A police officer walks near a damaged residential building, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the town of Avdiivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine, October 17, 2023.
Ukraine's General Staff, in its evening report, said its forces had beaten back 15 attacks near Kupiansk in the northeast and 18 attacks near Maryinka further south, where battles have raged for months.
Barabash said Russian troops had been targeting the town's vast coking plant with artillery for the past week.
Occupied briefly when Russian-backed separatists seized large areas of eastern Ukraine in 2014, the town was retaken by Ukrainian forces who subsequently erected substantial fortifications around it.
Russian accounts of the fighting said Moscow's troops had launched strikes on Ukrainian men and equipment in villages near the eastern town of Bakhmut, seized by Russian forces last May.
Persons:
Yevhen, Vitaliy Barabash, We've, Barabash, Avdiivka, Ron Popeski, Nick Starkov, Lincoln
Organizations:
REUTERS, Rights, Ukraine's, Staff, Suspilne, Russia's, Russian, Reuters, Thomson
Locations:
Ukraine, Avdiivka, Donetsk region, Rights LVIV, Russia, Kyiv, Kupiansk, Maryinka, Moscow, Donetsk, Russian, Bakhmut