Russian troops are coming closer to the strategically important eastern town of Bakhmut, having advanced up to 2 km (1.24 miles)towards the town over the last week, a British intelligence update said on Monday.

"Russia continues to give high priority to its own offensive operations in the central Donbas sector, especially near the town of Bakhmut," the UK Ministry of Defence tweeted in a regular bulletin.

In a video address on Saturday, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Ukrainian troops were involved in very tough fighting near Bakhmut.

Bakhmut sits on a main road leading to the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, both situated in the industrial Donbas region, which Moscow has yet to fully capture. (Reporting by Akriti Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Kim Coghill)