Over 60% of Bakhmut is now destroyed as Russian forces attempt an advance on the city in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, a Ukrainian official said Wednesday.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk region military administration, said two civilians died in the city on Wednesday due to shelling.

"Whatever attempts to enter the city the enemy makes, it fails to advance. Whatever advances they had, they have been pushed back to their previous positions, outside the city limits," Kyrylenko told Ukrainian television. "In fact, they are now in the flat devastated area, which also contributes to their huge personnel losses."

Some background: Bakhmut is regularly referred to as the most contested and kinetic part of the 1,300km (800 mile) front line in Ukraine. The Russian advance has left the city in ruins, a smoking shell of its former self. This fate has burnished Bakhmut’s power as a symbol of Ukrainian resistance – in the face of devastating Russian attacks, it is still holding on.

In his historic address to Congress last month, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky dedicated six minutes of his 25-minute speech to the situation around Bakhmut.

“Last year, 70,000 people lived here in Bakhmut in this city,” he said. “Now only a few civilians stay. Every inch of that land is soaked in blood, roaring guns sound every hour… the fight for Bakhmut will change the tragic story of our war for independence and of freedom.”

Members of congress stood and applauded four times, as Zelensky recounted the city’s fate.