Russian shelling of Ukraine's southern city of Zaporizhzhya killed at least several civilians, regional officials said, as Moscow pressed on with its assault on Bakhmut, piling up formidable pressure on the Ukrainian defenders of the city in the eastern Donetsk region.
The number of Russian offensive actions repelled by Ukrainian defenders increased more than twofold compared to the previous 24 hours, with the General Staff reporting over 170 attacks in the east and northeast.
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The bulk of Russia's assault were directed against Bakhmut but also targeted Lyman, Avdiyivka, and Shakhtarsk, according to the morning report of the General Staff.
"The enemy continues to advance in the direction of Bakhmut, attempting to storm Bakhmut," the military said.
Russia has been throwing large numbers of infantry soldiers in wave after wave of attacks on the city in its attempt to surround it and cut off Ukrainian supply lines. There were still several thousand civilians in the ruined city, which had a pre-war population of 70,000.
In Zaporizhzhya, the number of civilians killed by the overnight Russian shelling of a residential building climbed to four, the regional prosecutor's office reported on March 2, adding that five other people were missing, including a child. It put the number of those wounded at eight.
The city of Kherson, on the Dnieper River's west bank, which Russian forces withdrew from in November, also came under artillery fire, the military said.
Russian attacks on civilian and infrastructure objectives were also reported in the northeastern Kharkiv region and Poltava in central Ukraine, wounding a number of people and damaging property and infrastructure.
Meanwhile, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy rejected statements by Russian officials saying a Ukrainian sabotage group had entered Russia's Bryansk region and taken hostages, calling them a "classic deliberate provocation."
WATCH: As Russia concentrates its efforts on Bakhmut, Ukrainian artillery units are pushing back against waves of assaults by Russian troops. They claim to have destroyed Russian forces, equipment, and fortifications in an effort to stymie the enemy advance.
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Kyiv Says Situation In Bakhmut 'More And More Difficult'
In his nightly video address on March 1, Zelenskiy said civilians continue to suffer from Moscow’s "deliberate terror" in targeting civilian infrastructure.
"Across most of the country, where we have managed to provide relative security, [residents] may not be able to relate to what life is like for people living in the border areas with Russia and in the south of our country," Zelenskiy said, noting constant Russian artillery attacks against towns along the front lines.
But despite the ceaseless Russian pressure, Zelenskiy said that Ukrainian forces have "every area of the front under control," adding that "winter is over" and the government "was able to provide Ukraine with energy and heat."
Earlier, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter that Ukraine has dealt Russian President Vladimir Putin "another major defeat" by surviving the winter cold despite Russia's continued attacks against civilian energy infrastructure.
The British Defense Ministry said in its daily intelligence bulletin that as Ukrainian forces continue to hold on to Bakhmut, rising temperatures are thawing the frozen ground, creating muddy conditions and limiting cross-country movement.
Poor cross-country movement typically provides some military advantage to defending forces, British intelligence said.
In Brussels, European Union diplomats were preparing to allocate 1 billion euros to purchase badly needed artillery ammunition for Kyiv, according to a draft proposal seen by France’s AFP news agency. EU officials estimate that Ukraine is firing about 7,000 shells per day, compared to up to 50,000 daily fired by Russian forces.
EU defense ministers are expected to discuss the proposals at a meeting in Stockholm on March 7-8.