Getty Images)

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Zelenskyy said he plans to de-occupy all areas that legally belong to Ukraine, but said he would not rush this at the cost of Ukrainian lives.

"If our steps or operations to de-occupy this or that region cost tens of thousands of [Ukrainian lives], we will wait for appropriate weapons to save as many of our people as possible," he said. "These territories without living Ukrainians are not a priority for us."