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Clashes along the corridor in northeast Ukraine have "significantly worsened," the commander of Kyiv's ground forces said Saturday, as Moscow launched a barrage of airstrikes on the Ukrainian city of Avdiivka, a strategically important city in the country's eastern industrial Donetsk region.
Russian forces pounded the city for a fourth consecutive day. "The enemy hasn't stopped either assaulting or shelling positions" around Avdiivka, city head Vitalii Barabash said on Ukrainian television.
Ukrainian officials there said the Russian assaults had left the already-gutted city in flames. Moscow is deploying additional forces to encircle the city, situated just north of the Russian-held regional capital, also called Donetsk.
General Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine's ground forces who was visiting Ukrainian troops in the area, said Russian forces had regrouped after suffering losses and were attacking around the village of Makiivka and toward the city of Kupiansk. Syrskyi said Russian forces were carrying out "dozens" of assaults daily but noted that Ukrainian troops were holding their ground.
In Pokrovsk, northwest of Avdiivka, one person died and 24 were injured in a morning missile attack, while in Beryslav, in the southern region of Kherson, a drone attack killed a 34-year-old woman and seriously injured her 36-year-old husband.
A four-month-old Ukrainian counteroffensive has made some progress in both the east, near Bakhmut, and in the south, where Kyiv hopes to reach the Sea of Azov, though gains have been incremental.
Russia's representative to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzia, said the intensified fighting in the east signaled a new stage in Russia's campaign.
"Russian troops have, for several days now, switched over to active combat action practically throughout the entire front line," Nebenzia told a session of the U.N. Security Council.
"The so-called Ukrainian counteroffensive can, therefore, be considered finished," he said.
In Washington, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the Russian action amounted to a "new offensive," showing that Russia was in no way ready to give up its campaign.
Kirby expressed confidence the Ukrainian military would beat back Russian forces.
Black Sea corridor
The British Defense Ministry said Saturday in its daily intelligence update on Russia's invasion of Ukraine that it is not in Russia's best interests to block any Ukraine-bound trade on the Black Sea.
Russia's Black Sea Fleet capabilities remain "largely intact," the update said, but the possible risk of military losses and "the dire political consequences" of Russia attacking merchant shipping "would highly likely outweigh" any gain from a blockade on Ukrainian bound trade.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, during a visit to the Black Sea port of Odesa Friday, pledged to bolster Ukraine's air defenses and to increase the security of a "humanitarian corridor" for grain exports.
Zelenskyy said Kyiv was working to improve its position in the Black Sea so that it can continue grain exports, which are a vital source of revenue for Ukraine's defense spending following Russia's invasion last year.
"We are working with partners to protect properly these corridors, and strengthen our positions in the Black Sea, and it also applies to the protection of Odesa's skies and in the region as a whole," Zelenskyy said.
The Odesa region has become a frequent target of Russian missile and drone attacks.
Russia has hit six civilian ships, 150 port and grain facilities and destroyed upward of 300,000 tons of grain since Moscow quit a deal allowing safe Black Sea exports of Ukrainian grain, the Kyiv government said Friday.
In a statement, it said 21 vessels had been already loaded with grain for exports and used a new "humanitarian" grain corridor in the Black Sea announced by Kyiv in August. It said a total of 25 ships had entered Ukrainian ports for loading.
The Netherlands will deliver more Patriot air defense missiles to Ukraine to help the country defend itself against Russian airstrikes during the winter, Rutte said Friday.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.