Moscow pressed its intensifying winter assault in eastern Ukraine, bringing tens of thousands of freshly mobilised troops to the battlefield, while Kyiv predicted areas in the northeast or south could be part of an expected Russian offensive.
Ukraine's military said on Tuesday that 1,030 Russian troops were killed over 24 hours, the highest daily toll of the war. The figure could not be independently verified, and Russia has also claimed to have killed large numbers of Ukrainian troops in recent weeks. For its part, Russia said it had inflicted 6,500 Ukrainian casualties in the month of January, reports Reuters.
Ukraine national security chief Oleksiy Danilov said in an interview on Tuesday that the Kremlin is expected to target the northeastern Kharkiv or southern Zaporizhzhia regions in a new thrust.
"Attempts at an offensive in either the Kharkiv or Zaporizhzhia direction will of course be made," he told Reuters, speaking in his office in Kyiv. "How successful they'll be will depend on us."
The Ukraine Armed Forces said on Tuesday evening that more than 30 towns and villages in Kharkiv and 20 communities in Zaporizhzhia came under fire.
Top Ukrainian officials including President Volodymyr Zelensky have said Moscow will attempt to mount another major offensive with freshly mobilised troops in the coming weeks as the one-year anniversary of Russia's invasion nears on Feb 24.