Russian forces increased their bombing and artillery attacks Wednesday on Kherson in southern Ukraine and continued to apply significant force along the front lines in the east, Ukraine's military said.
Russia launched dozens of missiles from multiple locations at civilian targets in Kherson, a city it abandoned in mid-November, according to the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces, though Russia denies targeting civilians.
Russia also shelled 25 settlements around Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, the general staff said. It said some Russian forces were leaving their posts around Zaporizhzhia. Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield reports.
Heavy fighting continued around the Ukrainian-held city of Bakhmut in the eastern province of Donetsk. Around the cities of Svatove and Kreminna in Luhansk province, northeast of Donetsk, Ukrainian forces are on the offensive trying to rupture Russia’s defensive lines.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is advocating a 10-point peace plan that calls for Russia to recognize Ukraine's territory and withdraw its troops.
But the Kremlin dismissed the proposal, doubling down on its stance that Kyiv must accept the annexation Russia carried out in September after referendums rejected by Ukraine and most other nations as shams. The four Ukrainian regions include Luhansk and Donetsk in the east, and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south.
"There can be no peace plan for Ukraine that does not take into account today's realities regarding Russian territory, with the entry of four regions into Russia," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday. "Plans that do not take these realities into account cannot be peaceful."
Also on Wednesday, Zelenskyy addressed the Ukrainian parliament in a closed-door session, urging lawmakers to remain united against Russia's aggression, while praising Ukrainians for leading the West to "find itself again.”
"Our national colors are today an international symbol of courage and indomitability of the whole world," he said in his 45-minute speech, his last of the year.
"In any country, in any continent, when you see blue and yellow, you know it's about freedom. About the people who did not surrender, who stood, who united the world, and which will win," he said.
Zelenskyy said the world had seen that freedom can be triumphant through Ukraine's gains on the battlefield, and he thanked Ukraine's military.
Zelenskyy noted Ukraine has gained the release of 1,456 prisoners of war since Russia’s invasion 10 months ago. Russia is believed to have thousands of Ukrainian prisoners of war, though actual figures are not known.
Gas exports
Russian gas exports to Europe — its largest consumer of Russia gas and oil — hit a post-Soviet low in 2022. European and Gazprom data and Reuters metrics show Russia dramatically lowered exports via pipeline because of the conflict and mysterious blasts that damaged Nord Stream 2, one of two major pipelines that run along the bottom of the Baltic Sea.
The European Union had long talked about minimizing its reliance on Russian energy, but Brussels actually did so when Moscow invaded Ukraine in February.
State-controlled Gazprom, citing Chief Executive Officer Alexei Miller, said its exports outside of ex-Soviet Union states will reach 100.9 billion cubic meters (bcm) this year.
That is a plunge of about 45% from 185.1 bcm in 2021. It includes supplies to China through the Siberia pipeline, through which Gazprom supplied 10.39 bcm last year.
Russian direct gas exports to Germany, Europe's largest economy, were halted in September following blasts that crippled two Nord Stream pipelines.
Some material for this article came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
