Kyiv – Russia is stepping up pressure on Ukraine ahead of the EU summit this week. Russian made advances on two cities on Tuesday, having failed to dislodge determined Ukrainian resistance in the city of Severodonetsk after nearly two months.
EU leaders will meet in Brussels on June 23-24 and are expected to address the issue of whether to grant Ukraine EU candidacy status.
The governor of the Luhansk region, scene of the heaviest Russian onslaughts in recent weeks, said Russian forces had launched a massive attack and gained some territory on Monday though it was relatively quiet overnight.
"It's a calm before the storm," the governor, Serhiy Gaidai, said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had predicted Russia would step up attacks ahead of the EU summit on Thursday and Friday. He was defiant in a late Monday address to the nation, though referring to "difficult" fighting in Luhansk for Sievierodonetsk and its sister city, Lysychansk.
The war has entered a brutal phase in recent weeks, with Russian forces concentrating on Ukrainian-controlled parts of the Donbas, which Russia claims on behalf of separatists.
In Odesa, Ukraine's biggest Black Sea port, which is blockaded by the Russian navy, a Russian missile destroyed a food warehouse on Monday, Ukraine's military said.
The United States and its European allies have provided weapons and financial assistance to Ukraine but avoided direct involvement in the conflict.
However Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy renewed his plea for more Western weapons to fend off the Russian onslaught.
“We need your support, we need weaponry, weapons that will have better capabilities than the Russian weapons,” he told a forum in Milan that was organized by the ISPI geo-political think tank. He spoke by video link.
Zelenskyy added: “This is a matter of life or death.”
The European Union’s top diplomats gathered in Luxembourg on Monday for talks focused on Ukraine and food security.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called on Russia to lift its blockades of Ukrainian ports to help deliver the millions of tons of grain waiting to be exported.
-Reuters/CNN/AP