Putin's Army Fails as Ukraine Fights Back 9 Russian Attacks in One Day—Kyiv

Over the last day, Ukrainian forces have repelled nine Russian attacks as President Vladimir Putin's forces continue to experience a series of setbacks on the battlefield, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said Friday.

In a daily Facebook update, the General Staff said the attacks were in the direction of Terny, Opytne, Vesele, Nevelske, Odradivka, Ivangrad, Bakhmut, Nova Kamianka and Suhy Stavok—at least five of these locations appear to be in the eastern Donetsk region and two are near Kherson in the south.

"The aggressor continues to focus efforts on attempting to realize his plans from entering the administrative border of the Donetsk region, as well as the detention of captured areas of Kherson, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia and Nikolaiv regions," the statement said.

The statement said that Russian forces continued to strike critical infrastructure and civilians in Ukraine, as they have been doing for the past few days.

"In total, over the past 24 hours, the invaders fired 2 missile and 16 air strikes, fired more than 70 shelling from jet fire systems," said the General Staff.

It added that Russian forces were using the nuclear power plant in the city of Enerhodar, part of the Zaporizhzhia region in the east, as "a base for personnel warehouse," due to the fact the facility has not been shelled.

During the past day, the Ukrainian air forces carried out 25 strikes, including on 19 areas where there is a concentration of arms and military equipment, as well as on six anti-aircraft missile complexes, the General Staff said. It added that Ukrainian forces had also shot down five winged missiles. It said Ukraine's military had also hit three checkpoints, five life force focus areas, weapons and military equipment, and two munition warehouses over the last day.

Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.

Russian forces have repeatedly found themselves frustrated on the battlefield as Ukrainian forces have pushed on with their counteroffensives in the east and south of the country.

In an attempt to turn the tide, Russian President Putin on September 21 said his military would draft another 300,000 reservists. Since this announcement, there have been several reports of illegible men being called up for military service.

On Thursday, Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed governor of occupied Kherson, urged residents to evacuate to mainland Russia for their own safety, due to daily rocket attacks by advancing Ukrainian forces. Ukraine has rejected claims it is targeting its own civilians.

On October 10, the governor of the eastern Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai, said that Russian soldiers were resigning en masse.

Putin on September 21 said nuclear weapons could be used in the war, should Russia's "territorial integrity" be "threatened."

The European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, on Thursday, said that the Russian army would be annihilated if Russia uses nuclear weapons in Ukraine.