(Reuters) - Ukraine on Thursday&nbsp;pressed on with a gruelling campaign to regain ground near the shattered Russian-held city of Bakhmut and&nbsp;inflicted heavy&nbsp;casualties&nbsp;on Russian&nbsp;forces&nbsp;on the&nbsp;southern front, senior military&nbsp;officials&nbsp;said.
The&nbsp;Ukrainian&nbsp;accounts outlined fierce fighting in many parts of the&nbsp;eastern front, but no new breakthroughs in the three-month old counter offensive.
Ukrainian&nbsp;advances have been much slower than gains they recorded last year in recovering territory in the northeast, as they proceed methodically in the face of deep Russian entrenchments.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other&nbsp;officials&nbsp;have dismissed Western critics who say the three-month offensive is too slow and hampered by strategic errors, like placing troops in the wrong places.
Russia's Defence Ministry said its&nbsp;forces&nbsp;had repelled eight attacks in the&nbsp;east&nbsp;in hotly contested areas&nbsp;south&nbsp;of Bakhmut.
Ukraine's Deputy Defence Minister, Hanna Maliar, said Kyiv's&nbsp;forces&nbsp;were making gains around three villages&nbsp;south&nbsp;of Bakhmut - including Andriivka.
"Progress has been made there," she said on the Telegram messaging app.
Maliar initially reported that Andriivka had been brought under&nbsp;Ukrainian&nbsp;control, but later said that was inaccurate as fighting was still raging around the village.
Russian&nbsp;forces&nbsp;captured Bakhmut in May after months of battles left the city in ruins.&nbsp;Ukrainian&nbsp;forces&nbsp;have since been chipping away at Russian positions, notably&nbsp;south&nbsp;of Bakhmut.
Maliar made no mention of the towns of Avdiivka and Maryinka, further&nbsp;south&nbsp;in Donetsk region, a day after she said both were being subjected to heavy Russian attacks.
On the&nbsp;southern front, where&nbsp;Ukrainian&nbsp;forces&nbsp;have focused on capturing clusters of villages in a drive towards the Sea of Azov, Maliar said Russian troops had sustained "significant losses" in attacks on key towns.
The Russian&nbsp;casualties, Maliar said, had "significantly reduced their ability to defend themselves".
The drive&nbsp;southward is intended to split a land bridge created by Russian&nbsp;forces&nbsp;between the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014, and areas they hold in the&nbsp;east, expanded by their full-scale invasion launched in February 2022.
Oleksander Shtupun, spokesperson for troops on the&nbsp;southern front, underscored the heavy extent of Russian losses in Moscow's attempts to recover lost positions.
"The enemy, as a result of attempts to recapture at least&nbsp;some of the lost positions in the Tavria (south) direction in the last two days has lost 15 tanks and 12 armoured vehicles," he said on national television.
He put Russian personnel losses at 665 over the two days.
Reuters could not verify any of the battlefield reports.
&nbsp;
(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Nick Starkov; Editing by Stephen Coates)

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Ukrainian forces press on in east, inflict casualties in south-officials