Russian Troops In The Frontline Serang Region, Change The Goals Of War?

Illustration of the Donetsk region after the Russian invasion. (Wikimedia Commons/armyinform.com.ua)

JAKARTA - Russian troops opened fire on the entire frontline of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, Ukrainian officials said, said the Kremlin's efforts to secure most of the territory it claims.

The fiercest fighting took place near the cities of Bakhmut and Avdivka, the regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said in a TV interview. Artillery hit Toretsk City southwest of Bakhmut, killing one civilian and destroying 12 buildings, Kyrylenko said.

He said "all front lines are being fired at" and Russian troops are also trying to move forward near Lyman, which Ukrainian forces recaptured in November.

In Bakhmut and other parts of the Donetsk region neighboring Luhansk Province, Ukrainian forces responded with a series of rocket launchers.

Ukrainian military forces said Russian artillery attacked civilian infrastructure in the cities of Kupiansk and Zolokov in the northeastern region of Kharkiv and Ochakiv in the Mykolaiv region. Ukrainian anti-aircraft units brought down several missiles trained in the Kharkiv region on Thursday evening, governor Synehubov said on the Telegram messaging application.

Separately, President Vladimir Putin has made conflicting statements about the purpose of war, but now his goals include several expansions of Russia's borders, in contrast to comments made at the start of a "special military operation", when he said Moscow's plans did not include the occupation of Ukrainian soil.

The Kremlin said on Thursday it was still preparing to secure at least most of the territory in eastern and southern Ukraine that Moscow had declared part of Russia. However, it appears to have surrendered to seize another region in the west and northeast that Ukraine has reclaimed.

Moscow proclaimed in October it had annexed four provinces - which it called "new territories" - shortly after holding so-called referendums that Ukraine, West and most countries in the United Nations refused.

While Moscow makes it clear that it wants to take full control of Donetsk and Luhansk - two regions that are mostly Russian-speaking collectively known as Donbas - it is not clear how many Zaporizhzhia and Kherson have been annexed.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his troops would eventually expel Russia from all captured territory, including the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014 located between the Black Sea and the Azov Sea.