Russia has claimed its forces have broken through parts of Ukrainian defenses in the eastern Luhansk region, while Ukraine's military says its troops are repelling some attacks, but the situation is difficult.
The intensifying fighting on February 15 came as Ukraine pleaded with Western allies to speed up the supply of weapons and NATO defense ministers met for second day to discuss the issue.
It also comes as Russia's newest offensive ramps up in the Donbas region, and its forces -- both regular troops and mercenary soldiers -- press a monthslong effort to capture the Donetsk region city of Bakhmut.
Ukraine's General Staff said on February 15 that the focus of fighting was around not only Bakhmut, but also Lyman, Avdiyivka, and Kupyansk.
Russian troops carried out 17 air strikes in addition to 28 attacks from rocket systems on civilian infrastructure in Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region and in the Kherson region, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a later report on February 15.
"There are wounded and dead among the civilian population. A residential high-rise building was almost destroyed, and the hospital in Beryslav was fired upon again," the General Staff said.
Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said three people died and 11 were injured in the attack on Pokrovsk, where residential buildings had been hit. The shelling also damaged four high-rise buildings and a school, said Kyrylenko, who once again called on the residents of the region to evacuate.
Authorities in Kyiv said earlier that air-defense units had detected six balloons apparently launched by Russia and shot most of them down. Kyiv authorities said the balloons could carry reconnaissance equipment and were launched to "detect and exhaust our air-defense forces."
The city administration said in a statement that authorities would carefully examine the debris.
There was no comment from the Russian Defense Ministry, which claimed earlier on February 15 that Russia troops had broken through two fortified lines of Ukrainian defenses but did not specify where.
"Even the more fortified second line of defense of the enemy could not hold the breakthrough of the Russian military," the ministry said in a post to Telegram.
Not long after, however, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office issued a statement saying Ukrainian forces had turned back some attacks in Luhansk, but that the situation was difficult.
And Serhiy Hayday, the head of the Luhansk regional military administration, said that Russia was pouring men and equipment into the region.
"There is a lot of shelling, aviation is already involved. Attacks are coming in waves from different directions," Hayday said in a video posted to his Telegram channel. "We see that they are transferring mobilized people. We also see that there is more equipment."
Meeting in Brussels for two days of talks, NATO defense ministers have tried to address concerns that Western stockpiles of weapons and ammunition are beginning to run low, while also finding ways to continue supplying Ukraine with weaponry.
Still, NATO officials have continued to resist Ukraine’s appeals to send fighter jets.
Speaking at a news conference in Brussels on February 15, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sounded an upbeat note about Ukraine’s fighting abilities.
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“Russia continues to pour large numbers of additional people into the fight, and those people are ill-trained and ill-equipped and, because of that, we see them incurring a lot of casualties,” Austin said.
"I think [the Ukrainians] will have a real good chance of making a pretty significant difference on the battlefield and establishing the initiative. And being able to exploit that initiative going forward,” he said.
