Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that his troops were outnumbered by a “stronger” Russian side, as the two countries’ forces battled for control of the eastern city of Severodonetsk.
“We’re holding out” in the key city, but “there are more of them and they are stronger,” Mr Zelenskyy told journalists in Kyiv on Monday, , which sits across the Siverskyi Donets river from Severodonetsk.
Moscow, meanwhile, lashed out over European countries denying overflight rights to the aircraft of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Russia expanded its list of American officials banned from entering the country, while , raising the stakes for business people in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s circle.
Mr Zelenskyy, along with United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken, also warned on Monday of tightening supplies of grain on the global market due to what Mr Blinken said was a Russian strategy of “blackmail”.
“There is somewhere around 20 million tonnes of wheat that is trapped in silos near Odessa, and in ships literally filled with grain that are stuck in the Odessa port because of this Russian blockade,” Mr Blinken said.
Heavy shelling
Rhetoric has spiked on both sides of the war, , as the UK followed the US in announcing it would supply longer-range, mobile missile launchers to Ukraine’s forces, which could improve Kyiv’s fight against Russian firepower.
The UK’s Defence Ministry said it would be supplying track-mounted M270 multiple rocket artillery units, which can strike targets up to 80 kilometres away with precision-guided rockets, double what more standard battlefield artillery can reach.
A local school destroyed by shelling in the village of Smolyanynove, east of Severodonetsk. Source: AAP / TASS/Sipa USA
The announcement came after Mr Putin had warned that Moscow will hit new targets in Ukraine if the West supplies Kyiv with such weapons — but did not specify which targets.
Fighting and heavy artillery strikes remained focused on the Donbas front and especially in .
In Lysychansk, pensioner Oleksandr Lyakhovets said he had just enough time to save his cat before flames engulfed his flat after it was hit by a Russian missile.
“They shoot here endlessly… It’s a horror show,” the 67-year-old told news agency AFP.
Russian forces pressed their offensive on several other fronts in the east of Ukraine, with Kyiv saying it had repulsed seven attacks around Donetsk and Luhansk.
The Russian defence ministry said its aircraft had hit three arms depots and a fuel storage facility near the village of Kodema, in the Donetsk region.
Both sides have gained and lost ground in recent days in Severodonetsk. Analysts say Ukrainian forces, in holding key areas of the city while attacking on other parts of the front lines, have highlighted weaknesses in Russia’s capacity to push forward.
“The ability of Ukrainian forces to successfully counterattack in Severodonetsk, the Kremlin’s current priority area of operations, further indicates the declining combat power of Russian forces in Ukraine,” said the US-based Institute for the Study of War.
