Ukraine news – live: Putin’s new target ‘heat, water and electricity’ as heaviest fight rages in east

Vladimir Putin’s new targets in the Ukraine war are now “heat, water and electricity” as Russian troops further tore into Donetsk, Kherson and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine in the last 24 hours, officials said.

Mr Putin has focused his “ire and his fire” on Ukraine’s civilians, the US secretary of state Antony Blinken said yesterday after a two-day Nato meeting.

"Heat, water, electricity ... These are president Putin’s new targets. He’s hitting them hard. This brutalisation of Ukraine‘s people is barbaric," the top US official said.

The war is raging fiercest in Ukraine’s east, where Russian troops have rained mortar, artillery and shells, signalling a renewed military offensive and forcing Kyiv to respond aggressively.

Donetsk region was the site of the heaviest fighting on Wednesday, where Russia has shelled several towns, including Bakhmut, nearby Soledar and Opytne, the Ukrainian military said last night.

Mr Putin’s soldiers have taken defensive positions and trained tank, mortar and artillery fire on Ukrainian positions and on the regional capital of Kherson, they said.