KYIV: Ukraine fought off a fresh Russian attack on the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut, its leaders said on Saturday as it endured a fresh wave of shelling in the disputed Donetsk region.
Officials recovered the bodies of two British volunteers who tried to help evacuate people from the eastern warzone.
The southern city of Odesa suffered a massive power cut, affecting half a million households after an accident at a war-damaged electrical substation.
The Russian occupation forces launched a powerful offensive in the Lyman sector this week, and broke through our defence and encircling Bakhmut, according to Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar.
They did not succeed because of the resilience of our soldiers. Ukraine's border guard service reported that its soldiers had stopped the latest attack, killing four and wounding seven of the opposing forces.
Russia unleashed a new wave of bombardment on the eastern front lines Saturday morning. Ukrainian officials reported shellings in the Chernigiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv Lugansk, Donetsk and Mykolaiv regions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged in his evening address that the situation was getting tougher.
Russia is trying to break down our defence, he said, and it is very difficult to do so in Bakhmut, Vugledar, Lyman and other areas.
France, Italy, and the United States all promised new weapons deliveries to Ukraine on Friday.
Germany's leader said in an interview on Sunday that there was agreement that weapons supplied by the West would not be used to attack Russian territory.
In an interview with the weekly Bild am Sonntag, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said there was a consensus on this point.
Kyiv is still expressing its gratitude for the pledged weapons, but it is already pressing for more, including fighter jets.
The bodies of the two Britons killed in a attempt to help people evacuated from the eastern warzone have been recovered in a prisoner swap, according to officials in Kyiv.
Chris Parry, 28, and Andrew Bagshaw, 47, were undertaking voluntary work in Soledar, in the Donetsk region of Ukraine when their vehicle was reportedly hit by a shell.