Moscow - (AFP) - The Kremlin said Thursday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to the United States did not show "any intention to listen to Russian concerns" and that Washington was waging an "indirect war" against Moscow in Ukraine .

Zelensky received a hero's welcome during a lightning visit to Washington, his first outside the country since the start of the Russian attack in February, during which he met his US counterpart, Joe Biden, and delivered a speech in Congress that won warm applause from its members.

And the Ukrainian president secured pledges to receive a massive aid worth nearly $45 billion and additional arms shipments, including for the first time the Patriot anti-missile defense system.

"So far, we note with regret that President (US Joe) Biden and President Zelensky have not said anything that could be considered a possible intention to listen to Russian concerns," Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Peskov added that during the visit, no "real calls for peace" or US "warnings" were heard to Zelensky against "continuing the bombing of residential buildings in the towns and villages of the Donbass region" in eastern Ukraine, parts of which are controlled by pro-Russian separatists.

"This indicates that the United States continues its trend of waging an indirect war against Russia, de facto, until the last Ukrainian," he added.

On Wednesday, the day of Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to the United States, the Kremlin warned that sending more American weapons to Ukraine would only "exacerbate" the conflict.

Russia has suffered major field setbacks in recent months. Its forces have been routed from the Kharkiv region in the northeast and from the city of Kherson in the south.

In response, starting in October, Moscow resorted to the tactic of massively bombing Ukrainian infrastructure, depriving millions of people of electricity, water, and heat in the midst of winter.

This particularly affected the capital, Kiev, where the electricity situation remained "difficult" on Thursday, according to the head of the city's military administration, Sergei Popko.

The US Patriot system will "significantly" boost Ukraine's air defenses against Russian strikes, according to Zelensky.

In outlining his military's priorities for 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to continue strengthening military capabilities, including nuclear.

And he announced the entry of new Russian hypersonic cruise missiles, the Zircon, into service "at the beginning of January," with the intention to increase the number of the Russian armed forces to 1.5 million soldiers.

And Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu considered that the Russian army is fighting "the forces of the West combined," and revealed that Moscow intends to establish bases to support its fleet in the occupied cities of Mariupol and Berdyansk in southern Ukraine.

On Thursday, the ministry announced that Shoigu had conducted an inspection tour of Russian sites in Ukraine, without specifying their location or date.

The Russian Defense Minister visited the "special operations" area a few days ago, in an indication of Moscow's desire to strengthen its control over its military personnel there.

For his part, Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov confirmed Thursday that the goal of the Russian forces in Ukraine now is to occupy the entire Donetsk industrial region in eastern Ukraine. He said he had noticed "stability" on the 815-kilometre front line.

But the fighting and shelling continues, with at least one person killed and 14 wounded across Ukraine on Wednesday, according to Kiev.

In the east, the former head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, was injured in a Ukrainian attack on a hotel in Donetsk, a stronghold of pro-Russian separatists, and is expected to undergo surgery.

The Russian Investigative Committee, the body in charge of investigating major cases, confirmed that the strike, which resulted in deaths and injuries, was carried out with "high-precision ammunition and may have been fired from a truck equipped with the French Caesar artillery system."

The head of the town of Lyubimivka, located on the left bank of the Dnieper River under the control of the Russian army in Kherson (south), was also killed in a bomb attack on Thursday, according to the Russian occupation administration, which said that Andrei Shtepa, "was tragically killed in a car explosion" orchestrated by "Ukrainian terrorists." .

In a related development, Russian news agencies reported that the only Russian aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, which is currently undergoing maintenance in the far north, a fire broke out on board and did not cause any deaths or injuries.