The Latest Breaking News from Donetsk

Heavy street fighting continues and airstrikes threaten the lives of the estimated 13,000 civilians still trapped behind

Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) - Russian forces have seized control of half of eastern Ukraine's key city of Severodonetsk, a senior official said Tuesday, hours after EU leaders struck a watered-down deal to ban more than two-thirds of Moscow's oil imports.

Ukraine said on Tuesday that Russia had taken control of most of the eastern industrial city of Sievierodonetsk, a bombed-out wasteland whose capture Moscow has made the principal objective of its invasion.

Russian forces now control "most" of the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk after days of fierce fighting, the regional governor of Luhansk said Tuesday. Governor Sergiy Gaiday said "90 percent" of the city was destroyed and there was now no possibility of leaving Severodonetsk. Read our live blog to see…

Russian forces have seized control of about a third of the Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk, but their assault was taking longer than they had hoped, according to a Moscow-backed separatist leader quoted in a TASS news agency report.

Luhansk region governor Serhiy Gaidai says Russian troops have advanced into Sievierodonetsk’s fringes amid battles with Ukrainian forces.

Journalist was in an evacuation vehicle in Sievierodonetsk, the largest city in the Donbas still held by Ukrainian forces

(Refiles to clarify that speaker was spokesman for defence ministry of Ukraine)

Shelling has killed two civilians and wounded five others as Russian troops advanced into the city's fringes, Luhansk region Governor Serhiy Gaidai says, with Ukraine determined to slow an offensive across the Donbas region.