Russian-backed forces have made some advances in eastern Ukraine, Britain said on Friday, even as Moscow’s hold weakens in the south, where a Russian-installed official has advised residents to flee a region Russia claims to have annexed.

A British intelligence update said forces led by the private Russian military company Wagner Group had captured the villages of Optyine and Ivangrad south of the fiercely-contested town of Bakhmut, the first such advance in more than three months. “There have been few, if any, other settlements seized by regular Russian or separatist forces since early July,” said the daily update from London, which normally focuses on Ukrainian battlefield successes.