'Relentless': Russia squeezes Ukrainian strongholds in east

Civilians walk amid destroyed buildings in Mariupol near the Illich Iron & Steel Works Metallurgical Plant in territory under the government of the Donetsk People's Republic, eastern Ukraine, May 27. AP-Yonhap

Russia-backed separatists claimed they captured a railway hub in eastern Ukraine as Moscow's forces pushed to gain more ground Friday by pounding another Ukrainian-held area where authorities say 1,500 people have died since the war's start.

With Russia's offensive in Ukraine's industrial Donbas region showing incremental progress, Ukrainian officials characterized the battle as grave and renewed their appeals for more sophisticated Western-supplied weaponry. Without that, the foreign minister warned, Ukrainian forces won't be able to stop Russia's advance in the east.

Some European leaders sought dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin toward ending the war ― now in its 93rd day ― with global economic repercussions, while Britain's foreign minister worked to rally the West's continued support for Ukraine.

''There should be no talk of ceasefires, or appeasing Putin. We need to make sure that Ukraine wins. And that Russia withdraws and that we never see this type of Russian aggression again,'' U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said.

But in Ukraine's east, Russia does have the upper hand. The fighting Friday focused on two key cities: Sievierodonetsk and nearby Lysychansk. They are the last areas under Ukrainian control in Luhansk, one of two provinces that make up Donbas and where Moscow-backed separatists have controlled some territory for eight years.

''Massive artillery shelling does not stop, day and night,'' Sievierodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Striuk told The Associated Press. ''The city is being systematically destroyed ― 90% of the buildings in the city are damaged.''

At least 1,500 people have died in Sievierodonetsk because of the war since Russia invaded Ukraine, Feb. 24, he said. About 12,000 to 13,000 people remain in the city ― down from a pre-war population of about 100,000, he said. Those remaining are huddled in shelters, largely cut off from the rest of Ukraine.

Volunteers hoped to evacuate about 100 people Friday from a smaller city just to Sievierodonetsk's south. It was a painstaking process: Many of the evacuees from Bakhmut were elderly or infirm and needed to be carried out of apartment buildings in soft stretchers and wheelchairs.

Minibuses and vans zipped through the city, picking up dozens for the first leg of a long journey west by car or train.

''Bakhmut is a high-risk area right now,'' said Mark Poppert, an American volunteer working with British charity RefugEase. ''We're trying to get as many people out as we can.''

In Donetsk, the other Donbas province, the Russia-backed rebels said Friday they took over Lyman, a large railway hub north of two more key cities still under Ukrainian control.

''We lost Lyman,'' Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich acknowledged Thursday night. However, a Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesperson reported Friday that its soldiers countered Russian attempts to push them completely out of the city.

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Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said Russian forces have taken advantage of delays in Western arms shipments to step up their offensive in the east, bringing in up to a dozen additional battalion tactical groups.

Throwing so much muscle at the offensive, though, could backfire by seriously depleting Russia's arsenal. Echoing an assessment from the British Defense Ministry, Zhdanov said Russia was deploying 50-year-old T-62 tanks, ''which means that the second largest army in the world has run out of modernized equipment.''

Mykola Sunhurovskyi, an analyst at Kyiv's Razumkov Center, said that going forward, ''It is in Putin's interests to solidify the situation that has developed today at the front, biting off from Ukraine what there is still strength for, and secure this line of contact as a position in (eventual) negotiations.''

As Ukraine's hopes of stopping the Russian advance faded, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba pleaded with Western nations: ''We need heavy weapons. ... Without artillery, without multiple launch rocket systems we won't be able to push them back.''

In his nightly address to the nation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had some harsh words for the European Union, which has not agreed on a sixth round of sanctions that includes an embargo on Russian oil. Hungary, one of Moscow's closest allies in the EU, is obstructing the deal.

''Every day of delay, weakness, various disputes or proposals to 'appease' the aggressor at the expense of the victim is (results in) new killed Ukrainians,'' he said. ''And new threats to everyone on our continent.''

Zelenskyy said Russia's offensive in the Donbas could leave its communities in ashes, and he accused Moscow of ''an obvious policy of genocide'' through mass deportations and killings of civilians.

On Thursday, Russian shelling of Kharkiv, a northeastern city that has been under assault while Ukrainian forces keep the invading troops out, killed nine people, including a father and his 5-month-old baby, the president said.

AP reporters saw the bodies of at least two dead men and four wounded at a central subway station, where the victims were taken as shelling continued outside.

To the north, neighboring Belarus announced Friday that it was sending troops toward the Ukrainian border, raising concerns in Ukraine's military command. Russia used Belarus as a staging ground before it invaded Ukraine.

European leaders have been speaking with Putin about easing the growing global food crisis exacerbated by Kyiv's inability to ship millions of tons of grain and other agricultural products while under attack.

Italian Premier Mario Draghi said there were no breakthroughs during his Thursday conversation with Putin about unblocking Ukrainian ports.

''If you are asking me if there are openings for peace, the answer is no,'' Draghi told reporters.

Moscow has sought to shift the blame for the food crisis on to the West, calling upon its leaders to lift existing sanctions.

Putin told Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, Friday, that Ukraine should remove Black Sea mines to allow safe shipping, according to a Kremlin readout of their conversation; Russia and Ukraine have traded blame for the mines near Ukraine's ports.

Nehammer's office said the two leaders also discussed a prisoner exchange and that Putin indicated efforts to arrange one would be ''intensified.'' (AP)