The Ukrainian military has been pressing ahead with a major counteroffensive. Large-scaled military operations appeared to be under way on at least three fronts -- around Bakhmut in eastern Donetsk, western Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia in the country's south.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday that a counteroffensive aimed at retaking Russian-occupied territory is in progress.

The Ukrainian military said the same day that it had advanced 1.4 kilometers a day in Bakhmut, which Russia had claimed to be in control of.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces later reported that the Russians had suffered significant losses around the city last week.

Ukrainian deputy defense minister Hanna Maliar stated on Sunday that Ukrainian forces had liberated a cluster of small villages near Velyka Novosilka in western Donetsk, close to the Zaporizhzhia region.

Maliar noted that Russian forces were transferring their most combat-capable units from the southern region of Kherson toward Bakhmut and Zaporizhzhia.

Russia's defense ministry said on Sunday that its forces had destroyed German-made tanks. It claimed that it had been thwarting Ukrainian attacks.

The Institute for the Study of War says Ukrainian forces conducted counteroffensive operations in at least three areas of the front and made territorial gains over the weekend.

The US think tank also says Ukrainian forces made visually verified advances in western Donetsk and western Zaporizhzhia regions, which it says Russian sources confirmed but sought to downplay.

In its defense update on Monday, the British defense ministry said that Russia's defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, has made "almost certainly seriously exaggerated claims about Ukrainian losses." It stated that he is "likely acutely aware of the need to maintain a positive image in the face of increasingly unmasked criticism from some fellow Russians."