Russian troops shelled the entire frontline of the Donetsk region from Thursday night to Friday morning, according to the head of the regional military administration, as fighting continued in eastern Ukraine.
Pavlo Kirilenko said the towns of Vuhledar and Kurakhivska were among the settlements that came under attack. The town of Kostyantnivka, which is about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the front line, came under rocket fire on Thursday, damaging schools and a theatre.
Ukraine’s military also reported artillery shelling on Marinka and Avdievka in Donetsk on Friday morning. It said Russian forces were stepping up their offensive around several settlements west and north of Donetsk city, an area where front lines have changed little since the Russian offensive.
Most of the fiercest fighting of the war has taken place around Bakhmut, the main town of Donetsk. The two sides have been locked in brutal fighting there since Russian forces began their siege on the city in May.
Oleksiy Erestovich, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said on Thursday that both Ukrainian and Russian forces were experiencing heavy military losses Bakhmut and in the nearby town of Soledar, describing the fighting there as “very severe”.
Elsewhere: According to the Ukrainian military, Russian forces attacked several parts of the eastern Luhansk region, where Ukrainian forces have made minor gains since September.
In the northeastern region of Sumy, authorities reported cross-border mortar fire, the results of which were unclear.
And in the southern Zaporizhzhya region, officials said about twenty settlements were shelled, many of them some distance from the front line, causing damage to apartments and civilian infrastructure.