The Ukrainian Defense Forces conduct heavy battles in several directions. In particular, the Ukrainian Armed Forces counterattacked near Avdiivka and continue to hold positions on the eastern (left) bank of Dnipro River in Kherson Region.
This is confirmed by the data of Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
The situation in Kharkiv and Lugansk Regions:
Russian bloggers stated that Russian troops carried out ground attacks northeast of Kupiansk near Synkivka, east of Petropavlivka and near Ivanovka;
As reported, the Ukrainian forces counterattacked near Synkivka.
Russian and Ukrainian forces engaged in positional hostilities west of Kreminna near Terny and south of Kreminna, near Dibrova and Serebryansky Forest. The Russian source indicated that units of the 204th "Akhmat" Special Forces Detachment and the 201st Military Base were operating in Kreminna Forest. The presence of troops from Dushanbe, Tajikistan, says that Russian forces continue to deploy some of their forces from Tajikistan to strengthen the military effort.
Battles in Donetsk Region:
Geolocation footage published on Dec. 19 shows that Russian troops have slightly advanced southwest of Spirnoye (25 km northeast of Bakhmut).
Colonel Oleksandr Shtupun, "Tavria" Front Defense forces Spokesperson, said, as on December 20, that Russian forces had lost nearly 25,000 personnel in Donetsk region over the past two months, 80% of those losses were in Avdiivka direction. Shtupun also said that the Russian military often forms new divisions of degraded troops to conduct attacks near Avdiivka, although some well-trained and well-equipped units continue to fight in the area.
Russian and Ukrainian sources reported continued fighting near Marinka, Krasnohorivka, Novomykhailivka and Pobeda.
"Southern Axis"
The AFU General Staff reported that Ukrainian forces repelled Russian attacks west of Verbove, south of Robotyne and west of Novopokrivka.
Ukrainian forces maintain a presence on the eastern (left) bank of Dnipro River in Kherson region as of December 20, but there have been no confirmed changes of the front line in this section.
Over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian forces repelled 37 attacks on positions on the eastern bank.
Ukrainian troops likely struck Russian military assets in occupied Crimea on the night of December 19-20. Ukrainian and Russian sources said that the strikes hit Russian Air Force's Deep-Space Communication Center and the Federal Security Service in occupied Crimea.
Earlier we wrote that Russians continue their "meat assaults", but the Ukrainian Armed Forces are holding them back.