The Ukrainian military says Russian forces have redirected resources to the fight for the key city of Bakhmut in eastern Donetsk region, but have made no progress, CNN reports.

Brigadier General Oleksiy Khromov, deputy chief of the Main Operational Department of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said at a press conference on Thursday that the situation in the east remains difficult for Ukrainian troops, as the Russians are conducting offensive actions in several directions, in particular in Bakhmut, Avdiivka and the village of to Kupyansk, liberated in September.

“The main efforts of the enemy were concentrated in the direction of Bakhmut,” Khromov said. “In the Bakhmut area, defenders of Ukraine withstand up to 20 daily shellings from the enemy, who constantly attacks the positions of our troops under the cover of artillery fire,” the Ukrainian government official added.

“In order to concentrate artillery fire around Bakhmut, during the last weeks the enemy purposefully reduced the number of shelling of the positions of our troops in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia directions, ammunition was delivered in the Bakhmut and Liman directions,” Khromov said.

Lyman is another settlement in Donetsk liberated by Ukrainian troops at the end of September.

“More than 40 percent of enemy artillery fire on the contact line from Kupyansk to Maryinka falls in the direction of Bakhmut,” Gromov said.

According to him, Ukrainian troops were gradually advancing to the city of Kreminna in the east of Luhansk region. In the spring, the city fell into the hands of the Russians.

This week, Ukrainian units advanced up to 2.5 kilometers in the direction of Kreminnaya, Khromov noted. According to Ukrainian officials, the territory was heavily mined by the Russians.

Khromov also stated that Russia has started preparing defensive lines around the city of Luhansk “in case of a breakthrough by the Armed Forces of the Russian Armed Forces of the defensive lines of the Russian-occupation troops on the Svatove-Kreminna line and, as a result, moving hostilities closer to” the area.

The Russian government official noted that after partial mobilization by Russia, trained units continue to be transferred to the occupied territories of Ukraine. He stated that units of the Russian territorial reserve are deployed in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia.

“We are monitoring the movement of enemy units. Currently, there is no significant threat of an offensive group in the Zaporozhye direction,” he added.