Ukraine’s forces have gained ground near Bakhmut amid “heavy fighting,” officials said on Monday.
Deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said that Russian forces were attacking in the Lyman, Avdiivka and Mariinka directions in the Donetsk region.
“Heavy fighting is going on there now,” Maliar said on the Telegram messaging app.
Ukraine had reclaimed nine square kilometres over the past week along the eastern front “as a result of improving the operational (tactical) position and aligning the front line”, Maliar said.
In the south, Ukraine has regained 28.4 kilometres of territory, bringing the total area of re-captured territory along that front to 158.4 kilometres, Maliar added.
Over the weekend, Russia said its forces had repelled Ukrainian attacks near villages ringing Bakhmut and in areas further south, particularly near the hilltop town of Vuhledar. They also reported success in containing Ukrainian troops in the northeast.
It comes as Ukrainian writer and war crimes researcher Victoria Amelina has died after succumbing to her injuries from the missile attack on a Ukrainian pizzeria in Kramatorsk.
The 37-year-old, among the dozens of civilian casualties in the Russian missile strike, had been admitted to a hospital in Dnipro last Tuesday.
