Russia intensifies attacks on east Ukraine, Kherson

Russian forces stepped up mortar and artillery attacks on the recently liberated city of Kherson in southern Ukraine yesterday, Ukraine's military said, while also exerting constant pressure along front lines in eastern regions of the country.

Russia fired 33 missiles from multiple rocket launchers at civilian targets in Kherson in the 24 hours to early yesterday, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said in its morning report. Russia denies targeting civilians.

Heavy fighting also persisted around the Ukrainian-held city of Bakhmut, now largely in ruins, in the eastern province of Donetsk, and to its north, around the cities of Svatove and Kreminna in Luhansk province, where Ukrainian forces are trying to break Russian defensive lines.

Air raid sirens also sounded across Ukraine yesterday morning, officials said. Ukrainian social media reports said the nationwide alert may have been declared after Russian jets stationed in Belarus took off. Reuters was unable to immediately verify that information.

Britain's defence ministry said in its latest update on the military situation in Ukraine that Russia had likely reinforced the Kreminna section of the frontline as it is logistically important to Moscow and has become relatively vulnerable following recent Ukrainian advances further west.

There is still no prospect of talks to end the war, now in its 11th month.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is vigorously pushing a 10-point peace plan that envisages Russia fully respecting Ukraine's territorial integrity and pulling out all its troops, something Moscow refuses to contemplate.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday he was open to negotiations but only on his terms, which include Ukraine accepting the loss of four regions - Luhansk and Donetsk in the east, and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south. Together, they comprise about a fifth of Ukraine's territory.

The Kremlin yesterday doubled down on Putin's conditions.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "There can be no peace plan for Ukraine that does not take into account today's realities regarding Russian territory, with the entry of four regions into Russia. Plans that do not take these realities into account cannot be peaceful."

Russian forces abandoned Kherson city last month in one of Ukraine's most significant gains of the war. Kherson region, located at the mouth of the mighty Dnipro River and serving as gateway to Russian-annexed Crimea, is strategically important.

The joy of Kherson residents over the city's liberation has quickly given way to fear amid relentless Russian shelling from the east bank of the Dnipro, and many have since fled.

A Russian strike killed at least 10 people and wounded 58 in Kherson last Saturday, Ukraine said.

In yesterday's report, Ukraine's General Staff also reported further Russian shelling in Zaporizhzhia region and in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions of northeast Ukraine, near to the Russian border.

Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield reports.

On Tuesday, Putin retaliated against a price cap of $60 per barrel of Russian oil imposed on Dec. 5 by Western countries, saying Moscow would now ban oil sales to nations that implement it.

The cap, unseen even in the times of the Cold War between the West and the Soviet Union, is aimed at crippling Russia's military efforts in Ukraine - without upsetting markets by actually blocking its supply of oil.

Russia is the world's second largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia, and any actual disruption to its sales would have far-reaching consequences for global energy supplies.