Ukraine's armed forces are launching counteroffensives against Russian forces "in several operational areas," Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.
"This radically changes the parties' dispositions," he added, without giving details. Reuters was unable immediately to verify his comments.
3 View gallery
Ukrainian soldiers fire a mortar, in footage said to show combat with Russian troops near the Kyiv region
(Photo: Reuters)
In an update on the war, the general staff of Ukraine's armed forces referred to the "high intensity of hostilities" but did not say where fighting was heaviest.
Ukrainian officials also made clear that the death toll was rising from the war that began when Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
The emergency service in Ukraine's eastern region of Kharkiv region said on Wednesday that at least 500 residents of the city of Kharkiv have been killed.
3 View gallery
Ukrainian soldiers run through a forest, in footage said to show combat with Russian troops near Kyiv
(Photo: Reuters)
Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova said on Facebook that 103 children have been killed so far in the war.
Russian forces have struck more than 400 educational establishments and 59 of them have been destroyed, she said.
The governor of the Chernihiv region in northern Ukraine said there was no electricity in the region's main city, Chernihiv, or in some other settlements in the area.
But Governor Viacheslav Chaus said Ukraine's armed forces "are powerful and inflict powerful blows on the Russian enemy every hour."
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday peace talks were sounding more realistic but more time was needed.
The Kremlin, meanwhile, said that a remilitarized Ukraine with its own army along the lines of Austria or Sweden was being looked at as a possible compromise.
"This is a variant that is currently being discussed and which could really be seen a compromise," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by RIA news agency.
The reference to demilitarization appeared to relate to the idea of neutral status for Ukraine. Ukraine was promised by NATO as far back as 2008 that it would one day become a member of the alliance. Russia has said it cannot allow that to happen, and cited it as part of the logic for what it calls its special military operation in Ukraine.