Zelensky says Bakhmut ‘covered with blood’ as Russia also steps up attacks on Kherson

There has been heavy fighting and shelling in a number of areas, including the two cities – as Ukraine’s president also praises his people for helping the West ‘find itself again’ during the Russian invasion

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has said “there is no place that is not covered with blood” in the besieged city of Bakhmut as Russia also stepped up its attacks on the recently liberated city of Kherson.

The southern city of Kherson was hit by 33 missiles in the 24 hours into Wednesday, Ukraine's army said – with a maternity hospital among the locations hit, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, Zelensky's deputy chief of staff. No one was said to be hurt as the staff and patients had been moved to a shelter.

Bakhmut, in the eastern province of Donetsk, was among the areas where heavy fighting persisted. Other areas included the cities of Svatove and Kreminna in Luhansk province, where Ukrainian forces are trying to break Russian defensive lines. Mr Zelensky said in a post on Telegram that “only a few civilians are left” in a city that had a population of around 70,000. “There is no place that is not covered with blood. There is no hour when the terrible roar of artillery does not sound,” Mr Zelensky added.

Officials in Kherson have also told remaining residents to flee as the Russian bombardment continues. “I’m telling these people that Kherson is one of the most dangerous cities right now. So I ask them to imagine that they are going on vacation for a couple of weeks ... But still, a lot of people are staying in the city,” Kherson city council member Dmytro Poddubniy told CNN.

Mr Zelensky's office also later reported that shelling of a village in the area around Kherson wounded three civilians, including a 14-year-old. The army also reported further Russian shelling in Zaporizhzhia region and in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions of northeast Ukraine.

“There has been very little change in terms of the frontline but pressure from the enemy has intensified, both in terms of the numbers of men and the type and quantity of equipment,” Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said.

The UK Ministry of Defence said in an update on Ukraine that Russia had likely reinforced the Kreminna section of the frontline as it is logistically important to Moscow and has become relatively vulnerable following Ukrainian advances further west.

There appears little prospect for peace in the 11th month of the invasion by Russia, despite both sides saying they would be willing to come to the table if the conditions were right. Zelensky is pushing a 10-point peace plan that calls on Russia to fully respect Ukraine's territorial integrity and pull out all its troops, a prospect that was given short shrift by the Kremlin on Wednesday reiterating its stance that Kyiv must accept Russia's annexation of a number of areas of four Ukrainian regions: Luhansk and Donetsk in the east, and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south. The takeover of these areas has been denounced by most of the international community, with it being announced in September after “referendums”.

“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, taking the line often repeated by Russia’s president Vladimir Putin. “Plans that do not take these realities into account cannot be peaceful.”

Workers carry furniture from the hospital maternity unit damaged after a Russian shelling in Kherson (AFP via Getty Images)

The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said his country wanted the situation in Ukraine resolved as quickly as possible, with a priority on defending civilians and saving soldiers' lives, the state-owned TASS news agency said. It quoted Lavrov as saying Russia would beef up its troops and technological capabilities in Ukraine. He said that Moscow's mobilised troops had undergone “serious training” and while most of them were now on the ground, the majority were not yet at the front.

In an annual address to Ukraine's parliament later in the day – held behind closed doors due to the war – Mr Zelensky praised Ukrainians for helping the West “find itself again” and told legislators to remain united in the face of Russian aggression.

“Thanks to our unity we achieved that which almost no one in the world believed. Almost no one, except us,” he told legislators, his cabinet, other senior administration and military officials.

“Our national colours are today an international symbol of courage and indomitability of the whole world,” he said in the 45-minute speech. Thanking Western allies for the supplies of weapons they have sent, Mr Zelensky also said Ukraine would spawn a powerful homegrown defence industry that “will be one of the most powerful in Europe and the world”.

He added that Ukraine would increase the number of Starlink internet service terminals in its possession to more than 30,000. The SpaceX units have been vital to maintaining internet access in places badly hit by Russian air strikes.

The president also told parliament that Ukraine had secured the release of 1,456 prisoners of war since Russia invaded, the result of a series of prisoner exchanges with Moscow, one piece of diplomacy that appears to be working.

“Over 10 months of this year, we helped everyone. We helped the West find itself again, to return to the global arena,” Mr Zelenskiy added.

France's minister for the armed forces, Sebastien Lecornu, also pledged further military support for Ukraine during a trip to Kyiv. That support will include a €200m (£177m) fund that would allow Ukraine to purchase weapons, Mr Lecornu said.

Economic sanctions on Russia have been one of the major elements of cooperation between western nations and the Russian prime minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Wednesday that the country's economy shrank by more than 2 per cent during the past 11 months.