The General Staff of Ukraine's military said heavy fighting has been taking place over the past day in the Bakhmut, Lyman, Avdiyivka, and Maryinka areas in Donetsk. It reported a total of 26 combat clashes over that period of time in the area.
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The Ukrainian military also said that Russian forces on June 17 carried out more than 40 air strikes and 51 attacks from rocket salvo systems.
"During the past 24 hours, the enemy launched 43 air strikes and four missile strikes, fired 51 salvo rockets at the positions of our troops and populated areas," the Ukrainian military said.
Separately, regional Governor Serhiy Lysol said the Russian Army attacked the southern region of Dnipropetrovsk overnight with two Iranian-made Shahed drones. He said the drones were destroyed by Ukrainian forces.
The British Defense Ministry said in its latest intelligence assessment that amid intense fighting in the Zaporizhzhya region, in western Donetsk, and around Bakhmut, both Russia and Ukraine are suffering high numbers of casualties. Russian losses are likely at their highest level since the peak of the battle for Bakhmut in March, the British Defense Ministry said in on June 18.
In a rare admission, the Russia-installed administration head in Ukraine’s occupied Zaporizhzhya region, Vladimir Rogov, wrote on Telegram on June 18 that Ukrainian forces had taken control of the town of Pyatykhatky.
“The enemy’s wave-like offensives yielded results, despite enormous losses,” he wrote.
There was no confirmation from the Ukrainian side.
The governor of Russia’s western Kursk region, Roman Starovoit, wrote on Telegram that three settlements in the region had been shelled “by Ukrainian troops.”
“Luckily, no one was hurt,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials said the death toll following the bursting of the Russian-controlled Kakhovka dam on June 6 has risen to 16, while another 29 people were reported dead by officials in territories occupied by Moscow.
More than 3,600 people have been evacuated from the flooded areas in the Kherson and Mykolayiv regions, while 31 people were still missing, Ukraine's Interior Ministry said on Telegram late on June 17.
The United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, Denise Brown, said on June 18 that Russia had "so far declined our request to access the areas under its temporary military control." She urged Russia to "act in accordance with their obligations under international humanitarian law."
Kyiv has accused Moscow of mining the dam and deliberately causing its destruction to flood the Kherson region in the south and slow down its counteroffensive.
In a report published on June 17, The New York Times reported that the destruction of the dam likely resulted from an inside explosion set off by Russia. Citing engineers and explosive experts, the newspaper said on June 17 that its investigation found evidence suggesting an explosive charge in a passageway running through the dam's concrete base detonated, destroying the structure on June 6.
"The evidence clearly suggests the dam was crippled by an explosion set off by the side that controls it: Russia," The New York Times said.
Speaking on June 17, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked countries and aid organizations for help responding to the massive flooding that resulted from the bursting of the dam.