Russian forces pummeled the front line in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions with artillery and air strikes, the Ukrainian military said on February 22, as regional authorities reported heavy bombardments in the southern region of Dnipropetrovsk.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told Ukrainians that the front line was holding despite Moscow's incessant pressure.
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Heavy fighting continued unabated around the disputed cities of Bakhmut, Lyman, and Avdiyivka in Donetsk, where Ukrainian defenders repelled Russian attacks in several other locations including Fedorivka, Yahidne, and Berkhivka, the General Staff of the Ukrainian military said in its daily report.
Russian attacks were also repelled in the Luhansk settlements of Kyzemivka and Dibrova, and in Kupyansk, in northeastern Kharkiv region, the General Staff said, adding that indiscriminate rocket attacks destroyed residential buildings, killing and wounding civilians. It did not elaborate on casualties.
In the Dnipropetrovsk region, the city of Nikopol was targeted by Russian shelling early on February 22, regional Governor Serhiy Lisak said on Telegram.
"The night in Dnipropetrovsk region passed without enemy attacks. But at 6 in the morning, the aggressor hit Nikopol with heavy artillery," Lisak said, adding that there were no immediate reports of casualties among civilians.
On February 21, six civilians were killed and 12 were wounded in the Russian shelling of residential areas of the southern city of Kherson, regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported, adding that the attack also caused substantial damage.
However, "with Russia not letting up at all despite sustaining staggering losses," Ukrainian forces have managed to hold the line, Zelenskiy said on February 21 after meeting with Ukrainian military commanders.
SEE ALSO: In Latest Diatribe Against West, Putin Tries To Normalize War, Isolation For Russians"It is very important that despite great pressure on our forces, the front line has undergone no change," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden is wrapping up his whirlwind, four-day visit to Poland and Ukraine by reassuring eastern flank NATO allies that his administration is highly attuned to the looming threats and other impacts spurred by the grinding Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Before departing Warsaw on February 22, Biden will hold talks with leaders from the Bucharest Nine, a collection of nations on the most eastern parts of the NATO alliance that came together in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
Petr Pavel, the retired general who last month won the election as the next Czech president, called the U.S. president's visit this week to Ukraine an "extremely strong signal" but warned in a CNN interview against underestimating Russia even despite Moscow's "fatal mistakes."
The UN General Assembly is also slated to meet on February 22, two days ahead of the anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with Kyiv and its allies hoping to garner broad support for a resolution calling for a "just and lasting peace."
The draft resolution, sponsored by some 60 countries, is to be voted on after the close of debate -- not expected until at least February 23.
Like previous resolutions, it reaffirms the UN's "commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine" and calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg echoed U.S. concerns on February 21 that China could supply Russia with weapons to help it pursue its war against Ukraine.
"It is President [Vladimir] Putin who started this imperial war of conquest. It is Putin who keeps escalating the war," Stoltenberg said. "We are also increasingly concerned that China may be planning to provide lethal support for Russia's war."
Stoltenberg was speaking after a meeting with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on plans to step up Western ammunition supplies to Ukraine.