Ukraine has restored train service to the newly recaptured southern city of Kherson, and Ukrainian forces face fierce fighting in eastern Donbas, where Russian troops have intensified their push on several fronts.
Also on November 19, Britain's prime minister paid an unannounced visit to Kyiv for talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and announced a new weapons and security assistance package.
The arrival of the train from Kyiv, announced by Ukraine's national railway authority, was a small but highly symbolic achievement, coming barely a week after Russian forces pulled out of Kherson, and Ukrainian forces returned to a jubilant reception from locals.
It's the first train to travel from Kyiv to Kherson since before Russia's February 24 invasion. Officials said it marked the resumption of regular service.
Russia continued to pound energy infrastructure across Ukraine with missiles and drones, the Ukrainian military's General Staff said. Zaporizhzhya, about 300 kilometers northeast of Kherson, was hit 42 times since November 18, leaving thousands without heat, the General Staff said in its daily update.
"Rocket explosions damaged the central heating pipelines and stopped the supply of coolant to 123 high-rise buildings, in which more than 17,000 people live," Zaporizhzhya regional Governor Oleksandr Starukh wrote on Telegram.
The Zaporizhzhya region is home to Europe's largest nuclear plant, which has been under Russian control since the invasion in February.
Many parts of Ukraine, including Kyiv, are suffering sporadic, sometime prolonged power and heating disruptions, a problem that has worsened as winter weather set in this week. Nearly 50 percent of the country's energy infrastructure has been disabled by Russian strikes, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said this week.
Officials have said stretched repair teams are working at maximum capacity to try to return power but that land mines, further attacks, and other obstacles are slowing their progress.
Russia's surge in missile strikes also appears partly designed to exhaust Kyiv's air defenses, Colin Kahl, a top U.S. Defense Department official, told reporters. He said Moscow hoped to deplete Ukrainian defenses to allow Russia's air force to operate more freely.
Ukrainian troops battled for weeks to push Russian forces out of Kherson city and the region west of the Dnieper River. Its forces appear to have paused for the moment; the Dnieper itself presents a formidable military obstacle, and Russian troops are digging trenches and fortifications on the river's east bank.
Russian Forces Digging Trenches, Fortifications On Banks Of Dnieper River, Satellite Imagery Shows
Still, Ukrainian forces have used longer-range rockets and artillery to target Russian positions across the Dnieper. The General Staff claimed that its troops destroyed a military base on the Kinburn Spit, a strip of land southwest of Kherson that juts into the Black Sea.
Russia is also reportedly repositioning some of its forces elsewhere: further to the east, bolstering the defense around Zaporizhzhya and Melitopol, as well as increasing the intensity of fighting in the Donbas.
The Russians "are conducting offensive actions in the Bakhmut, Avdiyivka, and Novopavliv directions," the military said in its daily update. It also said Ukrainian forces repelled attacks near the towns of Bilohoryivka, Zelenopil, and Klishchiyivka.
Russia's Defense Ministry confirmed intense fighting in several locations in the Donbas.
RFE/RL cannot verify reports of battlefield success in areas of intense fighting.
In videos and statement released by his office, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said London was providing a $59.4 million package of weapons for Ukraine, including anti-aircraft guns and anti-drone technology.
"I am here today to say that the U.K. will continue to stand with you...until Ukraine has won the peace and security it needs and deserves," Sunak said during a Kyiv news conference with Zelenskiy.
Sunak's visit comes amid growing public and private discussions in Western capitals about whether Ukraine and Russia should open peace negotiations to halt the war, which is nearing its ninth month.
Ukrainian officials have pushed back on the calls, though Zelenskiy has made some small shifts in rhetoric.
"There will be peace when we destroy the Russian Army in Ukraine and reach the borders of 1991," Andriy Yermak, one of Zelenskiy’s top aides, wrote on Telegram on November 19.
The deputy defense minister, meanwhile, predicted Ukrainian forces could be back in the Russian-occupied peninsula of Crimea by year's end and the entire war could be over by the spring. Volodymyr Havrylov suggested Russia could face an unforeseen "black swan" event that would disrupt internal politics.
"I think Russia can face a black swan in their country, inside Russia and it can contribute to the success of us with Crimea," Havrylov said in an interview with Sky News.
Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address on November 18 that "brutal fighting" continues in the east, but suggested that in some areas they expect "future successes."
He said that "everywhere we are holding [our] positions."
RFE/RL cannot verify reports of battlefield success in areas of intense fighting.
"Very fierce fighting is continuing in Donetsk region," Zelenskiy said, adding that "there is no letup in the fighting. There has been no lull."
He didn't elaborate on his reference to expected "future successes" in some areas of the battlefield.
