Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has hailed progress towards joining the European Union as Russian forces pound Ukraine's second-biggest city Kharkiv and the eastern Donbas region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visits Ukrainian troops in Mykolaiv region, 18 June. Photo: Handout / UKRAINE PRESIDENCY / AFP
European leaders are expected to formally set Ukraine on the long road to EU membership at a summit in Brussels on Thursday, with an offer of candidate status.
Though mainly symbolic, it will help lift national morale at a difficult time in the four-month conflict that has killed thousands, displaced millions and flattened towns and cities.
The war has also had a massive impact on the global economy and European security arrangements, driving up gas, oil and food prices, pushing the EU to reduce its heavy reliance on Russian energy and prompting Finland and Sweden to seek NATO membership.
An EU official said it would temporarily shift back to coal to cope with dwindling Russian gas flows without derailing longer-term climate goals, as a tight gas market and soaring prices set off a race for alternative fuels.
Zelensky said he had spoken to 11 EU leaders on Wednesday about Ukraine's candidacy, and would make more calls on Thursday. He earlier said he believed all 27 EU countries would support Ukraine's candidate status.
"We deserve it," Zelensky told crowds in Amsterdam via video link.
Diplomats say it would take Ukraine a decade or more to meet the criteria for joining the EU, but EU leaders say the bloc must make a gesture that recognises Ukraine's sacrifice.
With its forces running low on ammunition as a fierce war of attrition grinds on in the Donbas, Ukraine has more urgent priorities in the near term.
'No letup' in shelling of civilians
The Russian strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday on Kharkiv, near the Russian border, were the worst in weeks in an area where normal life had been returning after Ukraine pushed Moscow's forces back last month.
Kyiv characterized the strikes, which reportedly killed at least 20 people, as a bid to force Ukraine to pull resources from the main battlefields in the Donbas to protect civilians.
Oleh Synehubov, governor of Kharkiv region, said Russians continued shelling residential districts of Kharkiv and towns within Kharkiv region.
"There is no letup in the shelling of civilians by the Russian occupiers," he wrote on the Telegram messaging app. "This is evidence that we cannot expect the same scenario as in Chernihiv or Kyiv, with Russian forces withdrawing under pressure."
Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said in a video address that Russian forces were hitting Kharkiv to terrorize the population and force Ukraine to divert troops.
Zelensky warned the fighting could escalate before the EU summit. Russia has long opposed closer links between Ukraine, a former Soviet state, and Western clubs like the EU and the NATO military alliance.
"There were massive air and artillery strikes in Donbas," he said in a video address released early on Thursday, adding Russia wanted "to destroy the entire Donbas step by step."
In an indication the military situation for Ukraine in Donbas was becoming more difficult, Tass news agency indicated Russian forces were on the verge of capturing the village of Vovchoyarivka, some 12km southwest of Lysychansk.
Tass cited sources close to troops fighting for the self-declared separatist Russian-speaking Luhansk region. The village lies close to a major highway leading out of Lysychansk to the town of Bakhmut to the south west.
Reuters was unable to immediately confirm the report.
In an evening military update, Ukraine's General Staff catalogued continued heavy Russian shelling of Kharkiv and other towns and villages in its vicinity and air strikes on the devastated city of Sievierodonetsk, among others.
Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Gaidai said in an online post that Russian forces continued to build up reserves in Sievierodonetsk in an attempt to encircle Ukrainian troops.
He rejected Russian claims its military already controlled the city.
"Battles are continuing," he told Ukrainian Television. "Russian forces do not have full control."
Moscow said Ukrainian forces in Sievierodonetsk, scene of the heaviest recent fighting, were trapped. It ordered them last week to surrender or die after the last bridge over the Siverskyi Donets river was destroyed.
In an indication the military situation for Ukraine in the Donbas was becoming more difficult, Tass - citing Russian-speaking separatists fighting for Moscow - said Russian forces were on the verge of capturing Vovchoyarivka, a village some 12 km (7 miles) southwest of Lysychansk.
The village lies close to a major highway leading out of Lysychansk, a sister city across the river from Sievierodonetsk.
Reuters was unable to immediately confirm the report.
Inside Russia, a fire tore through an oil refinery just 8km from the frontier with Donbas territory controlled by pro-Russian separatists, after what the refinery described as a cross-border attack on Wednesday by two drones.
There was no immediate Ukrainian comment on the strike, which suspended production at the Novoshakhtinsk refinery.
Ukraine generally does not comment on reports of attacks on Russian infrastructure near the border, which it has called "karma" for Russian attacks on Ukraine.
- Reuters