Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said hundreds of Russians are being killed every day with the eastern Donetsk remaining the “epicentre” of fighting.
In his nightly video address, Zelensky said the towns of Bakhmut and Avdiivka are the focal points of the conflict.
He added: “The Donetsk region remains the epicentre of the greatest madness of the occupiers.
“They are being killed in their hundreds every day. The ground in front of Ukrainian positions is littered with bodies of the occupiers.”
It came as Russian-appointed authorities say they are working to partially restore power in the occupied city of Kherson following what they called a Ukrainian “terrorist attack” on power lines.
The southern city in the region that Moscow illegally annexed in September was cut off from power and water supplies on Sunday following damage to three power lines.
Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the pro-Kremlin administration of the partially occupied Kherson region, said on Monday that “power and connectivity is being partially restored”.
The alleged attack occurred on the Berislav-Kakhovka power line, and Russian state media reported that the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station had also been damaged by Ukrainian strikes.
Ukrainian officials haven’t responded to the allegations.
But in his nightly address Zelensky said about 4.5million people were without electricity across the country.
He called on Ukrainians to endure the hardships, saying, “we must get through this winter and be even stronger in the spring than now.”
Despite recent Russian successes in damaging key Ukrainian infrastructure, Moscow’s battlefield and mobilisation efforts have shown signs of faltering as conscripted Russian troops reportedly voice their discontent with how the war is being waged.
One such report, by the Russian online news outlet Vyorstka, said that hundreds of newly called-up fighters were recently killed in Ukraine’s Luhansk region by Ukrainian shelling.
Survivors and their relatives told the outlet that officers abandoned them on the front line, and that an entire battalion was only equipped with three shovels to dig trenches.
Soldiers’ family members recorded a video address to the governor of Voronezh, the Russian region the men were reportedly mobilized from, pleading with him to get them away from the front lines.
