Russian artillery barrages kill civilians in southern and eastern Ukraine

Russia launched artillery barrages in southern and eastern Ukraine on Saturday, killing at least eight people and injuring dozens more.

The liberation of Kherson last month marked a major battlefield gain for Kyiv, reconquered after Russian forces retreated to the east bank of the Dnipro River.

Since then, however, inhabitants have faced constant Russian shelling, forcing hundreds of people to flee.

The eastern frontline town of Bakhmut was also the target of intense Russian artillery fire.

The Ukrainian government has warned Putin could launch a fresh offensive in the new year, possibly reopening a northern front from Belarus.

The UK defence ministry, however, said Russia was having to limit its long-range attack on Ukrainian energy infrastructure sites because of the limited availability of cruise missiles.

In one of its daily statements on the Ukrainian conflict, the ministry said Russia was also unlikely to have built up its stockpiles of artillery shells and rockets to the level that would be needed to conduct large-scale offensive operations.

The Belarusian president, Aleksandr Lukashenko, travelled to Moscow on Saturday for a series of meetings with senior Russian officials, including Putin.

His visit comes days after Putin made a rare trip to the Belarusian capital of Minsk.