The eastern region of Donetsk, one of the two provinces making up the country's industrial heartland of Donbas that has been the focus of a Russian offensive, has faced the most intense shelling.
Regional officials said on Monday that at least three people had died and another 13 were wounded by Russian shelling that hit numerous towns and villages in the Donetsk region during the last 24 hours. The barrage has damaged dozens of residential buildings and civilian infrastructure.
In the country's second-largest city of Kharkiv, five civilians were wounded in the latest Russian shelling early on Monday, according to the city's mayor, Ihor Terekhov.
The Russian forces also struck several other regions of Ukraine with rockets and artillery.
Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov said Russian warplanes have struck Ukrainian army positions in the southern Kherson region and in the Donetsk region. He added that the Russian air force also hit a facility in the Kharkiv region, killing at least 100 and wounding 50 "mercenaries" from Poland and Germany. His claims couldn't be independently verified.
Speaking at the opening of an arms show outside Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed the military's action in Ukraine, declaring that it "fights for Russia ... and fulfilling all the tasks that were set, liberating the Donbas step by step."
For their part, the Ukrainian military claimed to have destroyed more than 10 Russian warehouses with ammunition and military equipment in the past week.
Also on Monday the Ukrainian parliament, Verkhovna Rada, extended martial law and the country's general mobilisation for another 90 days.
"Ukraine has always longed and longs for peace and many times in various negotiation formats has offered the Russian leadership to end the war and free Ukrainian land from occupation," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video late Sunday.Â
"But so far, Russia believes in terror, remains in the grip of its propaganda illusions and still hopes that it can supposedly achieve something through various forms of blackmail. It won't."
He emphasised that "we must defend ourselves," adding that "the stronger Ukraine will be, the weaker Russia will be, and therefore, the less time this war will last."