The 296th day of the Russia-Ukraine War: official operational information by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on 16.12.2022.
In the morning, the Russian army launched a massive rocket attack on the civil infrastructure of Ukraine. According to updated data, Russian toops fired 70 cruise missiles and 4 guided air missiles, 60 cruise missiles were shot down by Ukrainian air defense forces. As a result of the strikes, several energy infrastructure facilities and residential buildings were hit in the Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Zaporizhizhia oblasts.
In the Volyn and Polissya directions, the situation has not changed significantly, and no signs of the formation of Russian offensive groups have been detected. Certain units of the armed forces of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation continue to be located in the border areas with Ukraine.
- On the Siverskyi and Slobozhanskyi directions, the Russian army carried out mortar and artillery attacks in the areas of Zapsillia and Popivka settlements in the Sumy oblast and Strilecha, Starytsa, Ambarne, Vilkhuvatka, Dvorichna and Krasne in the Kharkiv oblast.
- In the Kupyansk direction, the areas of Sinkivka, Orlyanka, Tabaivka, Berestove and Vyshneve settlements of Kharkiv oblast and Volodymyrivka and Stelmakhivka – Luhansk oblast were hit by shelling from tanks, mortars, barrel and jet artillery.
- In the Lyman direction, Russian military fired at the positions of Ukrainian troops from tanks and artillery of various calibers near Makiivka, Ploshchanka, Chervonopopivka, Dibrova, and Hirskе in the Luhansk oblast.
- In the Bakhmut and Avdiivka directions, the Russian army continues assaulting Ukrainian positions, trying to find weak spots in the defense line for a breakthrough. Shelled areas of more than twenty settlements. Among them are Verkhnyokamianske, Spirne, Biohorivka, Vesele, Soledar, Bakhmutske, Bakhmut, Opytne, Chasiv Yar, Druzhba, Zalizne, Maryinka and Pervomaiske of the Donetsk oblast.
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- In the Novopavlivka direction, the neighborhoods of Bohoyavlenka, Neskuchne, Prechystivka and Vuhledar in Donetsk oblast were damaged by fire.
- In the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson directions, the Russian army continues to shell Ukrainian positions and the civilian infrastructure of the settlements along the right bank of the Dnipro River. More than 30 settlements were affected. In particular, Plavni, Hulyaipole, Dorozhnyanka, Olhivske, Nikopol in the Zaporizhzhia oblast and Chornobayivka, Antonivka, Kherson, Mykilske, Tokarivka and Mylove in the Kherson oblast.
The Russian army continues to strengthen the defense line on the border of the Kherson region and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. It also strengthens the defense and protection of water supply facilities to the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea, in particular the North Crimean Canal. For this purpose, units mobilized from the Krasnodar Territory were additionally sent.
Units of missile troops and artillery of the Defense Forces of Ukraine during the current day hit 3 areas of concentration of personnel, a control post and an ammunition warehouse of Russian troops.
Source: The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
See also: Russian troops fired about 40 missiles over Ukraine’s capital
