Kyiv has touted incremental gains in its counteroffensive as heavy battles continue.
Ukraine launched the counteroffensive to retake occupied Russian territory around June 4. While its forces have not yet made their big push, analysts have suggested that the campaign is progressing more slowly than expected.
Kyiv's deputy defense minister Hanna Maliar said on Tuesday that Moscow's push in the Kupiansk direction on the northern flank was "currently unsuccessful."
Maliar wrote on Telegram that heavy battles were underway around Kupiansk, Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiyivka and Maryinka, where 18 combat engagements took place on Tuesday.
"The battles continue, but the initiative is already on our side," she said, claiming Ukrainian advances on the southern flank around Bakhmut.
"The enemy is trying to regain lost positions," she added. "Our fighters have to deal with dense mines and intense enemy fire."
Maliar had said on Monday that Ukrainian troops had liberated 2.7 square miles in the Bakhmut direction over the previous week.
On Wednesday, the spokesperson for the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces, Andrii Kovalov, said Russian forces had been "forced to retreat" from near the village of Orikhovo-Vasylivka, northwest of Bakhmut. Kyiv's troops had achieved partial success in their advance, he added.
Kovalov also said Ukraine's forces were conducting offensive operations both north and south of Bakhmut, where Russia is deploying reserves but suffering heavy losses.
It comes as Russia launched waves of attacks from the Black Sea targeting infrastructure and military facilities in the Odesa direction, according to Ukraine's Air Force.
The Ukrainian military said the missiles launched by Moscow included 16 Kalibr cruise missiles, eight Kh-22 cruise missiles and more than two dozen Shahed kamikaze drones.
News outlet Suspilne Odesa reported that drone and missile attacks hit Odesa oblast at 1 a.m. local time on Wednesay—the second consecutive strike against the area in the past two days. At least six people were injured, said the oblast's Governor Oleh Kiper.
Odesa, which borders the Black Sea in southern Ukraine, continues to take fire following explosions on the Crimean Bridge, which Moscow has blamed on Kyiv.
Russian forces also targeted Kyiv oblast with Iranian-made drones around 5 a.m. on Wednesday, according to a Telegram post from Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration. All the drones were destroyed, he said.
The U.K. Ministry of Defense reported in its defense intelligence update on Wednesday that there are intense engagements at the Ukrainian beachhead on the Dnieper River's left (east) bank near the destroyed Antonivsky Bridge, where Kyiv's forces are trying to progress.
Small units of Russian and Ukrainian troops have also been contesting islands in the Dnieper Delta.
However, the ministry added that the escalation in the lower reaches of the river presented Russia with the problem of whether to redeploy troops from the southern front by Zaporizhzhia oblast.
Newsweek has emailed the Russian defense ministry for comment.
