Russian forces making minimal progress on Bakhmut axis - UK intelligence

The UK Ministry of Defense said this in its latest intelligence update posted on Twitter, Ukrinform reports.

"In the Donbas, small-scale Russian offensive action remains focused on the Bakhmut axis, but it is making minimal progress," the update said.

The ministry also added that on July 20, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia had expanded the scope of its "special military operation" beyond the self-declared Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics in order to pave the way for referenda to take place in occupied territories beyond the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

"Lavrov claimed that the operation now included new additional areas, including the Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, as a result of Western countries supplying longer-range weapons to Ukraine. This is almost certainly not true. Russia has not 'expanded' its war; maintaining long-term control of these areas was almost certainly an original goal of the invasion. Russia invaded these areas in February and the occupation authorities have been publicly discussing the prospects for legal independent referendums since at least mid-March," the report said.