KYIV, Ukraine — Fierce fighting was raging on multiple fronts in Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian official said Monday, as she reported small gains over the past week in the east and south.
A few weeks into Ukraine’s long-anticipated counteroffensive against Russia, the official, Hanna Malyar, a deputy Ukrainian defense minister, said on Monday morning that “heavy fighting” was taking place in eastern Ukraine, where Russian forces have been making a push with attacks on the cities of Lyman and Avdiivka in the Donetsk region. Ms. Malyar said that the number of attacks had intensified over the past week, but that Ukrainian troops were resisting while also advancing in the direction of Bakhmut.
Overall, Ms. Malyar said, Kyiv’s forces had retaken about 3.5 square miles over the past week. Her statements could not be independently verified, and Russia’s Ministry of Defense has said those attempts to advance were repelled.
In southern Ukraine, Ms. Malyar said, Kyiv’s forces recaptured an additional 10.9 square miles in the past week. She added that “offensive actions” were continuing in the directions of Berdiansk and Melitopol, two cities long occupied by Russian forces.
Over the weekend, Ms. Malyar described the situation on the battlefield as “quite complicated” and “hot everywhere.”
The counteroffensive, which got underway last month, has been slow and grueling — though military analysts say that the campaign is still in its early stages and that Ukraine has yet to commit the bulk of its forces.
Ukrainian officials — along with Kyiv’s Western allies, which provided sophisticated new weapons and training for the counteroffensive — have defended the pace of advances while cautioning that the campaign will be long and bloody.
On Monday, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine acknowledged that “last week was difficult” on the front lines, but emphasized that “progress” was being made.
“We are moving forward, step by step,” he said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
Ukrainian forces have faced staunch Russian resistance, mounting casualties and fields full of land mines. They have notched mostly small gains, breaking through a first line of Russian defenses and reclaiming several farming villages in the eastern Donetsk region and the southern Zaporizhzhia region.
Ukraine’s military said over the weekend that “intense combat” was also taking place in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine, near the destroyed Antonovsky Bridge, where the Dnipro River has for months delineated the front line.
In November, Russian forces retreated from the city of Kherson, on the river’s western bank, and withdrew to the opposite side. There were reports last week that Ukraine was moving personnel to the river’s eastern bank, and Russian military bloggers have suggested that Kyiv’s troops might be trying to establish a foothold there.
Natalia Humeniuk, the spokeswoman for the Ukrainian military’s southern command, reiterated on Monday that the fighting near the bridge was “counter-battery” warfare — or an attempt to take out Russian firing positions.
The efforts, she said, were to make the situation “safer for the civilian population.”
Since retreating across the Dnipro, Russian forces have fired across it and relentlessly shelled the city of Kherson and nearby towns.
The city of Kherson was shelled 35 times over the past 24 hours alone, the Ukrainian regional military administration said in a statement Monday morning. It added that overall, Russian forces shelled the region 85 times in the same period, wounding six people, including a child.
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