Sievierodonetsk/Tokyo - In the key city of Sievierodonetsk, Ukraine says it has recaptured 20% of the territory that was lost to Russian forces, previously, the governor of Luhansk Serhiy Haidai had said 70% of the eastern city had fallen to Russia.
Ukraine rejected Macron's comments on dealing with Russia saying that such calls would "only humiliate France" and others taking the same view.
Russia has reinforced its troops and used artillery to conduct "assault operations" in Sievierodonetsk, but Russian forces retreated after failed attempts to advance in the nearby town of Bakhmut, Ukraine's military said.
The governor of the Luhansk region said, Russian forces are blowing up bridges across the Seversky Donets river to prevent Ukraine bringing in military reinforcements and delivering aid to civilians in the town of Sievierodonetsk.
Ukraine on Saturday dismissed French President Emmanuel Macron's call not to "humiliate" Russia for the sake of diplomacy and said that there was no point in negotiating until Moscow's forces were pushed back as far as possible. Macron, who has kept up dialogue with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin since Russia's Feb. 24 invasion, offered on Friday to mediate in the war and warned against humiliating Moscow so as to keep the door open to a diplomatic solution.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is leaning toward attending a summit of leaders from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in late June to spur coordination with the West over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Kyodo News reported, citing unnamed government sources.
The move would mark an unusually aggressive stance for a Japanese leader although Kishida has repeatedly condemned Russia over what he has described as a "war crime" against Ukraine.
A ship sent to load metal and ship it to Russia has entered the Ukrainian port of Mariupol, TASS news agency reported on Saturday, the second vessel to arrive in the southeastern city since Russia completed its capture last month.
"The ship has arrived and is in the port," TASS cited a port authority representative as saying, adding that it was to be loaded with metal.
"Victory will be ours," said Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, speaking on Friday in a video address to mark 100 days of the war.
Earlier this week, a ship left Mariupol for Russia with a cargo of metal. Ukraine said the shipment from the port, whose capture gave Moscow an overland bridge linking mainland Russia and pro-Russian separatist territory to annexed Crimea, amounted to looting.
Around 15,000 suspected war crimes have been reported in Ukraine since the war began, with 200 to 300 more reported daily, Iryna Venediktova told reporters in The Hague.
The list of suspects includes "top military, politicians and propaganda agents of Russia", she added. Russia has denied targeting civilians or involvement in war crimes.
Alleged war crimes in the region include the possible forcible transfer of people - including cases of adults and children - to different parts of Russia, Ms Venediktova said. Torture, the killing of civilians and the destruction of civilian infrastructure are also suspected war crimes, she added.
-Reuters/AP/BBC