Faced with setbacks on the front line, Russia has expanded its list of target locations it is prepared to strike, including civilian infrastructure, in a move to undermine the morale of the Ukrainian government and people, according to a UK military intelligence report from Sunday.
Russia has increased its targeting of civilian infrastructure even where it probably perceives no immediate military effect during the last seven days, the intelligence report added.
Russian shelling included strikes against the electricity grid and a dam on the Inhulets River at Kryvyi Rih, it said.
Russian forces attacked Nikopol twice on Sunday, fired almost 30 shells and injuring three people. As a result of the attacks, dozens of high-rise buildings and private houses, cars, and infrastructure were damaged, according to Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Governor Valentyn Reznichenko.
Russian forces continued striking Ukrainian infrastructure facilities on September 17, firing on the Slovyansk Thermal Power Plant, causing a fire and damaging the facility.
Russian shelling of the civilian infrastructure of Mykolaiv interrupted the settlement’s water supply, as well as damaged one of the hospitals in the area and a garage cooperative, mayor Oleksandr Sienkovych said.
Five people were killed and 18 others were injured as a result of the shelling of populated areas in the Donetsk region, according to the head of the regional military administration, Pavlo Kyrylenko.
Russia also shelled the Nikopol district three times with Hradiv and heavy artillery, three people were injured, the head of Dnipropetrovsk OVA, Valentin Reznichenko, reported.
Russian assaults denied by Ukrainian defenders
Ukrainian forces repelled attacks near 6 populated areas on Sunday, carrying out air counterattacks against enemy forces, according to the morning briefing of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Russian units that suffered significant losses are being withdrawn or disbandment, while functioning Russian outfits are strengthening fortification positions near Chongar, the report added.
"Over the past 24 hours, the Defense Forces of Ukraine repelled enemy attacks in the areas of Mykhailivka Druga, Vesela Dolyna, Odradivka, Maryinka, Novomykhailivka and Pravdyne settlements," the briefing stated.
"Over the past 24 hours, the Defense Forces of Ukraine repelled enemy attacks in the areas of Mykhailivka Druga, Vesela Dolyna, Odradivka, Maryinka, Novomykhailivka and Pravdyne settlements."
General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine briefing
According to Ukrainian reports, units of the 11th Army Corps from the Baltic Fleet of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation lost more than 50% of their personnel and more than 200 units of military equipment.
In addition, the 64th motorized rifle brigade of the Eastern Military District lost more than 90% of its active personnel due to casualties, wounded, deserters and those dismissed from the theater.
Russia scrambles as Ukrainian counteroffensive pushes on
Russian failures to rush large-scale reinforcements to eastern Kharkiv and to Luhansk Oblasts leave most of Russian-occupied northeastern Ukraine highly vulnerable to Ukrainian counter-offensives efforts.
Even so, Russian troops continue to attack Bakhmut and various villages near Donetsk City proper, mostly seeming to be of emotional significance to pro-war residents of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR), but hold little strategic significance, according to a report by the Institute for the Study of War.
Russian forces will likely be unable to make significant gains around Bakhmut or Donetsk City on a large enough scale to halt the Ukrainian counteroffensive, appearing to be continuing an almost robotic effort to gain ground in the Donetsk Oblast area that seems increasingly detached from the overall realities of the eastern theater.
Ukrainian forces continue expanding positions east of the Oskil River and north of the Siverskyi Donets River that could allow them to cut off Russian troops holding around Lyman.
Further Ukrainian advances east along the north bank of the Siverskyi Donets River could apply pressure to Russian positions around Lyman and open the approaches to Lysychansk and ultimately Severodonetsk.
Ukrainian forces are continuing to establish positions northwest and southwest of Lyman, while Russian forces have maintained their positions in Lyman and Yampil, Ukrainian and Russian sources indicated.
Mass graves with at least 440 bodies found by Ukrainian forces in Izium
On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said investigators had discovered new evidence of torture used against some soldiers buried near Izium, one of more than 20 towns that were retaken in the northeastern Kharkiv region after a lightning advance by Ukraine's forces earlier this month.
Zelensky said in a video address that authorities had found a mass grave containing the bodies of 17 soldiers in Izium, some of which he said bore signs of torture.
Residents of Izium have been searching for dead relatives at a forest grave site discovered last week and where emergency workers have begun exhuming bodies. The causes of death for those at the grave site have not yet been established, although residents say some died in an airstrike.
Ukrainian officials said last week they had found 440 bodies in the woodlands near Izium. They said most of the dead were civilians, and that the site proved war crimes had been committed by Russian invaders who occupied the area for months.
Valery Marchenko, mayor of Izium, told state television on Sunday that "the exhumation is underway, the graves are being dug up and all the remains are being transported to Kharkiv."
He added "the work will continue for another two weeks, there are many burials. No new ones have been found yet, but the services are looking for possible burials."
The head of the pro-Russian administration that abandoned the area earlier this month accused Ukrainians of staging the atrocities at Izium. "I have not heard anything about burials," Vitaly Ganchev told Rossiya-24 state television.
Reuters contributed to this report.