The Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reports that Ukrainian forces are “conducting intense artillery fire in the area of ​​the city of Olesk” in Kherson, CNN cites.

Oleski is located on the eastern bank of the Dnieper, eight kilometers from the city of Kherson, which is on the opposite bank.

The correspondent of RIA “Novosti” reported from the scene: “explosions, sounds of large-scale gunfire are heard in the city, columns of smoke are rising on the outskirts of the city.”

“They come both during the day and at night, you see, the forest on the outskirts is on fire,” a gas station employee told RIA Novosti.

Mobile communications are not working in the city, shops and the market are closed, the agency reports.

Serhii Bratchuk, the spokesman of the Odesa regional state administration, said that the strikes on Russian military facilities were carried out in Golya Prystan and Gornostaevka, two cities located on the opposite bank of the river from Kherson. Bratchuk said that there are victims.

In the evening report, the Ukrainian General Staff reported that the Russians had bombed a number of settlements a few kilometers from the river bank.

There are also reports of fierce fighting in the Donetsk region, where, according to the General Staff, Russian troops were conducting offensive operations in the directions of Bakhmut, Avdiyivka, and Novopavlivka.

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