Russia keeps up pressure in eastern Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday urged EU leaders during talks in Kyiv to slap more sanctions on Russia, as Moscow's forces pressed their offensive in eastern Ukraine and fired missiles into the city of Kramatorsk near the front line.

One missile destroyed an apartment building late on Wednesday in Kramatorsk of Donetsk, killing at least three people and wounding 18, police said, while Russia said yesterday it had struck US-made rocket launchers in the area.

The head of the European Commission pledged more EU aid for Ukraine as she arrived in Kyiv by train along with more than a dozen other senior EU officials for two days of talks seen as key to Ukraine's hopes of one day joining the bloc.

"Russia is paying a heavy price (for the war) as our sanctions are eroding its economy, throwing it back by a generation. We will keep turning up the pressure further," Ursula von der Leyen later told a joint news conference with Zelensky.

The West has imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia since its invasion of Ukraine on February 24 last year, aiming to cripple its ability to wage a war that has devastated Ukrainian cities and towns, killed tens of thousands of people and forced millions to flee their homes.

Zelensky called for more sanctions, saying the pace had "slightly slowed" of late and that Moscow was adapting to them.

"This is a joint European task to reduce Russia's ability to evade sanctions. And the faster and better this task is accomplished, the closer we will be to defeating the aggression of the Russian Federation," he said.

Von der Leyen said the EU would have a new package of sanctions in place for the first anniversary of the war, the biggest armed conflict in Europe since World War Two.

But she avoided any commitment to fast-track Ukraine's EU membership bid, which is expected to take years.

Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin said yesterday that Russia is being threatened by German tanks "again" as it was during World War II, warning that Moscow is ready to respond to aggression from the West.

Speaking at events marking the 80th anniversary of the Red Army's victory over Nazi Germany in Stalingrad, Putin drew parallels between the Soviet Union's fight in World War II and Moscow's intervention in Ukraine.

The team from Brussels will discuss sending more arms and money to Ukraine, increasing access for Ukrainian products to the EU, helping Kyiv cover energy needs, strengthening sanctions on Russia and prosecuting Russian leaders for the war.

Earlier, Zelensky gave another bleak assessment of the battlefield situation in eastern Ukraine, where Russian forces have been making incremental gains as the first anniversary of Moscow's invasion looms.

In Kramatorsk, a Russian Iskander-K tactical missile struck at 9:45 pm on Wednesday, police said. "At least eight apartment buildings were damaged. One of them was completely destroyed," they said in a Facebook post. "People may remain under the rubble."

In its daily update, Russia's defence ministry said yesterday it had destroyed US-made HIMARS and MLRS launch pads in an attack "in the region of Kramatorsk". It made no reference to the strike on the residential building.

Russia, determined to make progress before Ukraine receives newly promised Western battle tanks and armoured vehicles, has picked up momentum on the battlefield and it announced advances north and south of Bakhmut, which has suffered persistent Russian bombardment for months.

"The enemy is trying to achieve at least something now to show that Russia has some chances on the anniversary of the invasion," Zelensky said in a video address late on Wednesday.