Ukrainian forces staged their heaviest shelling attack in years in the country's Russian-controlled east on Thursday, Moscow-installed officials said, as both sides ruled out a Christmas truce in the nearly 10-month-old war.
Alexei Kulemzin, the Russian-backed mayor of Donetsk city, said 40 rockets were fired from BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launchers at civilians in the city centre in the early hours.
Meanwhile, Russian forces kept up shelling and air strikes along the entire eastern front line, killing one person, while two were killed in the southern city of Kherson, Ukrainian officials said.
Moscow and Kyiv are not currently holding talks to end Europe's biggest conflict since World War II, raging mainly in Ukraine's east and south with little movement on either side.
On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had said a Christmas ceasefire was “not on the agenda.”
Kulemzin cast the Donetsk attack as a war crime and said it was the biggest on the city since 2014, when pro-Moscow separatists seized it from Kyiv's control. Preliminary estimates showed five people had been hurt, including a child, he said.
Ukraine's military General Staff said Moscow's focus remained on the eastern cities of Bakhmut and Avdiivka, and that Ukrainian forces had repelled Russian attacks.
It also said Russian forces continued to strike Ukrainian troops and civilian infrastructure in the Donetsk region and in the southern areas of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
Separately, Russian shelling killed two people in the centre of Kharkiv, the southern city liberated by Ukraine last month, said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the president's office.
Power shortages
Tens of thousands of people have been killed, millions more displaced and cities reduced to rubble since Russia invaded Ukraine on Februay 24 in a "special military operation", saying it needed to protect Russian speakers from Ukrainian nationalists. Kyiv and its allies call it an unprovoked war of aggression.
Russia has fired barrages of missiles on Ukraine's energy infrastructure since October, disrupting power supplies and leaving people without heating in freezing winter conditions.
National grid operator Ukrenergo said on Thursday Ukraine continued to suffer a "significant" deficit of electricity due to the strikes, including new ones in the east, adding that the situation was exacerbated by the wintry weather.
The Vatican launched a crowdfunding campaign on Thursday to send thermal underwear to Ukraine to help people survive the winter.
European Union member states will try again on Thursday to agree on a ninth package of Russia sanctions after Poland and Lithuania blocked a deal late on Wednesday over concerns it might benefit Russian oligarchs in the fertiliser business.
Further financial and military aid to Ukraine will feature prominently on the agenda of EU leaders meeting in Brussels for a summit later on Thursday.
Germany has taken in more Ukrainians - mostly women and children as men of fighting age are forbidden to leave Ukraine - than any other EU country except Poland.