Bombardment continues in 40 towns including the key city of Sievierodonetsk as police in Lysychansk collect bodies for mass burials
\n Kyiv
\nFierce battles have continued to rage in eastern Ukraine with Russian troops on the verge of encircling a key industrial city, bringing a sharp rebuke of the west from Volodymyr Zelenskiy for not doing enough to help Kyiv win the war.
\nAs the Ukrainian military reported on Thursday that 40 towns in the Donbas region were under Russian bombardment, Luhansk governor Sergiy Gaiday described fighting outside Sievierodonetsk, a key military goal for Russia, as \u201cvery difficult\u201d, saying Russian troops were shelling the city from the outskirts with mortars.
\n\u201cThe coming week will be decisive,\u201d Gaiday said in a video posted on Telegram, adding he believes Russia\u2019s goal is to \u201ccapture the Luhansk region no matter what cost\u201d.
\n\u201cThere is a colossal amount of shelling,\u201d he added.
\nHaving failed to seize Ukraine\u2019s capital or its second city, Kharkiv, after invading in February, Russia is trying to take full control of the Donbas, comprised of two eastern provinces Moscow claims on behalf of separatists.
\nRussia has poured thousands of troops into the region, attacking from three sides in an attempt to encircle Ukrainian forces holding out in Sievierodonetsk and its twin, Lysychansk. Their fall would leave the whole of Luhansk province under Russian control, a key Kremlin war aim.
\n\u201cThe occupiers shelled more than 40 towns in Donetsk and Luhansk region, destroying or damaging 47 civilian sites, including 38 homes and a school. As a result of this shelling five civilians died and 12 were wounded,\u201d the joint task force of Ukraine\u2019s armed forces said on Facebook.
\nThe statement said 10 enemy attacks were repelled, four tanks and four drones destroyed, and 62 \u201cenemy soldiers\u201d were killed.
\nGaiday said police in Lysychansk were collecting bodies of people killed in order to bury them in mass graves. About 150 people have been buried in a mass grave in one Lysychansk district, he added.
\nFamilies of people buried in mass graves will be able to carry out a reburial after the war, and police are issuing documents enabling Ukrainians to secure death certificates for loved ones, Gaiday said.
\nZelenskiy said in his nightly address on Wednesday that Russian troops \u201cheavily outnumber us\u201d in some parts of the east and echoed pleas from his foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba to the World Economic Forum in Davos for more weaponry from the west.
\n\u201cWe need the help of our partners – above all, weapons for Ukraine. Full help, without exceptions, without limits, enough to win,\u201d Zelenskiy said in his daily address to the nation.
\nAnd he called out the international community for paying too much attention to Russia\u2019s interests and too little to Ukraine\u2019s.
\nThe Ukrainian president took specific aim at former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger and the New York Times for suggesting territorial sacrifices might be necessary to end the conflict.
\nKissinger, the 98-year-old champion of realpolitik, this week told World Economic Forum attendees in Davos that a return to the \u201cstatus quo\u201d before Russia\u2019s February 24 invasion would be ideal. Russia had formally annexed Crimea in 2014, while separatist groups aligned with Moscow have long controlled the easternmost regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
\nPushing Moscow to surrender that territory threatened to turn the conflict into a new, broader war, Kissinger warned, adding that negotiations needed to begin within two months.
\n\u201cIt seems Mr Kissinger\u2019s calendar is not 2022, but 1938,\u201d Zelensky responded, comparing his suggestion to the agreement that ceded part of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany more than 80 years ago.
\nUK foreign secretary Liz Truss is expected to call on Thursday for further military aid and sanctions to help Ukraine, during a trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
\n\u201cRussia\u2019s aggression cannot be appeased. It must be met with strength,\u201d Truss is expected to say, noting concessions made to Putin before operations were launched in Georgia, the Crimea and Donbas.
\nRussia\u2019s invasion of its pro-western neighbour has caused global shockwaves, with the latest being fears of food shortages, particularly in Africa.
\nMoscow blamed the international sanctions imposed after the invasion, while the west says the shortage is mainly down to Russia\u2019s blockade of Ukrainian ports.
\n\u201cSolving the food problem requires a comprehensive approach, including the removal of sanctions that have been imposed on Russian exports and financial transactions,\u201d said Russian deputy foreign minister Andrey Rudenko.
\nBut Kuleba urged delegates at Davos in Switzerland not to give in. \u201cThis is clear blackmail. You could not find a better example of blackmail in international relations,\u201d Kuleba told the WEF in Davos. Kuleba also slammed the western military alliance Nato for \u201cdoing literally nothing\u201d to stop Russia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bombardment continues in 40 towns including the key city of Sievierodonetsk as police in Lysychansk collect bodies for mass burials Kyiv Fierce battles have continued to rage in eastern Ukraine with Russian troops on the verge of encircling a key industrial city, bringing a sharp rebuke of the west from Volodymyr Zelenskiy for not doing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262895,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7797,7798,456,479],"class_list":{"0":"post-262870","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-donbas","9":"tag-russian-onslaught","10":"tag-ukraine","11":"tag-weapons"},"yoast_head":"\n