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Russia attacks Ukraine on multiple fronts

Russian artillery has relentlessly shelled across the Dnipro River in the south, Ukraine says.

Russian artillery has relentlessly shelled across the Dnipro River in the south, Ukraine says. Photo: AAP

Russia says its forces in eastern Ukraine have edged forward, Kyiv says Moscow is “planning something” in the south and NATO has sought to shore up other countries that fear destabilisation from Moscow.

Ukraine’s general staff said earlier that its troops had repelled six Russian attacks in 24 hours in the eastern Donbas region, while Russian artillery had relentlessly shelled across the Dnipro River, including at Kherson city, in the south.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, said electricity had been restored to 65 per cent of consumers in Kherson. Russians have been shelling the southern city since they withdrew earlier this month.

Winter weather has hampered fighting on the ground, and President Volodymyr Zelensky has told citizens to expect a major Russian barrage this week on Ukraine’s stricken electricity infrastructure, which Moscow has pounded roughly weekly since early October.

“These are President (Vladimir) Putin’s new targets. He’s hitting them hard,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said after NATO talks in Bucharest.

President Putin had focused his “fire and ire” on Ukraine’s civilians by bombing more than a third of its energy system supplying power and water, but the strategy will not work, Secretary of State Blinken said.

The US-led military alliance was also concerned about China’s co-operation with Russia, Secretary of State Blinken said.

NATO allies offered on Wednesday to help nearby Moldova, Georgia and Bosnia, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said, adding they were all under pressure from Russia.

“If there is one lesson from Ukraine it is that we need to support them now,” Secretary-General Stoltenberg told a news conference. Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu told Reuters: “The beast also wants to take control of the Western Balkans”.

President Zelensky said Russian forces were attacking Ukrainian government-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk provinces which make up the eastern Donbas, as well as Kharkiv in the northeast, where Ukraine pushed them back in September.

“The situation at the front is difficult,” the president said in his Tuesday night video address.

“Despite extremely large losses, the occupiers are still trying to advance” in the east and “they are planning something in the south,” he said, without elaborating.

A teenager was killed when Russia shelled a hospital in the northern Sumy region and another person was killed and one wounded in Russia’s Kherson shelling, other officials said.

Russia said later its forces had taken full control of three settlements in the Donetsk region – Andriivka, Belogorovka and Pershye Travnya – and destroyed a warehouse in the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region containing US-made HIMARS shells.

NATO ministers meeting for two days in Bucharest pledged both to help Ukrainians cope with what Stoltenberg said was Moscow using winter weather as “a weapon of war” and to help sustain Kyiv’s military campaign.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the outcome showed NATO was “absolutely not interested in a political and diplomatic solution in Ukraine”.

Washington pledged $US53 million ($A78 million) to buy power grid equipment, and US President Joe Biden said providing more military assistance was a priority. Republicans, who take control of Congress’ House of Representatives in January, have talked about pausing the funding, which has exceeded $US18 billion.

In Kyiv, snow fell and temperatures were expected to remain below freezing as millions in and around the capital struggled to heat their homes after attacks on infrastructure that Kyiv and its allies say are aimed at harming civilians, a war crime.

Workers have raced to repair the damage even as they anticipate more. Electricity supplies crept back up towards three-quarters of needs, national grid operator Ukrenergo said, a full week after the worst Russian barrage so far.

Russia, which has declared large parts of eastern and southern Ukraine annexed, says Ukrainians can end their suffering by accepting demands it has not spelled out. Ukraine says it will fight until Russia withdraws completely.

“The war will end when we win, or when Russia wants it,” Zelenskiy said in a video interview on Wednesday with the New York Times. “The Russian Federation may only want that when it feels that it is weak, isolated and has no partners.”

– AAP

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