Ukrainian troops have told of being “sent to death” in Bakhmut – the small eastern city at the centre of Russia’s ever-intensifying winter campaign.

Amid reports of ”heavy losses” within Moscow’s ranks, Kyiv forces have spoken of their own desperate fight for survival against Russia’s “infinite” stocks of artillery and personnel.

“When they drive us to Bakhmut, I already know I’m being sent to death,” one Ukrainian soldier told The Kyiv Independent during a short stay in nearby Kramatorsk, some 25km west of the front line.

“(The Russians) keep firing at us, but we don’t have artillery – so we have nothing to attack them back with,” said Volodymyr, whose surname was withheld to protect his identity. “I don’t know if I will return or not. We are just getting killed.”

Russia’s advance has relied heavily on members of the Wagner group – often referred to as Vladimir Putin’s “private army” — who have made slow gains in Bakhmut, but at an immense cost.

Moscow first attempted to win the brutal conflict with a “human wave” of assaults using battalions of convicts, before sending in elite mercenary troops.

It comes after president Volodymyr Zelensky and his top military command agreed to continue to defend Bakhmut.

“It’s a pity that probably 90 per cent of our losses are from artillery – or tanks and aviation. And much less (casualties) from shooting battles,” Valeriy, another solider, told the news site a few hours after leaving Bakhmut.

He said “only a few” of the original 27 members of his platoon got out of the city with him, but explained that most of them were wounded, not killed.

“The Russians have so many weapons, and there are so many of them,” Valeriy said. “They are firing at us all the time. Sometimes, you hear an incoming (shell) every second.”

Poland has broken up a espionage network operating in the country, the defence minister said on Thursday, after private broadcaster RMF FM reported that a group of spies working for Russia had been detained.

RMF reported on Wednesday that Polish security services had detained six people suspected of spying for Russia. According to the broadcaster the group had been planning sabotage activities.

Reuters was unable to independently confirm the report.

“I would like to emphasize the great success achieved by the officers of the Internal Security Agency, because the whole spy network has been unravelled,” Mariusz Blaszczak told state broadcaster Polskie Radio 1.

“This is undoubtedly proof that the Polish services work for the security of our country in a very efficient manner.”

There are no signs that Ukraine is withdrawing troops from Bakhmut, the RIA Novosti news agency quoted the Russian-installed leader of Ukraine‘s Donetsk region as saying on Thursday.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has posted to social media to mark the first anniversary of the Mariupol theatre bombing.

The Russian bombing of the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater in Mariupol on occurred on 16 March 2022.

In May last year, an Associated Press investigation shared evidence that the attack was in fact far deadlier than estimated, killing 600 people.

Mr Zelensky tweeted: “A year ago, Russia deliberately dropped a bomb on the Drama Theater in Mariupol. Next to it was the inscription “Children”, which was impossible to overlook. Hundreds of people were hiding there. We are working to hold the terrorist state to account for what it has done.”

The UK Supreme Court yesterday ruled that Ukraine can go to trial to try to avoid repaying $3bn in loans it said it took under pressure from Russia in 2013 to prevent it from trying to join the European Union.

The court rejected an attempt to avoid a trial by a British company acting on Russia’s behalf to collect the loans.

Ukraine said it borrowed the money while facing the threat of military force and massive illegal economic and political pressure nearly a decade before Russia invaded its neighbor.

Read this report to find what Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said after the ruling:

Defense secretary Lloyd Austin said he spoke to his Russian counterpart yesterday about the destruction of a US drone over the Black Sea, which had brought the two countries closest to direct conflict since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago.

It was the first call between Austin and Defense Secretary Sergei Shoigu since October.

“I just got off the phone with my Russian counterpart, Minister Shoigu,” Mr Austin said at a Pentagon press briefing. “As I’ve said repeatedly, it’s important that great powers be models of transparency and communication, and the United States will continue to fly and to operate wherever international law allows.”

Russia’s relationship with the United States is in a “lamentable state”, the Kremlin has said, following the downing of a US drone harassed by Russian jets over the Black Sea.

The US military said that a Russian fighter plane had clipped the propeller of one of its drones as it flew over international waters. Russia denied that the downing was intentional, saying the crash happened because of “sharp manoeuvring”.

Dmitry Peskov, the spokesperson for the Kremlin, said that bilateral relations were “at their lowest point, in a very lamentable state”. However, he added “at the same time, Russia has never refused constructive dialogue, and is not refusing now”.

Later, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the country’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, and his US counterpart, the secretary of defence Lloyd Austin had spoken over the phone.

The Kremlin vowed on Wednesday to try and recover the large drone which crashed in international waters after its encounter with Russian fighter jets a day earlier.

It is not clear if Russia has been able to recover any remains of the drone when they arrived at the crash site, which is around 70 miles southwest of Crimea, the US officials told the news network.

My colleague Graeme Massie has more:

Russia is making small advances near the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut but this was coming at a great cost, the top US general said on Wednesday.

“The Russians are making small, tactical advances [but] at great cost,” Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley told reporters.

Ukrainian troops have also told of being “sent to death” in the fight for the small eastern city that has spent months under siege.