December 20, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to Ukrainian troops on the front lines in Bakhmut comes us Russian forces intensify their efforts to break Ukrainian resistance in several parts of Donetsk region.

With the conflict now exactly 300 days old, the Russians have been pushing some of their newly mobilized troops into fierce battles in both Luhansk and Donetsk, but the Ukrainian military consistently reports that Russian assaults have been rebuffed.

On Tuesday, the military's General Staff said: "The enemy continues to focus its efforts on conducting offensive actions in the Bakhmut and Avdiivka directions," both in Donetsk. The Russians were trying to recover ground lost in September along the borders of Donetsk and Luhansk, it said. They were also intensifying assaults immediately to the west of the city of Donetsk, the General Staff said. 

Much of the Russian fire comes from multiple rocket launchers. The Ukrainian General Staff said the Russians had carried out more than 80 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) attacks on Monday alone. Some of the most intense fighting has been in and around the ruined town of Mariinka, which the Russians are trying to secure to give them a foothold for further offensive action. The General Staff said that on Tuesday, "the enemy continues to conduct offensive actions, fired from tanks and all types of artillery at the positions of our troops in the areas of 24 settlements." 

Ukraine said its air defenses had brought down two Mi-8 helicopters.

Neither side has made decisive gains in the east since the Ukrainians' lightning offensive in September, partly because of wet weather, fog and mud but also because much of the front lines is heavily mined. Russian forces are on the eastern fringes of Bakhmut, according to geolocated video, but one Russian military blogger said Monday that Russian units of the Wagner group had lost some ground south of the city. It is difficult to confirm territorial changes around Bakhmut.

Further north, on the border of Luhansk and Kharkiv regions, the Ukrainian military says it has beaten back "small counterattacks" by Russian forces. Serhiy Hayday, head of Luhansk region military administration, said the Russians continued to shell recently liberated areas. 

"Now that it's getting colder and the ground is getting firmer, most probably the hostilities may become more active in the near future, as it will be easier for the equipment to move. Anyway, we do expect that some changes may come on this direction. 

A woman was injured when shells fired by the Ukrainian Armed Forces landed in Russia's Kursk region on Tuesday, the governor of Kursk region, Roman Starovoit, said in a Telegram post.

At least four shells landed in a village in the Sudzhansky district of Russia's Kursk region, situated near the border with Ukraine, according to Starovoit. 

Three houses were damaged by the shelling, one of them was "seriously destroyed" and "now it is on fire," he said. 

"We will provide all the necessary assistance to the residents without fail. All security services are in place, firefighters are fighting the fire,” Starovoit said. 

Ukraine's deputy prime minister said at least 200,000 civilians remain in Ukrainian-held areas of the eastern Donetsk region, despite a mandatory evacuation order. 

Iryna Vereshchuk, who is also minister of reintegration of temporarily occupied territories, said that number included thousands still living in Bakhmut, despite it being shelled every day and Russian troops being on the outskirts of the city.  

"We urge them to leave, especially from Bakhmut. You see how much it's shelled now," Vereshchuk said. "And even in Bakhmut, there are still children remaining. Therefore, I want to take this opportunity to appeal to the residents of Donetsk region. Please, do not risk the lives of your children."

More on the evacuations: Mandatory evacuations from the Dоnetsk region have been taking place since August, but Vereshchuk's ministry says only 33,000 citizens have left, including 5,000 children. 

Vereshchuk's ministry said that evacuations were continuing from other regions that were close to the front lines. It said that more than 43,000 people had left the dangerous regions of Zaporizhzhia in recent months. Since the summer, about 34,000 have evacuated from the Russian-occupied parts of Kherson for Ukrainian-held territory. Additionally, 12,000 have left since part of Kherson was liberated.

About 5,000 have evacuated from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, with a similar number evacuating from the Kharkiv region. It said evacuations were continuing in recently liberated settlements still being fired upon by Russian forces. 

Russia plans to provide Iran with “advanced military components” in return for Iranian drones it already received, UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said during an end-of-year address to the House of Commons Tuesday.

Wallace spoke of how “Iran has become one of Russia's top military backers.”

CNN has reached out to the Russian Ministry of Defense for comment on Wallace’s remarks.

On December 9, the White House sounded a fresh alarm at the flourishing military partnership between Iran and Russia, saying the US would work to "expose and disrupt" the exchange of weapons and know-how between the two countries.

Iran has acknowledged that it sent Russia “a limited number of drones” but before the start of the war in Ukraine.

Earlier this week: Russia launched drone attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities in the early hours of Monday morning, damaging civilian targets and power systems. 

Ukrainian border guards, who have been building fortifications on the bank of the Dnipro river, have discovered the remnants of an ancient Roman settlement, the Ukrainian Border Guard said in a statement Tuesday. 

"Pieces of amphoras and pots began to emerge at the depth of about one meter," the Border Guard said. 

An "archaeological expedition" will start work at the site after "victory" is achieved, according to the Border Guard. 

While meeting soldiers in the most hotly contested part of the battlefield Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke of a "difficult situation" and said he hoped for more support from the United States.

Zelensky was in the city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, which has become the epicenter of Russian efforts to take territory.

Zelensky said in a video message while meeting soldiers: "We have a difficult situation — the enemy is increasing its numbers, but our guys are braver. We need more powerful weapons."

One of the men he met told Zelensky: "The servicemen you have awarded today have written the most beautiful words to our brothers from America. We ask you to pass them on if possible."

Zelensky responded: "We will convey to the Congress, we will convey to the President of the United States the guys' gratitude for their support. But it is not enough."

Zelensky acknowledged that Bakhmut was critical to preventing Russian advances in Donetsk. "The East is holding out because Bakhmut is fighting. This is the fortress of our morale," he said. "In fierce battles and at the cost of many lives, freedom is being defended here for all of us."

Some more context: Since carrying out a partial mobilization in the fall, Russia has pushed more troops into eastern Ukraine, and continues heavy bombardments of cities and towns like Bakhmut, Mariinka and Avdiivka in the Donetsk region.

Zelensky also referred to the daily power cuts in most of Ukraine. "It seems to me that Bakhmut heroes should get the same as every person. I wish their children and families to be fine, to be warm and healthy. I would like to wish them to have light, but the situation is so difficult that there is light and then there is no light. The main thing is to have light inside."

President Vladimir Putin will lead a meeting Wednesday at which the armed forces' performance in 2022 and its tasks next year will be addressed, state Russian news agency TASS says.

TASS said Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu will deliver "a keynote speech. He will report on the progress of the special military operation, the amount of weapons and military equipment received by the troops in the outgoing year, the construction of military infrastructure, the results of the international activities of the military department and the social protection of military personnel."

The meeting will be attended by the commands of Russia's military districts, various branches of the military and federal officials, TASS said. About 15,000 officials of the Russian Armed Forces will take part in the event via videoconference.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged Chinese President Xi Jinping in a phone call on Tuesday to use his influence on Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war against Ukraine, according to a German government news release. 

Steinmeier also thanked President Xi "for the clear rejection of nuclear threats by Russia."

During the one-hour conversation, the German president reiterated Germany's determination to continue supporting Ukraine. He said Europe would not back down from Russian threats and had taken precautions against the energy crisis. 

Ukraine's defensibility and Europe's cohesion had been strengthened by Russian aggression, Steinmeier added, telling the Chinese president that "Putin had fundamentally miscalculated."

Latest development: China and Russia will begin a weeklong joint live-fire naval exercise in the East China Sea on Wednesday, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement, as the two partners step up cooperation in an increasingly tense western Pacific.

Russia will continue training Belarusian Air Force pilots to fly combat jets that have been refurbished to carry a "special warhead," Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday during a joint news conference with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk. 

"I think it would be possible to continue implementing the proposal made by the Belarusian President to train crews for Belarusian combat planes, which have already been retooled to potentially use air-based munitions with a special warhead," Putin said. 

According to Putin, "such coordinated measures are exceptionally important due to the tense situation on the external border of the Union state."

“Taking into account the situation evolving along the border perimeter, I discussed with the [Russian] President some important details of cooperation in the sphere of military security," Lukashenko said during the same news conference.  

During the presser, Lukashenko also said: "Today we've put the S-400 [air defense missile] complex that you transferred to Belarus into a state of combat-readiness, as well as, most importantly, the Iskander complex, which you [Putin] have also handed over to us after promising it half a year ago." 

Lukashenko offered earlier this year to take symmetrical military measures in response to Western actions, asking Russia to help upgrade Belarusian military planes to make them capable of carrying nuclear warheads, according to the Russian state news agency TASS. 

Lukashenko had said in August that "everything is ready," according to TASS.