Heavy fighting continued unabated in the east as Ukrainian forces repelled dozens of Russian attacks over the past 24 hours, the General Staff of the Ukrainian military said on December 21, as a regional official said one person was killed by shelling in the recently liberated city of Kherson in the south.
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The General Staff said Russian forces continued their bombardment of Bakhmut and Avdiyivka in Donetsk, where the fiercest battles have been fought for the past months, while also attacking Ukrainian positions and civilian settlements in Luhansk and Kharkiv regions.
The Ukrainian military responded with strikes on the Russian positions that included aviation and artillery, the General staff said.
"Units of missile troops and artillery of the defense forces of Ukraine hit an ammunition warehouse, three control points, and 10 areas of concentration of the occupiers' manpower," it said.
The claims could not be independently verified.
Russian troops shelled the region and city of Kherson dozens of times in the past day, killing one person and wounding six, regional Governor Yaroslav Yanushevych said on December 21 on Telegram.
"Russian occupiers shelled the territory of Kherson 71 times. They fired from artillery, MLRS, mortars, and tanks," Yanushevych said, adding that the Russian Army targeted the river port and residential buildings.
A day earlier, Russian shelling killed two people and wounded three others.
Kherson came back under Ukrainian control on November 11, but Russian forces that had fled the city have kept pounding it from across the Dnieper River.
Almost 10 months into the war, Russia’s invasion has been bogged down, with troops having been forced to make three major retreats.
Russia has been targeting power infrastructure and other civilian objectives in Kyiv and other parts of the country with swarms of kamikaze drones as part of an apparent strategy to try to freeze Ukrainians and demoralize the population.
Oleskiy Kuleba, the governor of the wider Kyiv region surrounding the capital, said on December 20 that 80 percent of the region remains without electricity.
In Washington, a U.S. government funding bill includes $45 billion in emergency assistance to Ukraine and NATO allies. The money is to be used for military training, equipment, logistics, and intelligence support, as well as for replenishing U.S. equipment sent to Ukraine. Lawmakers are racing to pass the measure before midnight on December 23.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is due to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress in person in Washington on December 21. A senior U.S. administration official said in a call with reporters on December 20 that, during Zelenskiy’s visit, the Biden administration will announce $1.8 billion in already approved military aid to Ukraine that will, for the first time, include a Patriot missile battery and precision guided bombs for their fighter jets.
In addition, the World Bank said on December 20 it had approved a financing package totaling $610 million to address urgent relief and recovery needs in Ukraine.