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A 42-year-old resident of Kherson died on November 22 as a result of shelling by the Russian Army in the center of the southern Ukrainian city, the head of the Kherson military administration said as the death toll from a Russian strike on a hospital in Selydove on November 21 rose to three.
Roman Mrochko, the head of Kherson city’s military administration, said the civilian was in the yard of a residential building when it was hit by “an enemy projectile” that had been fired from the opposite bank of the Dnieper River.
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A gymnasium in the central part of Kherson also came under fire, according to the military authority. The blast blew out windows and damaged the roof, but no one was injured.
Kherson city, which was liberated by Ukrainian troops a little over one year ago, has been constantly targeted by Russian shelling from across the river.
The Russian strike in Selydove damaged two buildings of the hospital and a coal mine, authorities said.
“Another body was recovered from the rubble of the hospital building…. In total, three people were killed in the missile strike,” the State Emergency Service said on Telegram on November 22.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian military said there were 58 combat clashes at the front during the day on November 22.
There were no offensive actions by Russian troops in the Bakhmut and Lyman areas during the day, but Russian troops conducted assault operations in the Kupyansk region, and Ukrainian forces repelled a total of 12 attacks. In the area of Avdiyivka and Maryinka in the Donetsk region Ukrainian forces repelled dozens of attacks, the summary says.
The General Staff also reported on four repulsed Russian attempts to regain lost positions near Robotyne in the Zaporizhzhya region, while Ukrianian forces conducted offensive operations in the Melitopol and Bakhmut areas.
An estimated 1,300 residents of Avdiyivka remain without electricity, heat, water, or communications, police reported on November 22.
“Devastating shelling and approaching frost leave people with no chance of survival,” a message from the National Police said.
The message notes that the local police department has been destroyed, but two police units are on duty in the city and about 16 people are working in the hospital, which has been damaged by shelling.
“First aid medicines are available, but it is not possible to provide assistance in critical situations,” the message said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kyiv’s troops faced “difficult” defensive operations in Avdiyivka and on other parts of the eastern front, but he said forces in the south were still conducting offensive actions.
Russian troops for months have been trying to advance on Avdiyivka in the east and on Lyman and Kupyansk in the northeast.
“Difficult weather, difficult defense on the Lyman, Bakhmut, Donetsk, and Avdiyivka fronts. Offensive actions in the south,” Zelenskiy said on Telegram.
Earlier on November 22, Ukraine and its allies held a virtual meeting on November 22 to discuss ways to enhance protection against an expected uptick in Russian attacks on the war-torn country’s energy and civilian infrastructure during the upcoming cold season.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said afterward that “support for Ukraine remains unwavering” and thanked Ukraine’s partners who have already started announcing new military aid packages but added that “the biggest and most powerful announcements have not been announced.”
Umerov said among the results of the meeting is the formation of a new ground-based air defense coalition made up of 20 countries. One of its priorities is providing Ukrainian cities with additional air defense over the winter, he said.
The virtual meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group brought together representatives from some 50 countries that back Kyiv in its war against Russia and is being chaired by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Illarion Pavlyuk, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s top spokesman, said ahead of the meeting that the focus would be on preparing for winter — air defense, artillery, ammunition.
“But the projected needs always depend on what the soldiers at the front need. And they are constantly being updated,” Pavlyuk said.
Last winter, Ukraine’s energy infrastructure was regularly targeted by Russian missile and drone strikes that caused civilian victims and damage as well as misery to millions of people who were left in the dark and cold amid below-freezing temperatures.
Ahead of the meeting, Austin and German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius visited Kyiv as Washington and Berlin announced fresh military aid packages for Ukraine.
The United States and Germany are the two largest providers of military aid to Ukraine.
But more recently there have been concerns of “war fatigue” among Ukraine’s Western allies, especially in Washington.
The meeting comes as Russian forces shelled the city of Nikopol, in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, early on November 22, causing casualties and damage and as Ukraine’s air defenses fought off another wave of Russian drone strikes.
“The occupiers have targeted Nikopol region with heavy artillery four times since last night, regional Governor Serhiy Lysak said on Telegram, adding that two civilians were wounded.
“Two men aged 61 and 37 were wounded in the city center and eight private houses, vehicles, and a gas pipeline were damaged,” Lysak said, adding that power lines were also destroyed by the shelling, leaving more than 1,200 families without electricity.
Russian artillery and drone strikes have repeatedly targeted Nikopol, causing casualties among civilians and damage to infrastructure. Last week, a man was killed in a drone strike.
Ukraine’s air defenses said in a statement early on November 22 that Russia launched a multipronged drone attack on several regions overnight, but that all 14 Iranian-made unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down.
The statement said the drones were downed over the regions of Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhya, Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsya, and Khmelnytskiy.
It said that a Russian cruise missile fell in the Zaporizhzhya region without reaching its target but caused damage to infrastructure.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s 128th Separate Mountain Assault Transcarpathian Brigade reports that it struck a building in the village of Kumachovo in the eastern region of Donetsk where Russian forces were celebrating the Day of Missile Forces and Artillery on November 19, killing 25 troops. The claim could not be independently verified.
Novaya Gazeta.Europe and social media reports said Russian director and actress Polina Menshikh, who had come to perform for the troops, was among those killed in the strike, which employed HIMARS missiles.
On November 5, 19 members of the Transcarpathian Brigade were killed when Russian missiles struck a ceremony held in a frontline position in southern Ukraine.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on November 22 that its air-defense units destroyed three Ukrainian drones over occupied Crimea, as well as four Ukrainian naval drones.
“Three Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles were destroyed over the territory of the Republic of Crimea by air defenses,” the ministry said.
It said that the four naval drones were destroyed in the western part of the Black Sea while heading toward Crimea.
The claim could not be independently verified.
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On the battlefield, Ukrainian forces reported 48 close-quarter battles along the front line over the past 24 hours.
The General Staff of Ukraine’s military said Russian assaults were repelled in the Donetsk region in the direction of Lyman, Bakhmut, and Avdiyivka.
In Bakhmut, which saw months of heavy fighting earlier this year before falling to the Russians, Ukrainian forces were conducting offensive operations, the General staff said.
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