As generals go, Oleksandr Syrskyi is one of the laconic ones.

But once in a while, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces will issue a tersely worded update that cannot be ignored: “Bakhmut. The enemy is caught in a trap, the town is under the fire control of defence forces,” he wrote on Telegram on Monday.

“Work continues. In the Bakhmut direction, the enemy is breaking out of positions.”

Ukrainian restrictions on access and reporting of the battlefield make such claims difficult if not impossible to immediately verify.

The post was accompanied by drone footage of a Ukrainian strike on a Russian AGTM team on the roof of an apartment block.

That was a reminder of the realities of the battlefield but did little to clear the fog from the Donbas valleys.

What is clear is that Bakhmut is a part of the front where the Ukrainians feel they have momentum — and enough gains to justify a bit of boasting.

Hanna Malyar, the deputy minister of defence who acts as Ukraine’s chief military spokesman, offered slightly more words but not much more substance: “Our defenders have been keeping the entrances, exits and movement of the enemy through the city under fire control for several days.

“This became possible due to the fact that in the process of advancing out troops took control of the main commanding heights around Bakhmut,” she said on Monday.

The Daily Telegraph, London