The update was provided by the Ukrainian army on Sunday night, the Ukrainska Pravda website reported.
Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesman for the Ukrainian military’s Eastern Group of Forces, told Ukrainian TV: "On the Bakhmut front, the defence forces retain the initiative, continue to conduct assault operations, and push the enemy out.”
He added: “Over the course of the past 24 hours, they have gained between 600 and 1,000 metres on Bakhmut's southern and northern flanks."
Cherevatyi also said that Ukrainian forces had killed 186 Russian soldiers, injured 224 and captured a further eight during Sunday’s advance, Ukrainska Pravda reported.
Ukrainian troops destroyed a Russian tank, an infantry fighting vehicle, two self-propelled artillery systems, two Grad multiple-launch rocket systems, three anti-tank systems, three Msta-B howitzers, a Strila-10 anti-aircraft missile system, six ammunition dumps, three Lancet kamikaze drones, and one Orlan-10 drone, according to officials.
Ukraine has reclaimed 130 sq km on southern front: deputy defence minister
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said that Ukraine had reclaimed some 130 square kilometres from Russian forces along the southern front line since the start of the counteroffensive.
Malyar told Ukrainian media: “The situation in the south has not undergone significant changes over the past week.”
She added that, along the eastern part of the front line, which includes "the Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Maryinka directions," about 250 combat clashes had taken place over the past week, the Reuters news agency reported.
'Window of opportunity'
Ukrainian officials said that the unrest in Russia, following an anti-Kremlin armed rebellion on Saturday by the warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner group of mercenaries, offered a “window of opportunity” for Kyiv's long-awaited counteroffensive, Britain’s The Guardian newspaper reported.
Wagner mutiny shows Putin made ‘big strategic mistake’ in invading Ukraine: NATO chief
Saturday's aborted revolt by the Wagner group of mercenaries showed that Russian President Vladimir Putin made a “big strategic mistake” in starting a war against Ukraine in February last year, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said.
Speaking during a visit to Vilnius, Lithuania, the NATO chief told reporters on Monday: “The events over the weekend are an internal Russian matter, and yet another demonstration of the big strategic mistake that President Putin made with his illegal annexation of Crimea and the war against Ukraine.”
Stoltenberg added: “As Russia continues its assault, it is even more important to continue our support to Ukraine.”
'I urged EU to accelerate Russia’s defeat by stepping up support for Ukraine': FM
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that the events on Saturday, "as tanks rolled on Moscow with little resistance,” in fact “proved Ukraine will win.”
Kuleba, who on Monday spoke via video link to a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Luxembourg, added in a tweet: “At the Foreign Affairs Council, I urged the EU to accelerate Russia’s defeat by stepping up support for Ukraine.”
Russia attacks Ukraine with cruise missiles, UAVs, incendiary shells
Russia attacked Ukraine with drones and cruise missiles from the south overnight into Monday, Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne reported.
Ukraine’s air defence shot down two of three Kalibr cruise missiles launched by Russia and seven of eight Shahed unmanned aerial vehicles, according to officials.
At the same time, Russia fired four drones “of an unknown type” from the north, all of which were shot down, Suspilne reported.
Air defence forces were working in the southern Odesa region on the Black Sea, with one missile and an UAV hitting “certain objects” in the region, but there were no reports of injuries, according to Ukraine’s air force.
At dawn on Monday, Russian troops dropped prohibited incendiary shells on Kherson City and the nearby settlement of Antonivka, causing fires to break out, and also shelled Olhivka nearby, injuring one person, Suspilne reported, as quoted by The Guardian.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, launching the largest military campaign in Europe since World War II.
Monday is day 488 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, Ukrainska Pravda, The Guardian, NATO