The Ukrainian military reported on May 5 that fresh Russian reinforcements were being brought into Bakhmut, a city in the Donetsk region where fighting has intensified. The region has been at the epicenter of Moscow's push in eastern Ukraine, while Russia continued the shelling of southern Ukraine.
On the battlefield in Bakhmut, Ukrainian defenders repelled 60 Russian assaults over the past 24 hours, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said in its daily report on May 5, in what marked an increase in the intensity of Russia's repeated attempts to take the city.
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Fierce fighting was also reported in Maryinka, close to Bakhmut, where Russian forces attempted to improve their tactical positions, the General Staff said.
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said Russian troops -- spearheaded by mercenaries from the private Wagner group -- are making every effort to capture Bakhmut by May 9, the date when Moscow celebrates its World War II Victory Day.
"To achieve this, they are bringing in Wagner forces from other battlefields who are being replaced with paratrooper assault units that are currently fighting in the Bakhmut direction," Malyar said on Telegram.
"The Russians are inclined toward symbolism, and their key historic myth is May 9. They really have established the objective of taking control of Bakhmut by this date," Malyar said separately on Ukrainian television.
Malyar's statement contradicted an apparent threat by Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who earlier on May 5 claimed he would withdraw his fighters from Bakhmut in what looked like an escalation of his ongoing feud with the Russian Defense Ministry over supplies and support.
In a video posted by his press service on May 5, Prigozhin said he would pull out Wagner forces from Bakhmut by May 10 -- the day after the Kremlin’s planned World War II Victory Day commemorations.
"We were supposed to take Bakhmut by May 9, but pseudo-military bureaucrats, who knew about it, literally cut us off from artillery ammunition," Prigozhin said in the video, as he addressed the camera with a group of apparent Wagner soldiers in the background.
Later on May 5, the Russian-installed head of the Zaporizhzhya region ordered the evacuation from Russian-held frontline areas in southern Ukraine.
"In the past few days, the enemy has stepped up shelling of settlements close to the front line," Yevgeny Balitsky wrote on social media. "I have therefore made a decision to evacuate first of all children and parents, elderly people, disabled people, and hospital patients."
The "temporary evacuation" order affects 18 places, including the town of Enerhodar, where the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant is located.
WATCH: The village of Bohoyavlenka in Ukraine's Donetsk region is located 10 kilometers from the front line. Of 1,500 people who lived here before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, only 234 remain. But residents can still be found planting potatoes, beets, and zucchini.
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Ukrainian Residents 10 Kilometers From Front Line Dig Gardens, Despite Shelling
Meanwhile, Russia bombed the southern city of Kherson again on May 5, regional officials said, causing injuries and infrastructure damage.
Earlier in the day, heavy artillery fire destroyed civilian and energy infrastructure in Nikopol, said the head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional council, Mykola Lukashuk.
"The occupiers targeted the homes of the townspeople. Ten private houses, a building, gas furnaces, and electricity networks were destroyed," Lukashuk wrote on Telegram.
Russia has stepped up its strikes on southern Ukraine in recent days, targeting mostly the liberated areas of the Kherson region, where at least 23 civilians were killed by shelling this week.