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Heavy fighting has raged around the eastern Ukrainian town of Pisky as Russia pressed its campaign to seize all of the industrialised Donbas region, while to the west Kyiv has accused Moscow of using a nuclear plant to shield its artillery.
Key points:
- Ukraine says Russia targeted the towns of Marhanets and Vuhledar near the Zaporizhzhia region, killing 13 people and wounding 10
- The G7 has ordered Russia to return control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant back to Ukraine
- Russian forces shelled dozens of towns across the Kharkiv, Donetsk and Kherson regions, according to Ukraine
An official with the Russia-backed Donetsk People's Republic on Thursday said Pisky, on the frontline just 10km north-west of provincial capital Donetsk, was under the control of Russian and separatist forces.
"It's hot in Pisky. The town is ours but there remain scattered pockets of resistance in its north and west," the official, Danil Bezsonov, said on Telegram.
Ukrainian officials denied that the heavily fortified town, a key to the defence of Donetsk, had fallen. Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield accounts.
The Donbas region comprised of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces became Moscow's main objective after it failed to seize the capital Kyiv at the start of the war in February. Luhansk is now almost completely under Russian control but Donetsk is still holding out.
Oleksiy Arestovych, a Ukrainian presidential adviser, said in an interview posted on YouTube that Russian "movement into Pisky" had been "without success".
Luhansk regional Governor Serhiy Gaidai, interviewed on Ukrainian TV, said Russia had sent increasing numbers of mercenaries into the region, including from the Wagner private security firm.
"We once had peaceful Ukrainian towns. Now we have been thrust into the Middle Ages," he said.
"People are now leaving because they are afraid of freezing in the coming winter."
Ukraine vows to respond to Russian strike
Elsewhere, Ukraine has Russia of killing 13 and injuring 10 people after firing rockets at towns near the Zaporizhzhia region.
The attacks were allegedly launched near the Zaporizhzhia plant, which Russia seized in March.
The brunt of the attacks was felt in the town of Marhanets, which Moscow has claimed Ukraine has used in the past to shell Russian soldiers at the Zaporizhzhia plant.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces would respond to the shelling of Marhanets.
Ukraine said Russia also bombarded several other areas in the Zaporizhzhia region including the coal-mining town of Vuhledar, the Dnipropetrovsk region.
Calling on foreign allies to send more powerful weapons, Mr Zelenskyy said in a late-night video address that Kyiv "will not leave today's Russian shelling of the Dnipropetrovsk region unanswered".
He said Ukrainians and the country's allies must think about "how to inflict the greatest possible losses on the occupiers in order to shorten the war".
Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of imperilling the Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe's largest nuclear complex, with attacks nearby.
After the United Nations atomic energy watchdog sounded the alarm over a potential nuclear disaster, G7 members told Russia to hand back the plant to Ukraine.
There were no indications that their demand will sway Moscow, which on Wednesday received powerful endorsement from China of its rationale for the Ukraine invasion.
Beijing's ambassador to Moscow, Zhang Hanhui, accused Washington of backing Russia into a corner with repeated expansions of the western-led NATO military alliance and support for Ukraine's alignment with the European Union.
Washington's "ultimate goal is to exhaust and crush Russia with a protracted war and the cudgel of sanctions," Mr Zhang was quoted as saying.
Beijing is also involved in a stand-off with the United States over Taiwan. Since the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the island, China has been conducting extensive military drills.
Russia has not commented on the Ukrainian allegations of an attack on Marhanets and Reuters could not independently verify Kyiv's version.
Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko earlier said that 13 people had been killed in the towns of Nikopol and Marhanets.
Attacks near unclear plant raise alarm
Andriy Yermak, Mr Zelenskyy's chief of staff, said Russia was launching attacks with impunity from Zaporizhzhia knowing it was risky for Ukraine to fight back.
"The cowardly Russians can't do anything more so they strike towns ignobly hiding at the Zaporizhzhia atomic power station," he said on social media.
Ukraine said around 500 Russian troops with heavy vehicles and weapons are at the plant, where Ukrainian technicians continue to work.
Ukraine's state nuclear power firm has warned that containers with radioactive material might be shelled and said it is vital Kyiv retake the plant by winter. It has accused Russia of wanting to connect the facility to its power grid.
UK says Russia building new ground force
The United Kingdom says Russia is "almost certainly" establishing a major new ground force to back its war.
The new 3rd Army Corps was based in the city of Mulino, east of Moscow, the UK Defence Ministry said in an intelligence bulletin.
However, it said Russia would struggle to build up the numbers needed and the new force is unlikely to sway the war.
Meanwhile, Ukraine was given economic relief when overseas creditors backed Kyiv's request for a two-year freeze on payments on almost $US20 billion ($28 billion) in international bonds.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said the deal would save his country almost $US6 billion.
"These funds will help us maintain macro financial stability, strengthen the sustainability of the Ukrainian economy and improve the power of our army," he said.
Reuters