Ukrainian forces, which are pursuing a major counteroffensive to reclaim Russian-held territory, have made advances in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.

The counteroffensive is also ongoing in the eastern Donetsk region.

Ukraine's deputy defense minister Hanna Maliar says that partial success has been achieved in the direction of Melitopol, a main city in the Zaporizhzhia region.

A US-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War, said on Friday that Ukrainian forces made what it calls tactically significant advances toward the village of Robotyne, 70 kilometers northeast of Melitopol.

The think tank says "the operations appear to be forcing the Russian military to laterally redeploy Russian forces."

Britain's Defence Ministry says Moscow likely moved its elite airborne troops from the southern Kherson region to Zaporizhzhia, where there is fierce fighting. It says the move will weaken Russia's defense capabilities in the southeast of the Dnipro River, which the country controls.

Meanwhile, Russia has carried out fierce attacks on areas around Kupiansk in the eastern Kharkiv region.

The governor said on social media on Saturday that an elderly woman died in shelling of a nearby village.

A Ukrainian military spokesperson for the eastern front told local media that, although Russia is trying to get the upper hand in the area, Ukrainian forces are stepping up the defense along the front line.

The Institute for the Study of War says Russian forces appear to be intensifying offensive operations northeast of Kupiansk, in an attempt to draw Ukrainian forces away from more significant areas of the front.