Russian forces continue to target civilian infrastructure in towns and villages across Ukraine as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian troops are fending off repeated Russian attacks on the strategic eastern town of Bakhmut and after reports of a deadly Russian military range shooting.
The General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said early on October 16 that Russian forces had targeted more than 30 towns and villages across Ukraine, launching five missile and 23 air strikes and up to 60 rocket attacks in the past 24 hours.
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In response, Ukraine's air forces carried out 32 strikes, hitting 24 Russian targets, it said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on October 16 its forces had repelled efforts by Ukrainian troops to advance in the Donetsk region in the east and Kherson and Mykolayiv regions in the south.
Russia was also continuing air strikes on military and energy targets in Ukraine, using long-range precision-guided weapons, the ministry said.
RFE/RL cannot independently verify claims by either side in areas of intense fighting.
Russia has lost ground in the nearly seven weeks since Ukraine's armed forces opened their counteroffensive in the northeast, east, and south.
This week, the Kremlin launched what are believed to be its largest coordinated air and missile raids since Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
The intensified Russian air strikes came after the Crimea Bridge, which holds important strategic and symbolic value to Russia in its faltering war in Ukraine, was hit on October 8 by what Moscow says was a truck bomb.
The positions of Ukraine's southern forces were attacked several times on October 15 and a small "shooting battle" took place near the village of Tryfonivka (in Kherson), Ukraine's Armed Forces southern command said on October 16.
Russian forces also fired nearly 20 Russian-made Grad rockets on the right bank of the Dnieper River in the Kherson region, it said.
An administration building used by Russia-backed separatists in the city of Donetsk was damaged on October 16 in what the Russia-backed separatist said was Ukrainian shelling.
Photos circulating on social media showed plumes of smoke swirling around the building, rows of blown-out windows and a partially collapsed ceiling. RIA Novosti and local media also reported that three cars parked nearby had burnt out as a result of the strike.
Kyiv didn’t immediately claim responsibility or comment on the attack.
In his evening address on October 15, Zelenskiy said Ukrainian troops were still holding the strategic eastern town of Bakhmut despite repeated Russian attacks while the situation in the larger Donbas region remained very difficult.
Russian forces have repeatedly tried to seize Bakhmut, which sits on a main road leading to the cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk. Both are located in the Donetsk region.
Zelenskiy also said Russian missiles and drones had continued to hit Ukrainian cities, causing destruction and casualties.
SEE ALSO: 'Their Losses Were Large': In Liberated Lyman, Ukrainian Soldiers Recall Russian Retreat"We hold our positions," Zelenskiy said. "In general, in the east and south, we do everything to make the occupiers feel that they have no prospects. No matter who they send to fight against us, it will only end in defeat for them."
Zelenskiy said almost 65,000 Russians had been killed so far since the February 24 invasion, a figure far higher than Moscow's official September 21 estimate of 5,937 dead. In August the Pentagon said Russia has suffered between 70,000 and 80,000 casualties, either killed or wounded.
Ben Hodges, the former commanding general of U.S. Army Europe, said he believes Ukraine can retake the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula by next summer.
"When I look at the situation, I see that the situation of the Russians is getting worse with every week. They say war is a test of will and logistics -- and on both counts Ukraine is far superior," the former commander told the FAZ newspaper.
The reports of increased fighting came as two men fired at soldiers on a Russian military firing range near Ukraine on October 15, killing 11 and wounding 15 before being slain themselves, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
The ministry said in a statement that the shooting took place in the Belgorod region in southwestern Russia that borders Ukraine. It said two men from an unnamed former Soviet republic fired on volunteer soldiers during target practice and were killed by return fire.
The ministry called the incident a terrorist attack.
SEE ALSO: Amid Mobilization Rumors For Putin's War Next Door, Belarusian Mothers Scramble To 'Hide The Children'"A terrible event happened on our territory, on the territory of one of the military units," the governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said early on October 16.
"Many soldiers were killed and wounded.... There are no residents of the Belgorod region among the wounded and killed," Gladkov said in a video post on the Telegram messaging app.
The shooting comes amid a hasty mobilization ordered by President Vladimir Putin to beef up Russian forces in Ukraine -- a move that has triggered protests and an exodus from Russia of hundreds of thousands, mainly to neighboring countries.
Putin said on October 14 that over 220,000 reservists already had been called up as part of an effort to recruit 300,000. He promised the mobilization would be wrapped up in two weeks.