A Ukrainian commander stated that Moscow is preparing for a lengthy war and still aims to seize all of Ukraine, after Russian forces bombarded two major cities and Ukrainian forces attacked Russian-controlled sections of Donetsk.

A top Ukrainian military, Brigadier General Oleksiy Gromov, stated during a news briefing on Thursday, "The Kremlin... seeks to escalate the conflict into a protracted armed conflict."

Gromov stated, "The principal strategic objective of the enemy is conquering all of our country's land and preventing Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic integration."

A Christmas truce has been ruled out by both sides, and there are presently no talks targeted at ending the nearly 10-month-old battle.

General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces stated that Moscow's primary focus remained on the eastern cities of Bakhmut and Avdiivka, but that it was also regularly bombarding the southern city of Kherson and attempting to strengthen its foothold in the southern area of Zaporizhia.

Deputy director of the president's office Kyrylo Tymoshenko stated on Thursday that two persons were killed by Russian shelling in the liberated Ukrainian city of Kherson last month. According to officials, the bombardment also cut out the city's electricity.

Denise Brown, the UN's humanitarian coordinator, said that a female paramedic with the Ukrainian National Red Cross Society was among those murdered in Kherson. According to her, the attack targeted a building where local authorities and volunteers distribute aid.

"It is shocking to learn that a facility used to support citizens in need of assistance due to the war, particularly the elderly, has been destroyed," she added.

The Russian Ministry of Defense did not reply quickly to a request for comment regarding the strike on Kherson.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of Donetsk region, stated that one person was murdered and four others were injured near Bakhmut.

Kharkiv's mayor, Ihor Terekhov, tweeted on the Telegram messaging service that the city's essential infrastructure was also attacked by Russian forces, resulting in multiple explosions.

Alexei Kulemzin, the Russian-installed mayor of Donetsk, stated on Thursday that Ukraine had fired 40 rockets from BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launchers against the city, in what he described as the city's biggest strike since 2014, when Russian-backed separatists wrested control of it from Ukraine.

There were no reports of fatalities in Donetsk, but Kulemzin stated that five persons, including a toddler, had been injured.

The national grid operator Ukrenergo reported on Thursday that Ukraine continues to experience a "severe" electrical shortage as a result of Russian attacks, including new ones in the east, and that the situation was compounded by the cold weather.

Since October, Russia has fired barrages of missiles into Ukraine's energy infrastructure, disrupting power supply and leaving people without heat over the winter.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, stated that additional attacks on Ukraine's infrastructure could result in a deterioration of humanitarian conditions and mass displacement.

Following a trip to Ukraine last week, in a speech to the Human Rights Council, Turk stated that Russian strikes exposed millions of Ukrainians to "severe misery."

"Additional attacks could cause the humanitarian situation to deteriorate worse and cause more displacement," he said.

The conflict, he added, is a "unmitigated tragedy and catastrophe."

Moscow claims that the raids do not target civilians and are intended to undermine Ukraine's ability to fight and force it to negotiate, while Kyiv calls them war crimes.

In the meantime, Poland waived its objections to a minimal corporation tax at a meeting of the European Union on Thursday, unblocking an entire package of interconnected accords that includes 19 billion euros ($19.16 billion) in finance for Ukraine in 2023.