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A Ukrainian general said on Thursday that Moscow was digging in for a long war and still wanted to conquer the whole of Ukraine, as Russian forces pounded two strategic cities while Kyiv’s troops shelled Russian-controlled Donetsk in the east.
Both sides have ruled out a Christmas truce and there are currently no talks aimed at ending the nearly 10-month-old conflict, Europe’s largest since World War Two.
In Brussels, European Union leaders agreed on 18 billion euros ($19.16 billion) in financing for Ukraine in 2023 after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged them to back “our struggle for peace for Ukraine and for the whole of Europe”.
Russian shelling killed two people in the centre of Kherson, the southern city liberated by Ukraine last month, said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the president’s office. The shelling also knocked out the city’s electricity, officials said.
One of those killed in Kherson was a female paramedic with the Ukrainian National Red Cross Society, according to the U.N.’s humanitarian coordinator Denise Brown. She said the strike hit a building used by local authorities and volunteers to distribute aid.
“It is shocking to know that a place that is used to support civilians, particularly the elderly, in need of assistance because of the war has been hit,” she said.
The Russian defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the strike on Kherson.
Russian forces also attacked critical infrastructure in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, causing several explosions, its mayor, Ihor Terekhov, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
“The Kremlin… is seeking to turn the conflict into a prolonged armed confrontation,” a senior Ukrainian officer, Brigadier General Oleksiy Gromov, told a news briefing.
