A Ukrainian emergency service worker throws flammable debris from the balcony of an apartment
(Picture: Getty Images)Kyiv’s allies pledged more than $1billion (£0.8 billion) to help civilians survive a bleak winter as Russia and Ukraine bombarded each other’s positions in heavy fighting around the small eastern city of Bakhmut on Tuesday.
Invading Russian forces have fought to seize Bakhmut for months as part of a grinding battle for control of the Donetsk region, one of four territories in Ukraine the Kremlin claims to have annexed since its invasion.
“They’re shelling really hard, there’s shelling, especially at night,” Valentyna, 70, said as she fled Bakhmut, now largely reduced to rubble by incessant bombardment.
“The house would shake and every minute, second you expect it could crumble around you and that’d be it. I couldn’t even sleep in the last week, so I decided to leave,” she added.
Valentyna, who declined to give her surname, spoke in a van evacuating her via the town of Kostiantynivka to the relative safety of Ukrainian-controlled Pokrovsk.
Although Bakhmut, once a city of 80,000 people, straddles a road to other important towns, military analysts do not see it as a major strategic goal for Russia. It has been the focus of an assault largely driven by fighters from Russia’s private military company Wagner Group, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
Ukraine has said Russian forces are suffering huge losses in the brutal dug-in trench warfare on the eastern front. Britain’s defence ministry has said the high cost of capturing Bakhmut could make it a mainly symbolic and political objective.
In its evening update, Ukraine’s armed forces General Staff said 60 Russian soldiers were killed and 100 injured in a weekend strike in the neighbouring province of Luhansk.
In Paris, about 70 countries and institutions pledged more than one billion dollars (£0.8 billion) to help maintain Ukraine’s water, food, energy, health and transport in face of Russia’s attacks.
An international donor conference in Paris is raising and helping co-ordinate many tens of millions of pounds of aid - both financial and in kind - to be taken to Ukraine in coming weeks and months to help its beleaguered people survive winter's freezing temperatures and long nights.
French president Emmanuel Macron, in a speech opening the conference, described Moscow's bombardments of civilian targets as a war crime.
He said the Kremlin is attacking civilian infrastructure because its troops have suffered setbacks on the battlefields.
Moscow's intention is to "plunge the Ukrainian people into despair", Mr Macron said.
Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky, who spoke by video link, said 12 million Ukrainians are suffering power cuts.
He said the country needs electricity generators as urgently as it needs armoured vehicles and armoured vests for its troops.
The meeting's French organisers say the aid drive will also send a message to the Kremlin that the international community is sticking by Ukraine against Russia's aerial bombardments that have savaged the Ukrainian power grid and other key infrastructure.
Sweden was among the first countries attending the meeting to pledge more aid.
Foreign trade minister, Johan Forssell, announced a contribution of 55 million euros (£47 million) for humanitarian aid and the rebuilding of schools, hospitals and energy infrastructure.
As winter bites, "we need to do whatever we can to help improve conditions in Ukraine and also help them to fight off the Russian invaders", he said.
"We're here for them as long as it takes."
Donors went to the conference armed with an array of help, from lightbulbs, generators and power transformers to assistance with food, water, health, transport and rebuilding.
France's foreign ministry said a total of 1.05 billion euros (£840 million) in financial and in-kind aid was pledged, all of it expected to reach Ukraine over the toughest winter months before April.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced funding for the purchase of 30 million energy-saving light bulbs that Ukraine requested to reduce pressure on its power grid.
The meeting also aims to put in a place a system to co-ordinate international aid this winter, mirroring the way that western nations supplying weapons co-ordinate their military support.
A web-based platform will enable Ukraine to list its civilian aid needs, and allow donors to show what they will supply in response.
The conference organisers say they are expecting more than 45 nations and 20 international institutions to take part.
Meanwhile, the UK imposed travel bans and asset freezes on 12 more Russian senior military figures it links to the infrastructure attacks in Ukraine.
They include commanders of the strategic missile and airborne forces, and other officials in charge of missile and drone units.
The Foreign Office also announced restrictions on three Iranians and a company allegedly involved in supplying explosive drones to Russia.
