According to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, Russian forces are “performing an intensive onslaught” in the Donetsk region’s strategic town of Lyman.

Russian efforts to “fully take control” of Lyman, according to Ministry spokesperson Oleksandr Motuzyanyk, “failed.”

Images shared on social media on Wednesday, however, showed Russian soldiers in identifiable areas in the town’s northern neighborhoods, which Ukrainian forces had defended since late April.

Motuzyanyk added, “The enemy is conducting offensive operations, trying to surround our units near Lysychansk and Severodonetsk and reach the administrative border of Luhansk region.”

Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of Donetsk’s regional administration, described the situation in Lyman as “extremely challenging” on Tuesday.

Russian forces continued to “prioritize attacks against Lyman rather than Slovyansk on May 24, presumably to enable a shallow encirclement of Ukrainian soldiers northwest of Severodonetsk,” according to the Institute for the Study of War.