Russian forces fired 33 rockets at civilian targets in the Ukrainian city of Kherson in the 24 hours to early Wednesday, Ukraine’s military said, as fighting intensified, with Russia deploying more tanks and armoured vehicles on front lines.
In Kherson, abandoned by Russian troops last month, Russian forces shelled the maternity wing of a hospital, said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s deputy chief-of-staff, on Telegram. No one was hurt, and the staff and patients had been moved to a shelter, he said.
The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said in its morning report that Russia forces were attacking populated areas on the right bank of the Dnipro river near Kherson with mortars and artillery.
After a number of dramatic Ukrainian gains in the autumn, the war has entered a slow, grinding phase as bitter winter weather has set in at the front. The heaviest fighting has been around the eastern city of Bakhmut, which Russia has been trying for months to storm at huge cost in lives, and further north in the cities of Svatove and Kreminna, where Ukraine is trying to break Russian defensive lines.
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In Bakhmut, home to 70,000 people before the war and now in ruins, Reuters reporters saw fires burning in a large residential building, while debris littered the streets and most buildings had had their windows blown out.
Russian forces, military equipment and weaponry are concentrated around Bakhmut, but efforts to encircle the town have been unsuccessful, deputy defence minister Hanna Malyar said on television.
Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said in a YouTube video that fighting had intensified, with Russia deploying armoured vehicles and tanks. “There has been very little change in terms of the front line, but pressure from the enemy has intensified, both in terms of the numbers of men and the type and quantity of equipment,” he said.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy declared his country a “global leader” in a speech to parliament on Wednesday, telling politicians to remain united in the face of Russia’s invasion and praising Ukrainians for helping the West “find itself again”.
Mr Zelenskiy, in an annual speech held behind closed doors because of the war, said Ukraine’s military resistance against the Kremlin had reinvigorated a belief in values across the world.
“Thanks to our unity we achieved that which almost no one in the world believed. Almost no one – except us,” he told politicians, his cabinet, other senior officials and the top military officials. “Our national colours are today an international symbol of courage and indomitability of the whole world,” he said in the 45-minute speech.
The end-of-year speech was heavily focused on the war, now in its 11th month, but he also used it to outline ideas – such as decentralising the energy system and making it greener – to rebuild a robust and prosperous state. Thanking Western partners for weapons supplies, Mr Zelenskiy also said Ukraine would spawn a powerful homegrown defence industry that “will be one of the most powerful in Europe and the world”.
He added that Ukraine would increase the number of Starlink internet service terminals in its possession to more than 30,000. The SpaceX units have been vital to maintaining internet access in places badly hit by Russian air strikes.
Mr Zelenskiy also told parliament that Ukraine had secured the release of 1,456 prisoners of war since Russia invaded, the result of a series of prisoner exchanges with Moscow. Russia is thought to hold thousands of Ukrainian prisoners of war, but the exact figures are not known.
The Kremlin’s troops invaded Ukraine on February 24th, launching a war that has killed tens of thousands, destroyed cities and displaced millions.
Mr Zelenskiy said the Ukrainian war effort had helped consolidate and unite the EU. Ukraine has applied to join both the EU and the Nato military alliance. “Ukraine became one of the global leaders,” he said. “Over 10 months of this year we helped everyone. We helped the West find itself again, to return to the global arena and feel how much the West prevails. No one in the West fears nor will they fear Russia.”