Nov. 21 (UPI) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that nearly 400 shelling incidents were recorded in the country on Sunday.
Zelensky, speaking in his nightly address, provided little details about the shelling — which he said remains “extremely high” despite fewer attacks due to a “deterioration in the weather.”
He added that the “fiercest battles” are currently occurring in the Donetsk region, one of the Ukrainian provinces that Russia illegally annexed earlier this year.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of the Donetsk province, said in a statement on Telegram that Russian forces Sunday night fired on “various areas of the front in the center and north of Donetsk region.”
Kyrylenko claimed that Russian forces targeted a school in Bakhmut and that fighting also was recorded in communities near Siversk.
The regional military administration in Luhansk, another of the Ukrainian provinces annexed by Russia, said in a statement on Telegram that “de-occupied settlements are still being shelled by the enemy.”
The British Defense Ministry, which has provided daily intelligence updates throughout the war, said on Monday that “intense artillery exchanges” have continued in the last week around the Svatove sector in the Luhansk oblast.
“As on other parts of the front, Russian forces continue to prioritize constructing defensive positions, almost certainly partially manned by poorly trained mobilized reservists,” the British Defense Ministry said in its update.
“With Russia’s south-western front line now more readily defendable along the east bank of the Dnipro River, the Svatove sector is likely now a more vulnerable operational flank of the Russian force.”
The British Defense Ministry added that Russian leaders will likely see retaining control of Svatove as a priority because of its significant population.
“However, commanders are likely struggling with the military realities of maintaining a credible defense, while also attempting to resource offensive operations further south in Donetsk,” the British Defense Ministry said.
“Both Russian defensive and offensive capability continues to be hampered by severe shortages of munitions and skilled personnel.”
In his nightly address, Zelensky also discussed power restoration efforts in the country and said that officials have “managed to alleviate the situation in some regions where there were a lot of real problems.”
However, the city of Kherson has remained without power for days which Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, told Ukrainian television on Monday is the “number one task.”
