Russian forces continue their fierce attacks in eastern Ukraine, and have likely made small advances in capturing a Ukrainian stronghold in the Donetsk region.

Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko wrote in a social media post on Saturday that intermittent Russian shelling near the town of Bakhmut damaged regional administration buildings and left residents injured.

The British defense ministry posted its intelligence update on the same day, saying that "Russian forces continue to invest a large element of their overall military effort and firepower" along an approximately 15-kilometer-long front line around Bakhmut.

The ministry also said that in recent days, "Russia has highly likely made small advances on the southern axis of this assault."
It said that "the campaign has been disproportionately costly relative to these possible gains."

The ministry added that "there is a realistic possibility that Bakhmut's capture has become primarily a symbolic, political objective for Russia."

The Institute for the Study of War, a US think tank, has made a similar assessment that Russian efforts to advance on Bakhmut "have resulted in the continued attrition of Russian manpower and equipment."

Ukraine presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted on Saturday that Russian forces have eliminated thousands of their troops near Bakhmut, which has "no strategic importance." He urged Russians to forget about Bakhmut.

In the southern region of Kherson, Russian forces continue to fire artillery shells toward the western side of the Dnipro River from where they withdrew last month.

The Kherson governor has posted an assessment on social media that Russian forces launched artillery volleys 28 times on Friday, damaging infrastructure and medical facilities.

The governor added that officials are helping residents evacuate on board trains and buses.