Ukrainian sources confirmed the continuing Russian bombing of residential areas in the Donbass region. The authorities also called on the residents of Kherson and Zaporozhye to flee, while Russia announced the killing of more than 100 Ukrainian fighters, denying the possibility of its withdrawal from any land in southern Ukraine.
Al-Jazeera correspondent in the Donbass region, citing Ukrainian military sources, reported that 8 towns northwest of the Ukrainian city of Sloviansk were subjected to violent Russian shelling with artillery and rocket launchers.
The reporter said that the bombing led to the outbreak of large fires.
And the Ukrainian General Staff confirmed - in a statement - that a Russian attempt to advance towards the town of Borodchna (northwest of Sloviansk) was repelled for the second day in a row, and said that it inflicted heavy losses on the attacking force.
For his part, the governor of Ukraine's Lugansk Province stated that Russian forces do not stop trying to storm the areas west of Lyschansk along the administrative border of the province.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian army announced that the Russian forces tried to achieve a breakthrough towards the Ukrainian forces in the Knyazka and Olgani regions of Kherson, but the attempt failed.
In the east of Donetsk province, the Ukrainian General Staff said that the Russian forces tried to take control of the power plant in the Voleherska region, but that the Ukrainian forces confronted them.
She added that Russian forces continued to bomb the infrastructure in Kramatorsk.
The governors of Kharkiv and Donetsk accused the Russian forces of setting fires to the fields, in order to destroy agricultural crops.
For its part, British intelligence said that Russia has moved its reserve forces from various parts of the country to the Ukrainian border in anticipation of future offensive operations.
call for eviction
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Irina Vereshchuk called on residents of Kherson and Zaporozhye, which are under Russian control, to evacuate their areas immediately.
The mayor of the Ukrainian city of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, also called on the residents to leave the city immediately, and said that staying in the city - located in the Zaporozhye countryside - had become very dangerous as a result of the intensification of mutual bombing between Ukrainian and Russian forces.
Fedorov also said that the Russians refuse to open safe passages for civilians, and called on residents to leave immediately in their own cars or turn to volunteers.
The mayor of Melitopol also warned the city's residents that Russian forces might use them as human shields at any moment, as he put it.
Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines in Kharkiv (Reuters)
Russian statements
On the other hand, the Russian Defense Ministry announced the destruction of American howitzers in the Chasov Yar region of Donetsk region (eastern Ukraine).
The ministry also announced the killing of more than 75 elements of Ukrainian nationalists during the targeting of their positions in the Mykolaiv region, as well as the killing of more than 40 members of the Ukrainian nationalist battalion "Tornado" in Dnepropetrovsk.
She added that the Air Force targeted the 72nd Ukrainian Brigade in Donetsk Province, killing more than 30% of its personnel.
The Reuters news agency quoted Russia's ambassador in London as saying that it was out of the question for his country to withdraw from any land across the southern coast of Ukraine, and that their forces would defeat the Ukrainian forces in the entire eastern Donbass region, as he put it.
"Sooner or later Kyiv will have to choose between a peace agreement with us or descending into ruin," the Russian ambassador added.
dismissal of ambassadors
On the diplomatic front, the Ukrainian presidency said - in a statement on Saturday - that President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed the ambassadors of Ukraine to Germany, India, the Czech Republic, Norway and Hungary, in addition to a number of ambassadors to other countries.
The announcement did not explain the reason for the dismissal, nor did it say if the envoys would be transferred to new jobs.
Zelensky urged his diplomats to mobilize international support and military aid to Ukraine.
On the other hand, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced that his country is providing about $368 million in additional humanitarian aid to the Ukrainian people.
Blinken had asked his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi - after the meetings of the foreign ministers of the twenty countries in Indonesia - that his country take a distance from Moscow, and condemn the Russian "aggression" against Ukraine.