Kyiv - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged the West ‘to stop playing’ around with Russia. He insisted to impose tougher sanctions on Russia to end its "senseless war", adding that his country would remain independent, the only question was at what price.

“We are fighting for Ukraine to be provided with all the weapons needed to change the nature of the fighting and start moving faster and more confidently toward the expulsion of the occupiers,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address to the nation.

Zelenskiy's comments mark the second day in a row that he has sharpened his criticism of the world's approach to the war.

He also pleaded with the West on Thursday to send multiple launch rocket systems to Ukraine as soon as possible to give it a chance against the Russian offensive in the eastern Donbas.

“They want to turn Popasna, Bakhmut, Lyman, Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk into ashes as they did with Volnovakha and Mariupol,” Zelenskyy said.

Thousands of Russian troops are trying to encircle the two eastern cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk. Sievierodonetsk is the only part of the Luhansk region in the Donbas under Ukrainian government control, and Russian forces have been trying to cut it off from the rest of Ukrainian-controlled territory.

In the shelling Thursday of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, Zelenskyy said at least nine people were killed and 19 wounded. Among those killed was a five-month-old baby and the infant’s father with the child’s mother seriously injured.

Western military analysts see the battle for Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk as a possible turning point in the war after a shift in momentum towards Russia following the surrender of Ukraine's garrison in Mariupol last week.

Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk says Sievierodonetsk is holding out even though a Russian reconnaissance and sabotage group went into a city hotel.

Stryuk said at least 1,500 people have been killed in Sievierodonetsk and about 12,000 to 13,000 remain in the city, where he said 60% of residential buildings have been destroyed.

The EU is discussing a sixth round of punitive measures, including an embargo on Russian oil imports. It requires unanimity but Hungary opposes the idea on the grounds that its economy would suffer too much.

An EU summit on May 30-31 could see divisions between members who want a hard line on Russia and those calling for a ceasefire.
-AP/Reuters