Fighting intensified on Thursday in areas near the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in Ukraine after Kyiv warned that it might have to shut down the plant to avoid disaster.
The General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said in its daily morning update that some villages and communities near the plant were heavily shelled in the 24 hours to Thursday morning from "tanks, mortars, barrel and jet artillery."
Overnight, Russian forces fired rockets and heavy artillery into the nearby town of Nikopol four times, the area's regional governor, Valentyn Reznichenko, wrote on Telegram, damaging at least 11 houses and other buildings.
On Wednesday, Ukraine said it might have to shut the nuclear plant and called on residents in areas near the embattled facility to evacuate for their own safety.
Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for shelling that has occurred close to the plant and within its perimeter, risking nuclear catastrophe. Russian forces took over the plant soon after their Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine but Ukrainian technicians still operate the power station.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke of "good news" on the battlefields of eastern Ukraine, saying his army had retaken some towns and villages from Russia in what open source analysts said looked like a deep and sudden thrust behind Russian lines.
In his daily late-night address on Wednesday, Zelenskyy said he had received news that his forces had liberated a slew of settlements in the Kharkiv region in a counteroffensive that some Western analysts suggested had seen Kyiv recapture around 400 square kilometers (154 square miles) of territory.
"This week, we have good news from Kharkiv Oblast. All of you have most likely seen reports about the recent activities of Ukrainian defenders. And I think every (Ukrainian) citizen feels proud of our warriors," said Zelenskyy.
Kharkiv region borders Russia and its main city, Kharkiv, has for months been struck by Russian missiles after Moscow failed to take it in the early stages of its Feb. 24 invasion.
In a sign that the situation in the area was still highly fluid, though, Zelenskyy said it was too early to name the recaptured towns and villages while thanking two airborne brigades and a mechanized brigade for what he called their bravery.
Such a thrust, if confirmed and the gains are held, would be a significant boost for Kyiv, which is keen to show its Western backers that it can change the facts on the ground by force and deserves continued financial and weapons support.
There is additional pressure on Kyiv to demonstrate that before winter sets in amid threats by Russian President Vladimir Putin to halt all energy shipments to Europe if Brussels goes ahead with a proposal to cap the price of Russian gas. read more
In a boost for Kyiv, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday that President Joe Biden had approved an additional $675 million in weapons to Ukraine as he and other defense ministers met in Germany to discuss how to continue supporting Ukraine in the long-term.
"It's fitting that we're meeting back here at Ramstein," he said, referring to the U.S. airbase in western Germany where the first of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meetings on coordinating armaments support for Kyiv took place.
"Now, we're seeing the demonstrable success of our common efforts on the battlefield," he said, stressing that allies are in it "for the long haul."
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank, which follows the war day-by-day, said the Ukrainian military looked to have made significant progress on Wednesday.
"Ukrainian forces likely used tactical surprise to advance at least 20 kilometers into Russian-held territory in (the) eastern Kharkiv Oblast (region) on Sept. 7, recapturing approximately 400 square kilometers of ground," the ISW said.
Russia has confirmed fighting in the area but has not confirmed any territorial losses, though unverified social media accounts run by Russian military experts have suggested Moscow did suffer setbacks and will need to urgently reinforce.
Ukrainian Presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych, in a video posted on YouTube, said Ukrainian troops had surprised Russian defenders at the town of Balakleiia.
"The Russians are saying that Balakleiia is encircled when in fact (our troops) have gone much further."
A pro-Russian official from the region, Rodion Miroshnik, said on Telegram that Balakleiia remained in Russian hands although there was fighting north of the town.
Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield accounts but Yuri Podolyak, a Ukrainian often quoted by pro-Russian officials, also said Russian troops were surprised by the Ukrainian advance.
"The enemy had considerable success near Balakleiia with a relatively small force ... It would appear that Russian forces slept through this advance and were expecting it elsewhere," he wrote on Telegram.
"Everything would seem to depend now on the speed with which reserves are brought into the fight ... there have been significant losses."
Mykola Lukashuk, the head of the Dnipro region council, said on the Telegram channel that Russians were shelling Nikopol from the direction of Enerhodar – the main town serving the Zaporizhzhia plant.
"The occupiers are deliberately shelling civilian objects in order to terrorize the population," Lukashuk said.
Russia denies deliberately attacking civilians in its "special military operation" to disarm and "denazify" Ukraine. Kyiv and its allies say the invasion is an unprovoked war of aggression.
On Thursday, the Russian state TASS news agency reported, citing a Moscow-installed head of the Enerhodar administration, Alexander Volga, that Ukraine forces have not been striking the plant with artillery.
"No cannon artillery strikes were observed at the (plant), but drones periodically fly in," TASS quoted Volga, as saying.
"Projectiles have been dropped from UAVs on the territory of the plant itself for the past two days."