KYIV — As Ukraine gains territory inside Russia but is pushed back in its own Donetsk region, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy heaped pressure on his Western allies for more help.
“Our guys are doing great on all fronts. However, there is a need for faster delivery of supplies from our partners,” Zelenskyy said in an evening address on Sunday.
“Decisions are needed, as are timely logistics for the announced aid packages. I especially address this to the United States, the United Kingdom and France,” he added.
Ukraine has been struggling to fend off Russia’s assault in the east, hence the calls for accelerated weapons deliveries.
Russia is rapidly advancing near Pokrovsk, Toretsk and Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region. Russian forces almost seized Krasnohorivka and occupied New York, a town in the Donetsk region, a Ukrainian army brigade said in a Telegram post on Sunday.
“The enemy is spreading across the region. The rate of advancement is very high. And, unfortunately, now his offensive potential here is limited not by the strength of our resistance, but rather by his reserves,” the brigade said.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian army did not reply to POLITICO’s request for comment.
Local Ukrainian authorities also announced involuntary evacuations in the area. “More than 53,000 people, including almost 4,000 children, still live here, but lately, the front has come too close to Pokrovsk so we have to react accordingly,” Vadym Filashkin, Donetsk governor, said in a statement Monday.
Ukraine is finding more success across the border on Russian soil, where it caught the Kremlin’s forces on the hop nearly two weeks ago now.
In the Kursk region inside Russia, the Ukrainian army reportedly destroyed all three bridges over the Seym River, Russian military correspondent Vladimir Romanov said in a Telegram post Monday.
Ukraine’s army also advanced southeast of Sudzha in Russia and took three more villages in the Kursk region, according to a new update from a war mapping project tied to Ukraine’s defense ministry.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian army reported a successful strike of the “Kavkaz” plant in the nearby Rostov region. “Oil and oil products were stored there” and supplied the Russian army, it said in a statement.
In response to Zelenskyy’s urging, a spokesperson for U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that the U.K. would support Ukraine for as long as the conflict lasted, and said there was “no change” regarding the ban against using British Storm Shadow missiles in Russia, but that talks continued with the U.S. and France to discuss the situation in the region.
Rosa Prince contributed to this report.