Ukrainian Underground Network Helps Destroy Russian Forces in Donetsk— ISW

Ukrainian partisans are working with Kyiv's forces to strike Russian targets and their co-operation has delivered results in a town in the Donetsk region, it has been reported.

On Monday, around 100 Russian troops were killed and their equipment destroyed in Horlivka after partisans supplied Ukrainian forces with data on their location, according to the Ukrainian Resistance Center (URC) as reported by Ukrainian news outlets, including Ukrayinska Pravda.

The U.S. think tank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said on Wednesday that Ukraine's partisans "continue to undermine Russian occupation by aiding Ukrainian forces in identifying valuable Russian targets."

Oleksiy Danilov, the head of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council told The Wall Street Journal that "our guys and girls are everywhere," helping Ukraine's on-going campaign to recapture Russian-held areas.

The paper also cited Ukrainian military officials in reporting that partisans in Kherson spied on Russians and helped guide Kyiv's precision strikes that forced Moscow to abandon the city in November.

The ISW added in its latest update that Russian forces were aiming to capture all of Donetsk Oblast and that future offensives in the west of the region may be intended to complement current offensive drives on the western outskirts of Donetsk City.

The ISW also believes that Russian forces may try to launch an offensive in western Donetsk Oblast to build on "marginal advances" made in the Vuhledar-Pavlivka area in November. It described how on Wednesday Russian forces continued with their operations in the Avdiivka-Donetsk City area.

The news about the partisans comes amid reports of continued attacks on Ukrainian targets by Russian forces. On Thursday, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian president's office, said that Russian shelling had killed two people in the center of the city of Kherson, around 300 feet from the regional administration building.

Also on Thursday, separatist officials in Donetsk accused Kyiv's forces of conducting "the most massive shelling since 2014." The city's Moscow-appointed mayor, Alexei Kulemzin, said on social media that "40 rockets were fired at civilians" and posted images of what he said were cars and buildings damaged in the attack.

In other news, Ukrainian Brigadier General Oleksiy Gromov dismissed the possibility of a ceasefire over the New Year period.

"There will be a total ceasefire only when not a single occupier remains on our land," Gromov told a briefing, as he accused Moscow of seeking a "prolonged armed confrontation."

Newsweek has contacted the Russian and Ukrainian defense ministries for comment.