With a blessing for its EU ambitions and a pledge of unwavering support from Britain, Ukraine vowed on Saturday to prevail against Moscow as it battled Russian assaults near a key eastern city and multiple locations came under shell and missile attack.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday visited the war-damaged southern city of Mykolaiv for the first time since the Russian invasion as “fierce battles” raged again in the eastern Donbas region.

Europe sent a powerful symbol of solidarity with Ukraine yesterday, when Brussels backed Kyiv’s bid for EU candidate status, even as Russia shelled frontline Ukrainian cities and cut back gas supplies to the West.

The Kremlin yesterday warned against new Western weapons supplies to Ukraine as leaders of Germany, France and Italy visited Kyiv in a display of solidarity with a country pleading for weapons to fend off Russia’s invasion.

The White House on Wednesday urged Americans not to travel to Ukraine after reports emerged that two Americans had been captured by Russian forces.

Russia said yesterday its forces destroyed a depot containing Nato-supplied arms in western Ukraine as Kyiv showed no signs of obeying a Russian ultimatum to surrender the eastern city of Severodonetsk.

The White House is expected to announce around $1 billion worth of new weapons aid for Ukraine, including anti-ship rocket systems, artillery rockets, and rounds for howitzers.

Russian forces yesterday stepped up efforts to cut off Ukrainian troops in the key industrial city of Severodonetsk in the east of the country despite Ukrainians insisting they were holding on.

Russia has banned dozens of British journalists, media representatives and defence figures from entering the country, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

The Wikimedia Foundation, which owns Wikipedia, has filed an appeal against a Moscow court decision demanding that it remove information related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, arguing that people have a right to know the facts of the war.

Ukraine said yesterday its forces have been pushed back from the centre of the eastern city of Severodonetsk, where fighting with Russia has raged for weeks.

Russia earned 93 billion euros ($98 billion) from fossil fuel exports during the first 100 days of its war in Ukraine, with most sent to the European Union, according to research published Monday.

Russian forces fired cruise missiles to destroy a large depot containing US and European weapons in western Ukraine’s Ternopil region, Interfax reported yesterday, as street fighting raged in the eastern city of Severodonetsk.

Ukraine is running out of ammunition, officials said yesterday appealing for more arms, as fighting raged in the east and south of the country.

Russian President Vladimir Putin paid tribute on Thursday to Tsar Peter the Great on the 350th anniversary of his birth, drawing a parallel between what he portrayed as their twin historic quests to win back Russian lands.

Ukraine sought more help from the West on Friday, pleading for faster deliveries of weapons to hold off better-armed Russian forces and for humanitarian support to combat deadly diseases.

Ukraine said yesterday it had launched new air strikes on Russian positions in the captured southern region of Kherson as President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted Kyiv’s forces were “holding on” in the east of the country.

Two Britons and a Moroccan who were captured while fighting for Ukraine were sentenced to death on Thursday by a court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), one of Russia's proxies in eastern Ukraine, Russian news agencies reported.

Ukrainian forces yesterday claimed to have pushed forward in intense street fighting in the eastern city of Severodonetsk, but said their only hope to turn the tide was more artillery to offset Russia’s massive firepower.

Ukrainian troops holding out in the ruins of Severodonetsk yesterday came under renewed heavy assault from Russian forces who see the capture of the industrial city as key to control of the surrounding Luhansk region.