Zelenskyy vows Ukraine will win back cities lost to Russia

Ukrainian President admits war is tough as Severodonetsk falls to Moscow's forces

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  Ukrainian servicemen in a shelter at the frontline near Kharkiv. AP

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  A Ukrainian and his puppy in the Donetsk region. AP

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  Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, third left, is shown apartment buildings damaged by Russian shelling during his visit to Irpin on the outskirts of Kyiv. AP

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  Rescue specialists work at the site of a destroyed residential building after blasts in Belgorod, Russia. Reuters

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  A woman lays flowers during a demonstration against the invasion of Ukraine in front of the Palais des Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland. EPA

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  A woman injured when her house was damaged by the Russian shelling sits in the yard of her house, in Bakhmut, Ukraine. AP

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  Local residents stand next to a damaged residential building in the town of Serhiivka, about 50 kilometres south-west of Odesa, Ukraine. AP

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  Viktor Shevchenko stands in a crater to show its depth after a Russian shelling in the Saltivka district in Kharkiv. AP

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  An image taken from a video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office purports to show the moment a missile struck the shopping mall in Kremenchuk. AP

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  People watch as smoke rises after a Russian missile strike hit a crowded shopping mall, in Kremenchuk. AP

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  Firefighters clean the rubble of the destroyed Amstor shopping mall in Kremenchuk. EPA

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  A woman cries after the body of her husband, who was killed in the yard of an apartment building during shelling, was loaded into an ambulance in Kharkiv, Ukraine. AP

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  Firefighters and rescue workers at the destroyed Amstor shopping mall. EPA

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  Rescuers work at the site of a shopping mall hit by a Russian missile strike, in Kremenchuk. Reuters

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  A couple wounded by a Russian missile strike hold hands in a hospital, in Kremenchuk. Reuters

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  People wait to receive humanitarian aid in front of a residential building damaged during a Russian attack in Borodyanka, Ukraine. EPA

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  Ukrainian servicemen take a bus to their positions near Severodonetsk, in Luhansk area. EPA

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  A Ukrainian service member and a dog in the industrial area of the city of Severodonetsk. Reuters

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  A couple sits in front of a residential building that was damaged during a Russian attack, in Borodyanka. EPA

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  Local residents receive humanitarian aid in Borodyanka. EPA

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  A Ukrainian armed forces tank in Severodonetsk. Reuters

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  Ukrainian service members walk past a damaged car in Severodonetsk. Reuters

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  A giant Ukrainian flag is held up during the benefit concert 'Embrace Ukraine' on the Museumplein in Amsterdam. The free event will raise money for victims of the war in Ukraine and the purchase of mobile X-ray equipment that the country needs. EPA

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  A fire from a gas processing plant continues to burn behind a field of wheat after it was hit by shelling a few days earlier in Andriivka, in the Kharkiv region. Reuters

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  An onlooker takes in the damage from overnight shelling on Kharkiv's Housing and Communal College. Reuters

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  A destroyed tank in the village of Novoselivka, outside Chernigiv. AFP

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  A man decorates a toy cabin for children made from used ammunition crates in the village of Novoselivka, outside Chernigiv. AFP

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  An internal view of the Housing and Communal College building damaged by recent shelling in Kharkiv. EPA

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday said Ukraine would win back all the cities it had lost to Russia, including the eastern city of Severodonetsk, and said the war was becoming tough to handle emotionally.

In a late-night video address, he also said Ukraine had been hit by 45 Russian missiles and rockets over the previous 24 hours, which he described as a cynical but doomed attempt to break his people's spirits.

"All our cities — Severodonetsk, Donetsk, Luhansk — we'll get them all back," he said.

It was the only time in the address that he mentioned Severodonetsk, which fell to the Russian army earlier in the day after weeks of fighting.

"At this stage of the war it's spiritually difficult, emotionally difficult ... we don't have a sense of how long it will last, how many more blows, losses and efforts will be needed before we see victory is on the horizon," Mr Zelenskyy said.

The missiles attacks confirmed that sanctions against Russia were not enough to help Ukraine, which needed more weapons, he said.

"The air defence systems — the modern systems that our partners have — should not be on training grounds or in storage, but in Ukraine, where they are needed now, needed more than anywhere else in the world," he said.

The fall of Severodonetsk, once home to more than 100,000 people, was Russia's biggest victory since capturing the port of Mariupol last month.

It transforms the battlefield in the east after weeks in which Moscow's huge advantage in firepower had yielded slow gains.

Russia is expected to press on and seize more ground, while Ukraine will hope that Moscow's military efforts leave its forces vulnerable to counterattack.