[Source: Reuters]

Ukraine’s future hinges on the outcome of battles in the east, including in and around Bakhmut, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.

Both sides describing brutal fighting in the small city as Russia intensifies a winter campaign to capture it.

The ruined mining town of Bakhmut has become the focus of Russia’s invasion, with the months-long fight for it becoming Europe’s bloodiest infantry battle since World War Two.

“It is very tough in the east – very painful,” Zelenskiy said in a Monday video address that he has held nightly since Russia launched its invasion more than a year ago.

“We have to destroy the enemy’s military power. And we shall destroy it,” he added.

Separately, in what would be the first international war crimes cases arising from the invasion, the International Criminal Court (ICC) is expected to seek the arrest of Russian officials for forcibly deporting children from Ukraine and targeting civilian infrastructure, a source told Reuters.

Russia would be certain to reject arrest warrants against its officials, but an international war crimes prosecution could deepen its diplomatic isolation over a campaign that has killed thousands of civilians and driven millions from their homes.

Russia, however, appeared on the cusp of one long-sought diplomatic breakthrough with sources telling Reuters that China President Xi Jinping could visit Russia as soon as next week.

The Chinese foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment. The Kremlin said it had nothing to announce yet.

On the battlefront, Ukrainian soldiers said on Monday they were repelling attacks near Kreminna, north of Bakhmut.

In a forest some 8 km (5 miles) from the front, cannons boomed and explosions rumbled constantly in the distance.

Reuters reporters saw a soldier being brought from the front with a wounded leg. He was stabilised in a van with a splint and painkillers before being taken to a medical centre.

“Two or three weeks ago the fighting was at its peak but it has calmed down a bit,” said Mykhailo Anest, a 35-year-old medic. “There is a lot of artillery and mortar fire.”