• the Local governor said, 80 per cent of the city is under Russian control
• The European Union has also sent weapons and cash to Ukraine
• Senegalese President to travel to Russia for talks, with Putin to avert a hunger crisis.

Russian forces hammered the last Ukrainian defences holding a strategic city in the Donbas region on Thursday, as the war approached its 100th day and Washington warned it could last months.

Since Ukrainian forces repelled the Russian invasion of Kyiv on February 24, Vladimir Putin’s troops have set their sights on capturing eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine has paid a high price for defending the east, with President Volodymyr Zelensky reportedly admitting that up to 100 Ukrainian soldiers die every day.

Russia’s invasion — set to enter its 100th day on Friday — has killed thousands of people and sent millions of Ukrainians fleeing.

The industrial hub of Severodonetsk in Lugansk, part of the Donbas, has become a key target for Moscow, and the local governor said that 80 per cent of the city was already now under Russian control.

“The most difficult situation is in the Lugansk region, where the enemy is trying to displace our units,” said Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces in a statement.

“Street fighting continues” in Severodonetsk, said Lugansk regional governor Sergiy Gaiday on Telegram, vowing that Ukrainian forces would fight “until the end”.

Severodonetsk’s Azot factory, one of Europe’s biggest chemical plants, was targeted by Russian soldiers who fired on one of its administrative buildings and a warehouse where methanol was stored.

Ukrainian troops were still holding an industrial zone, Gaiday said, a situation reminiscent of Mariupol where a huge steelworks was the south-eastern port city’s last holdout until Ukrainian troops finally surrendered in late May.

Ukraine’s commander in chief pleaded for modern armaments from NATO, telling France’s top general, Thierry Burkhard that “the enemy has a decisive advantage in artillery.”

“It will save the lives of our people”.

This week, US President Joe Biden announced that more advanced rocket systems were on the way.

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The Himars multiple launch rocket system, or MLRS, is a mobile unit that can simultaneously launch multiple precision-guided missiles up to 80 kilometres (50 miles) away.

They are the centrepiece of a $700 million package unveiled Wednesday that includes air-surveillance radar, more Javelin short-range anti-tank rockets, artillery ammunition, helicopters, vehicles and spare parts.

But analysts caution against a sudden battlefield game-changer, not least because Ukrainian troops need time to learn how to use them effectively.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Washington of “adding fuel to the fire” with the new weapons, although US officials insist Ukraine has promised not to use them to strike inside Russia.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said there were no signs of Russia pulling back its forces: “As best we can assess right now, we are still looking at many months of conflict.”

On Wednesday, at least one person died and two others were injured in Soledar, between Sloviansk and Severodonetsk, AFP saw.

The European Union has also sent weapons and cash to Ukraine while levelling unprecedented economic sanctions on Moscow.

Germany said Wednesday it would deliver an air defence system capable of shielding a major city from Russian air raids, although it will take months to get to the frontline.

EU leaders agreed this week to ban most Russian oil imports but played down the prospects of shutting off Russian gas on which many member states are hugely dependent.

The sanctions are biting — a panel of investors said Wednesday that Russia has failed to pay $1.9 million of accrued interest on a sovereign bond.

Senegalese President Macky Sall was preparing to travel to Russia for talks with Putin in order to avert a hunger crisis.

According to Sall’s office, the visit on Friday is aimed at “freeing up stocks of cereals and fertilisers, the blockage of which particularly affects African countries,” as well as easing the Ukraine conflict.

Read More: Macron faces calls to finally make Ukraine trip

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