"The last few days have been particularly fruitful," he said, without providing any details from the battlefield. On Monday, Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said fighting had surged around the eastern city of Bakhmut, captured by Russian forces in May. She said the Ukrainian military had taken back 37.4 square kilometres (14.4 square miles) of territory overall in heavy fighting in the past week. He said the Ukrainian military was managing to hold back an attempted advance by Russian forces in the Lyman, Avdiivka and Marinka directions in eastern Ukraine. Russian shelling on Tuesday morning killed a man and a woman in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, the local prosecutor's office said.

---

Persons: Read, Oleksiy Danilov, Ukraine's, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Valeriy Shershen, Hanna Maliar, Andriy Kovalev, Avdiivka, Aleksandar Vasovic, Timothy Organizations: SIRKO TEAM, 225TH, Russian, National Security, Defence Council, Russia, Ukraine's Defense Forces, Ukraine's National Security, Defence, Twitter, Ukraine, Lyman, Reuters, Timothy Heritage, Thomson Locations: Russian, Northwest Bakhmut, Donetsk Region, Ukraine, KYIV, Ukrainian, Moscow, Bakhmut, Russia, Kherson