Russia-Ukraine updates: Russian missile strikes hit multiple Ukrainian cities

Ukraine Deputy Minister of Defense Hanna Malyar released a statement Monday with updates on the ongoing counteroffensive.

Malyar said that Ukrainian forces liberated more than 14 square kilometers of territory from Russian forces last week, the majority of which came from the south.

The minister added that Russian forces are "on the defensive" in the direction of Bakhmut.

"The defense forces of Ukraine were able to capture the main heights near Bakhmut and have been holding the fortress city under fire control for several days," Malyar said.

-ABC News' Will Gretsky

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin days after the rogue paramilitary leader launched a failed uprising, the Kremlin said on Monday.

The June 29 meeting came about a week after the rebellion failed, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"Indeed, the president had such a meeting, he invited 35 people to it -- all the commanders of the detachments and the management of the company, including Prigozhin himself," Peskov said Monday, according to Interfax, a Russian newswire. "This meeting took place in the Kremlin on June 29, it lasted almost three hours."

-ABC News' Anastasia Bagaeva and Joe Simonetti

At least eight people are dead and 13 others are injured after a Russian rocket struck the Ukrainian town of Lyman in the Donetsk Region on Saturday morning, according to the head of the regional military administration, Pavlo Kyrylenko.

The attack struck a neighborhood with private residences, damaging a home and a store.

As of Kyrylenko's update, police and paramedics were still on site to provide necessary medical assistance.

-ABC News' Tatyana Rymarenko

A residential building was damaged and multiple cars were destroyed in the shelling, according to Synyehubov.

-ABC News' Fidel Pavlenko