Ukraine has acknowledged difficulties in fighting in the east of the country after Russian forces captured territory along a frontline river and intensified pressure on two key cities ahead of an EU summit expected to welcome Kyiv’s bid to join the bloc.
The governor of the Luhansk region, scene of the heaviest Russian onslaughts in recent weeks, said the situation was “extremely difficult” along the entire front line there as of Monday evening and the Russian army had gathered sufficient reserves to begin a large-scale offensive.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had predicted Moscow would escalate attacks ahead of the EU summit on Thursday and Friday.
In his customary evening address to the nation on Monday he remained defiant, while also referring to “difficult” fighting in Luhansk for Sievierodonetsk and its sister city Lysychansk.
“We are defending Lysychansk, Sievierodonetsk, this whole area, the most difficult one,” he said.
“We have the most difficult fighting there. But we have our strong guys and girls there.
“The occupiers receive a response to their actions against us.”
Also speaking on national television, Luhansk governor Serhiy Gaidai said Russian forces controlled most of Sievierodonetsk, apart from the Azot chemical plant, where hundreds of civilians have been sheltering for weeks.
The road connecting Sievierodonetsk and its sister city Lysychansk to the city of Bakhmut was under constant shelling, he said.
Moscow’s separatist proxies claimed to have captured Toshkivka, a town on the mostly Ukrainian-held western bank of the Siverskyi Donets river, south of Sievierodonetsk.
Gaidai earlier acknowledged a Russian attack on Toshkivka had “had a degree of success” and said Russian forces were also seeking a foothold near Ustinovka, a village further north along the river.
Approval by EU leaders for Ukraine to become an official candidate to join the bloc would be marked as a triumph in Kyiv, which applied for membership four days after Russia’s February 24 invasion.
Membership would take years to attain, but for the EU to reach deep into the heart of the former Soviet Union would bring about one of Europe’s biggest economic and social transformations since the Cold War.
The war has entered a brutal attritional phase in recent weeks, with Russian forces concentrating their overwhelming artillery firepower on Ukrainian-controlled parts of the Donbas, which Moscow claims on behalf of separatists.
In Odessa, Ukraine’s biggest Black Sea port, a Russian missile attack destroyed a food warehouse on Monday, the Ukrainian military said. No civilians were reported killed.
The Russian-installed leader of Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, said Kyiv had struck Black Sea drilling platforms owned by a Crimean oil company.
On Monday, the Kremlin said two Americans detained in Ukraine were mercenaries not covered by the Geneva convention who should face responsibility for their actions.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov’s comments were the first formal acknowledgement that the two men – identified in US reports as Andy Huynh, 27, and Alexander Drueke, 39 – were being held.
This month, two Britons and a Moroccan were sentenced to death by a separatist court after being caught fighting for Ukraine.
Peskov also said US basketball star Brittney Griner, held in Russia for more than two months, was being prosecuted for drug offences and was not a hostage.
Russian customs officials say vape cartridges containing hashish oil were found in Griner’s luggage.
The war continues to disrupt energy markets, including Russian shipments of oil and gas to Europe, still the continent’s main source of energy and Moscow’s primary income stream.
Moscow blames EU sanctions for a decline in gas volumes, saying they prevented it from restoring pipeline pumping equipment.
Russia, meanwhile, threatened to retaliate against EU member Lithuania for banning transport of basic goods to Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea surrounded by EU territory.
The ban, which took effect on Saturday, blocks shipments of coal, metals, construction materials and advanced technology.
Russia’s foreign ministry summoned Lithuania’s top diplomat and demanded Vilnius reverse the “openly hostile” move immediately, or else Russia “reserves the right to take actions to protect its national interests.”
Lithuania said it was required to enforce the ban under EU sanctions.
