Official: Ukrainian troops advance in several directions around Bakhmut

Ukrainian troops have launched an offensive in several directions around the city of Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast and made advances, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on June 24.

“There is progress in all directions,” she wrote on Telegram.

Maliar said that the advances had taken place near the villages of Orikhovo-Vasylivka, Bohdanivka, Yahidne, Klishchiivka, and Kurdyumivka.

Meanwhile, Russian troops tried to advance in the Kupyansk, Lyman and Marinka directions, without success, according to Maliar.

In the south, heavy fighting continues, she said.

“The enemy is suffering significant losses in personnel, weapons and equipment,” she wrote.

On June 19, the U.K. Defense Ministry wrote in its intelligence update that Russia had begun relocating its forces from the eastern bank of the Dnipro River to strengthen the Zaporizhzhia and Bakhmut sectors.

On June 15, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said Russian troops were redeployed from the southern sectors to the Bakhmut area.

Ukraine’s long-awaited counteroffensive is underway in Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk oblasts. So far, nine settlements have been confirmed as liberated by Ukrainian forces.

On June 24, Ukrainian forces confirmed that they had liberated territory near Krasnohorivka, Donetsk Oblast, occupied since Russia’s initial invasion in 2014.