Russian forces shelled the city of Lysychansk on Saturday in an effort to seize the last stronghold of resistance in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk province, Governor Sergiy Gaiday said.
Ukrainian fighters have spent weeks defending the city to stop it from falling to Russian occupation, as neighbouring Severodonetsk did a week ago.
The capture of Lysychansk would allow Russian forces to push deeper into the battleground Donbas region, which has become the focus of their offensive since failing to capture Kyiv.
“Over the last day, the occupiers opened fire from all available kinds of weapons,” Mr Gaiday said on the Telegram messaging app.
There were competing claims from Moscow and Kyiv on Saturday that pro-Russia separatists have surrounded the city.
“Fighting rages around Lysychansk … The city has not been encircled and is the under control of the Ukrainian Army,” Ruslan Muzytchuk, a spokesman for the Ukrainian National Guard, said on Ukrainian television.
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Ukrainian servicemen in a shelter at the frontline near Kharkiv. AP -
A Ukrainian and his puppy in the Donetsk region. AP -
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 -
Rescue specialists work at the site of a destroyed residential building after blasts in Belgorod, Russia. Reuters -
A woman lays flowers during a demonstration against the invasion of Ukraine in front of the Palais des Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland. EPA -
A woman injured when her house was damaged by the Russian shelling sits in the yard of her house, in Bakhmut, Ukraine. AP -
Local residents stand next to a damaged residential building in the town of Serhiivka, about 50 kilometres south-west of Odesa, Ukraine. AP -
Viktor Shevchenko stands in a crater to show its depth after a Russian shelling in the Saltivka district in Kharkiv. AP -
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 -
People watch as smoke rises after a Russian missile strike hit a crowded shopping mall, in Kremenchuk. AP -
Firefighters clean the rubble of the destroyed Amstor shopping mall in Kremenchuk. EPA -
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 -
Firefighters and rescue workers at the destroyed Amstor shopping mall. EPA -
Rescuers work at the site of a shopping mall hit by a Russian missile strike, in Kremenchuk. Reuters -
A couple wounded by a Russian missile strike hold hands in a hospital, in Kremenchuk. Reuters -
People wait to receive humanitarian aid in front of a residential building damaged during a Russian attack in Borodyanka, Ukraine. EPA -
Ukrainian servicemen take a bus to their positions near Severodonetsk, in Luhansk area. EPA -
A Ukrainian service member and a dog in the industrial area of the city of Severodonetsk. Reuters -
A couple sits in front of a residential building that was damaged during a Russian attack, in Borodyanka. EPA -
Local residents receive humanitarian aid in Borodyanka. EPA -
A Ukrainian armed forces tank in Severodonetsk. Reuters -
Ukrainian service members walk past a damaged car in Severodonetsk. Reuters -
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 -
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 -
An onlooker takes in the damage from overnight shelling on Kharkiv's Housing and Communal College. Reuters -
A destroyed tank in the village of Novoselivka, outside Chernigiv. AFP -
A man decorates a toy cabin for children made from used ammunition crates in the village of Novoselivka, outside Chernigiv. AFP -
An internal view of the Housing and Communal College building damaged by recent shelling in Kharkiv. EPA
Earlier, Andrei Marotchko, a spokesman for the separatist forces, told the Tass news agency: “Lysychansk is completely encircled.”
Others cities were under fire, including Mykolaiv in the south and Sloviansk in the centre of the region.
“There are powerful explosions in the city! Stay in shelters!” Oleksandr Senkevych, mayor of the Mykolaiv region, which borders the vital Black Sea port of Odesa, wrote on Telegram.
The cause of the explosions was not immediately clear, although Russia later said it had hit army command posts in the area. Reuters could not independently verify the reports.
Rockets struck residential properties in Sloviansk in the heart of the Donbas, killing a woman in her garden and wounding her husband, a neighbour told AFP Saturday, describing debris that had showered the neighbourhood.
Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Ukraine was “suffering heavy losses on all fronts”.
More military aid is promised to Ukraine from the US and Europe.
The Pentagon said it was sending a new armament package worth $820 million, including two air defence systems and more ammunition for precision rocket launchers.
The EU has proposed €1bn of emergency funding, and Norway, which is not an EU member, also announced €1bn in humanitarian and military aid over the next two years.
