Kyiv, Ukraine - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed on Wednesday to take back every piece of territory Russia has taken from his country, as his frontline soldiers reportedly made territorial gains in heavily-contested Bakhmut.

"We will not leave a single piece of our land to the enemy – tyranny will rule nowhere," Zelensky said in his nightly video address.

"We need to bring freedom, security and Europe back to the whole Ukrainian land," Zelensky said.

His address came hours after Ukrainian troops, engaging in heavy fighting for control in the eastern Donetsk region, said they had pushed back Russian troops in some places near Bakhmut.

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"We are conducting effective counterattacks there," Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of the Ukrainian land forces, said on Telegram on Wednesday evening.

As the fighting wore on, the head of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said he fears his unit will be surrounded in the fighting around Bakhmut.

"In view of the lack of ammunition, the 'meat grinder' is now threatening to turn in the opposite direction," Prigozhin, who has been complaining about a lack of ammunition, wrote on Telegram on Wednesday.

"There is now a serious danger of encirclement of Wagner due to the collapse of the flanks," he warned. "And the flanks are already showing cracks and crumbling."