Russian missiles pounded the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on December 1, killing at least one person and knocking out power, a city military administration official said as Ukraine's armed forces reported heavy shelling of a number of eastern front-line villages near the city of Bakhmut.
Russian troops shelled Kherson 12 times, said Halyna Luhova, bringing to 119 the number of missiles that have landed in the recently liberated city since November 20. Twenty people have been killed and about 40, including a child, have been injured.
Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine
RFE/RL's Ukraine Live Briefing gives you the latest developments on Russia's invasion, Western military aid, the plight of civilians, and territorial control maps. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.
Luhova added that residential buildings were damaged and three cars caught fire. Shelling the night before damaged power lines in the city, where electricity had only begun to be restored nearly three weeks after Russian troops withdrew to the eastern side of the Dnieper River.
The shelling was severe enough that air raids were issued in Kherson and other regions of Ukraine earlier on December 1.
Regional Governor Yaroslav Yanushevych reported on Telegram that 65 percent of the city had its power restored after the morning shelling.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking at a news conference in Moscow, defended recent missile strikes, saying they targeted Ukraine's civil infrastructure to prevent Kyiv from importing Western arms.
"We disable energy facilities (in Ukraine) that allow you (the West) to pump lethal weapons into Ukraine to kill Russians," Lavrov said. "So don't say that the U.S. and NATO are not participants in this war -- you are directly participating."
Still, he said Russia remains ready to hold talks on settling the crisis. Ukraine has vowed not to negotiate with Moscow until all Russian troops have left its territory, which include the Crimean peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.
NATO, the United States, and other Western allies have sent weapons requested by Kyiv to help Ukraine defend itself against the Russian invasion and its attacks on energy infrastructure, which Kyiv and the West have called war crimes.
The United States and other Western allies pledged more financial support and relevant equipment to boost Kyiv's energy resilience during a gathering of NATO foreign ministers in Romania on November 30.
Across Ukraine, technicians have been frantically working to restore electricity supplies heavily damaged by relentless waves of Russian bombardment that have left millions in darkness and cold at the onset of winter.
Donetsk, where Russians have been attempting to make further advances, remained the site of the heaviest fighting, the Ukrainian General Staff said on December 1, adding that Russian artillery pounded Ukrainian positions and several towns, including the flashpoint town of Bakhmut and nearby Soledar and Opytne.
Russian troops were building defense lines in the direction of the town of Lyman, the General Staff said. Fresh units as well as those that sustained losses "are being resupplied with personnel, ammunition, and fuel," it said.
The battlefield reports could not be independently verified.
Ukraine's military also reported on December 1 that it had found pieces of nuclear-capable missiles fired by Russia with dud warheads in western Ukraine. The military displayed what it said were fragments of Soviet-made X-55 cruise missiles, which are designed for nuclear use.
The rockets are being launched to "exhaust the air-defense system of our country," a Ukrainian official said.
In a sign some channels of communication remain open, Russia's Defense Ministry and the head of Ukraine's presidential administration said the two countries swapped 50 service personnel on December 1.
Russia's Defense Ministry published video of prisoners of war cheering as they crossed the border in a bus. "We're going home!" said one as his fellow soldiers waved at a camera.
The leader of Moscow-backed separatists in Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, had said earlier on Telegram that the exchange would be conducted during the day.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the 50 Ukrainian prisoners involved in the swap were defenders of Mariupol and the Azovstal industrial complex and other fighters. The youngest of those released is 19 years old, the oldest is 59, he said.
More than 1,300 Ukrainians have been returned from Russian captivity since the start of the invasion, he said.
"We will return all the others. All of Ukraine will be free. All Ukrainians will be at home," Zelenskiy said as he thanked all those involved in gaining the release of the 50 Ukrainians.