Russia claimed to have overrun a key rail hub while its troops fought Ukrainian defenders in the streets of another city in eastern Ukraine.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
The Russian Defense Ministry said the railroad center Lyman had been "completely liberated" by a joint force of Russian soldiers and Kremlin-backed separatists.
Meanwhile, nearly 40 miles (60 kilometers) to the east, Russian troops on Saturday sought to encircle Ukrainian defenders in the manufacturing center of Sievierodonetsk, where the fighting cut power and cellphone service and terrorized the civilians who hadn't fled.
Having failed to capture the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early in the 3-month-old war, the Russians set out to seize parts of the eastern industrial region Donbas not already controlled by pro-Moscow separatists. They made grinding progress in Donetsk and Luhansk, the two provinces that make up the Donbas.
Control of Lyman would give Russia's military another foothold in the region. It has bridges for troops and equipment to cross the Siverskiy Donets river, which has so far impeded the Russian advance into the Donbas.
Ukrainian officials have sent mixed signals on Lyman. On Friday, Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said Russian troops controlled most of it and were trying to press their offensive toward Bakhmut, another city in the region. On Saturday, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar disputed Moscow's claim that Lyman had fallen, saying fighting there was still ongoing.
In his Saturday video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the situation in the east as "very complicated" and said that the "Russian army is trying to squeeze at least some result'' by focusing its efforts there.
As his offensive pushed ahead, Russian President Vladimir Putin pressured European leaders to stop arming the embattled Ukrainians and blamed Western sanctions for an emerging global food crisis. The Kremlin said Putin pressed his case in an 80-minute phone call Saturday with the leaders of France and Germany.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron urged an immediate cease-fire and a withdrawal of Russian troops, according to the chancellor's spokesperson, and called on Putin to engage in serious, direct negotiations with Zelenskyy on ending the fighting.
A Kremlin readout of the call said Putin affirmed "the openness of the Russian side to the resumption of dialogue." The three leaders, who had gone weeks without speaking during the spring, agreed to stay in contact, it added.
But Russia's recent progress in eastern Ukraine could further embolden Putin.
"If Russia did succeed in taking over these areas, it would highly likely be seen by the Kremlin as a substantive political achievement and be portrayed to the Russian people as justifying the invasion," the British Ministry of Defense said in a Saturday assessment.
Russia has intensified efforts to capture the cities of Sievierodonetsk and nearby Lysychansk, which are the last major areas under Ukrainian control in Luhansk.
Luhansk Governor Serhii Haidai reported that Ukrainian fighters repelled an assault on Sievierodonetsk but Russian troops still pushed to encircle them. He later said Russian forces had seized a hotel on the city's outskirts, damaged 14 high-rise buildings and were fighting in the streets with Ukrainian forces.
Sievierodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Striuk said there was fighting at the city's bus station. A humanitarian center couldn't operate due to the danger, Striuk said, and cellphone service and electricity were knocked out. And residents risked exposure to shelling to get water from a half-dozen wells, he said.
Some supply routes are functioning, and evacuations of the wounded are still possible, Striuk said. He estimated that 1,500 civilians in the city, which had a prewar population of around 100,000, have died from the fighting as well as from a lack of medicine and diseases that couldn't be treated.
On Saturday, people who managed to flee Lysychansk described intensified shelling, especially over the past week, that left them unable to leave basement bomb shelters.
Russia's advance raised fears that residents could experience the same horrors seen in the southeastern port city of Mariupol, which endured a three-month siege before it fell last week. Residents who had not yet fled faced the choice of trying to do so now or staying. Mariupol became a symbol of massive destruction and human suffering, as well as of Ukrainian determination to defend the country.
Mariupol's port has reportedly resumed operations after Russian forces finished clearing mines in the Azov Sea. Russian state news agency Tass reported that a vessel bound for Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia entered the port early Saturday.
In the call with Macron and Scholz, the Kremlin said, Putin emphasized that Russia was working to "establish a peaceful life in Mariupol and other liberated cities in the Donbas."
Ukrainian authorities have reported that Kremlin-installed officials in seized cities have started airing Russian news broadcasts, introduced Russian area codes, imported Russian school curriculum and taken other steps to annex the areas.
Russian-held areas of the southern Kherson region have shifted to Moscow time and "will no longer switch to daylight saving time, as is customary in Ukraine," Russia's state news agency RIA Novosti quoted Krill Stremousov, a Russian-installed local official, as saying Saturday.
In his address Saturday, Zelenskyy also accused Russian forces of preventing Kherson residents from leaving, saying they effectively "try to take people hostage" in a "sign of weakness.''
The war has caused global food shortages because Ukraine is a major exporter of grain and other commodities. Moscow and Kyiv have traded accusations over which side bears responsibility for keeping shipments tied up, with Russia saying Ukrainian sea mines prevented safe passage and Ukraine citing a Russian naval blockade.
The press service of the Ukrainian Naval Forces said two Russian vessels "capable of carrying up to 16 missiles" were ready for action in the Black Sea, adding that only shipping routes established through multilateral treaties may be considered safe.
Ukrainian officials have pleaded with Western nations for more sophisticated and powerful weapons. The US Defense Department would not confirm a Friday CNN report saying the Biden administration was preparing to send long-range rocket systems.
Russia's ambassador to the United States, Anatoliy Antonov, said Saturday that such a move would be "unacceptable" and admonished the White House to "abandon statements about the military victory of Ukraine."
Moscow is also trying to rattle Sweden and Finland's determination to join NATO. Russia's Defense Ministry said its navy successfully launched a new hypersonic missile from the Barents Sea that struck its target about 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) away.
If confirmed, the launch could spell trouble for NATO voyages in the Arctic and North Atlantic. The Zircon, described as the world's fastest non-ballistic missile, can be armed with either a conventional or a nuclear warhead and is said to be impossible to stop with current defense systems.
Last week Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu announced that Russia would form new military units in the country's west in response to Sweden and Finland's bids to join NATO.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
Also on Saturday, Ukraine received Harpoon anti-ship missiles from Denmark and self-propelled howitzers from the United States, arms that will bolster forces fighting Russia's invasion, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said.
"The coastal defense of our country will not only be strengthened by Harpoon missiles – they will be used by trained Ukrainian teams," he wrote on his Facebook page.
Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for the Odesa regional military administration in southern Ukraine, said in an online post that "so many Harpoons have been handed over to us that we can sink the entire Russian Black Sea Fleet. Why not?"
Reznikov said Ukraine had also received a range of heavy artillery pieces, including modified US-made M109 self-propelled howitzers that will allow the Ukrainian military to strike targets from longer distances.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine, working to boost weapons supplies, was approaching the point where it would outnumber the Russians technologically and in terms of its ability to strike.
"Of course, a lot depends on our partners and their readiness to provide Ukraine with everything necessary to protect freedom. And I expect good news on this next week," he said in a late-night video, without giving details.
Zelenskyy adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said late on Saturday that "the weapons we so desperately need will most likely be delivered soon."
Key will be a NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels in mid-June, attended by Reznikov, Arestovych said on social media television. "If the allies in the West do not delay ... then around June 20 the situation on the front will change greatly in our favor."
