Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko reported that over 24 hours, Russia launched extensive bombardments on 118 towns and villages in Ukraine, surpassing the intensity seen on any other day this year.

He noted that this assault affected 10 out of Ukraine's 27 regions and resulted in casualties, including fatalities and injuries. A significant portion of these targeted communities were located in proximity to the eastern and southern front lines.

For several weeks, Russia had concentrated a substantial portion of its military strength on Avdiivka, a town of strategic importance situated in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.

"[Avdiivka] is being erased, shattered. There have been more than 40 massive shelling attacks against the territorial community in the past day," said local leader Vitaliy Barabash.

He said two civilians had been killed and warned that Russia was building up to a third wave in its offensive. Ukraine says Russia has been pouring reinforcements into the area in a bid to encircle and capture the town.

Twenty attacks in the Avdiivka area alone were repelled on Tuesday, Ukraine's armed forces general staff said.

Russia has also ramped up attacks on the town of Kupyansk in the north-eastern Kharkiv region and sought to stop Ukrainian forces from recapturing territory around Bakhmut.

There were also attacks away from the front lines, on a block of flats, shops, and a pharmacy in the southern city of Nikopol on the bank of the Dnipro river, and in Kremenchuk, where a disused oil refinery was set on fire by a Russian drone.

The refinery, in the central region of Poltava, has been targeted several times by Russia and officials said it had come under attack throughout the early hours of Wednesday.

The Kremenchuk refinery was the biggest in Ukraine until Russian attacks put it out of action a few weeks into the full-scale invasion.

Ukraine's counter-offensive has so far made little headway in recapturing land occupied by Russian forces in the south and east, prompting fears of Western fatigue with the war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has admitted the slow progress, repeatedly urging Kyiv's allies to provide more advanced weapons urgently, and also stay united.

On Wednesday, Ukraine's chief military commander Zaluzhny warned that the war was now moving to a "positional" or static stage.

In a column for the Economist, he said this would benefit Moscow by "allowing it to rebuild its military power".

Despite heavy losses, Russia still had "superiority in weapons, equipment, missiles, and ammunition", Mr. Zaluzhny warned, calling on Ukraine's allies to deliver warplanes and drones, as well as modern electronic warfare and mine-breaching technology, among other things.

One of the Ukrainian leader's closest allies, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, addressed the issue of fatigue during a hoax call from two Russian pranksters, widely known for targeting Kremlin opponents.

"I see there is a lot of fatigue if I have to say the truth, from all the sides," she is heard to tell the pair, Vovan, and Lexus. "We're near the moment everybody understands that we need a way out."

"The counter-offensive of Ukraine is maybe not going as they were expecting. It is going, but it didn't change, I mean, the destiny of the conflict."

US President Joe Biden's administration has asked Congress to approve a $106bn package for both Ukraine and Israel. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned this week: "I can guarantee that without our support [Russia's Vladimir] Putin will be successful."

President Volodymyr Zelensky told Ukrainians in an overnight address on Tuesday that "we live in a world that gets used to success too quickly".

He praises the military's success in reducing Russia's control over the Black Sea: "The more protection we have along our coastline and in our sea, the more protection there is in the world."

Recent Ukrainian attacks have hit the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea fleet prompting most of its ships to leave occupied Crimea.

Kyiv has tried to create an export corridor safe for civilian vessels to carry grain along Ukraine's Black Sea coast, via Romanian waters and onto the Turkish coast.

Although at least 700,000 metric tonnes of grain have evaded Russian bombardment in recent months, Ukrainian officials said warplanes had dropped "explosive objects" on the expected paths of civilian ships. "However, the functioning of the navigational corridor continues under the aegis of the defense forces," said Ukraine's southern operational command.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Wednesday that Ukraine was losing the war despite supplies of new weapons from NATO.

He said that Ukraine was taking heavy losses as it tried to push into Russian-held areas of Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, and Donetsk, and "demoralization of personnel is growing". He also claimed Russian units were advancing.

Mr Shoigu provided no evidence to back his claims.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

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