Explosions shook Russian-occupied cities in southern Ukraine, injuring a police chief and hitting a military facility, while a Russian missile strike killed two people and injured 25 others in the eastern city of Slovyansk,

Russian forces remain relentless in their attempts to capture the bombed-out eastern Ukrainian towns of Bakhmut and Avdiivka but were not making progress, Ukraine's military said, as a Russian-installed official claimed otherwise.

Ukraine is aiming to exhaust and inflict heavy losses on Russian forces trying to capture the small eastern city of Bakhmut, the commander of Ukrainian ground forces said in a video posted on Tuesday.

Ukrainian military leaders said on Sunday their forces have managed to "stabilize the situation" in the Donetsk city as Russian offenses stall.