REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko Acquire Licensing RightsOct 22 (Reuters) - Russian forces aiming to contain a four-month-old Ukrainian counteroffensive maintained unrelenting pressure on Sunday on the shattered town of Avdiivka in the east and intensified shelling in the southern area of Kherson.
The General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces, in its evening report, said Ukrainian forces repelled nearly 20 Russian attacks around Avdiivka, its buildings now largely reduced to shells.
Russian military accounts made no mention of Avdiivka, but described successful operations against Ukrainian positions to the east in Bakhmut, seized by Moscow in May after months of fighting.
Russian forces routinely shell Kherson and villages on the western bank of the Dnipro from positions on the eastern bank, where they retreated late last year.
The U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War has reported in the past week that Ukrainian forces have crossed the Dnipro to take up new positions of their own and pursue Russian forces.
Persons:
Alexander Ermochenko, Avdiivka, Andriy Yusov, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Zelenskiy, Oleksandr Prokudin, Ron Popeski, Oleksandr Kozhukhar, Diane Craft
Organizations:
REUTERS, General, of Ukraine's Armed Forces, Ukraine Defence Ministry's Intelligence, Ukraine, Reuters, Russian, Thomson
Locations:
Avdiivka, Russia, Ukraine, Donetsk, Russian, Kherson, Kyiv, Ukrainian, Donbas, Luhansk, Maryinka, Bakhmut, Moscow, Dnipro, U.S