Oleshky is located on the east bank of the Dnipro River, eight kilometers (five miles) from the city of Kherson, which is on the opposite bank and was recently recaptured by Ukrainian forces. A RIA Novosti correspondent on the ground reported that explosions were heard in the city, including “the sounds of heavy machine gun fire.” “They attack day and night all the time, you see, the forest is burning in the outskirts,” a gas station employee told RIA Novosti. Mobile communication is down in the city while shops and the market are closed, the agency said. A spokesman for the Odesa Regional Command, Serhiy Bratchuk, said there were strikes against Russian military facilities in Hola Prystan and Hornostayivka, two towns across the river from the city of Kherson. Brachuk said there were casualties. The Ukrainian General Staff – in its afternoon briefing – said that further upstream the Russians had shelled a number of settlements within a few miles of the river banks. There are also reports of heavy fighting in the Donetsk region, where the General Staff reports that Russian forces have been conducting offensive operations in the directions of Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Novopavlivka.
