Kyiv on Monday said it had wrested seven villages in eastern and southern Ukraine from Russian forces since the weekend. 

Ukraine also said it made small gains near the eastern city of Bakhmut after launching a long-awaited counteroffensive with Western weapons to claw back territory.

"Seven settlements were liberated," Deputy Defence Minister Ganna Malyar said on Telegram. 

These were the villages of Lobkovo, Levadne and Novodarivka in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, she said.

Malyar said Ukrainian forces had also regained control of the village of Storozheve in the south of the Donetsk region, near three villages recaptured on Sunday.

"The area of the territory taken under control amounted to 90 square kilometres," Malyar said. 

The Ukrainian defence ministry said its forces had advanced "250 to 700 metres" into the direction of the flashpoint city of Bakhmut. 

Russia said earlier Monday that it repelled Ukrainian attacks in the same area in the Donetsk region near Velyka Novosilka.

It also said it fought off Ukrainian attacks around the nearby village of Levadne in the neighbouring southern region of Zaporizhzhia.

The various claims by Moscow and Kyiv could not be verified independently.

"Ukrainian forces made visually verified advances in western Donetsk Oblast and western Zaporizhzhia Oblast, which Russian sources confirmed but sought to downplay," the US-based Institute for the Study of War said in an analytical note Monday.