Kyiv warns Russia will step up Donbas fight

Rescue teams are struggling to reach people buried under the rubble of an apartment building in Chasiv Yar

Ukraine warned Monday that Russian forces were preparing to intensify their fight for key cities in the Donbas, as President Volodymyr Zelensky bitterly accused Canada of undermining sanctions against Moscow.

In eastern Ukraine -- the focal point for a grinding Russian offensive -- the death toll from a weekend shelling of an apartment building in the town of Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region rose to 33, according to emergency services.

Earlier in the day deadly Russian rocket strikes slammed Kharkiv, the country's second city, in a targeted attack on "a shopping centre and civilian residences", regional chief Oleg Synyegubov said.

The Ukrainian army warned, meanwhile, that Russian troops were likely planning to launch some of their heaviest attacks yet in the Donetsk region.

The latest attacks in Ukraine came as Europe braced for deeper cuts in gas supplies from Russia.

Over the weekend, Ottawa agreed to deliver to Germany a turbine that was undergoing maintenance in Canada, whose absence Russia had blamed for a decrease in supplies.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had to summon Canada's envoy to our country due to an absolutely unacceptable exception to the sanctions regime against Russia," Zelensky said in his daily address on Telegram.

After Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, Germany suspended certification of a second pipeline, Nord Stream 2, as fears grew over Europe's massive dependence on Russian gas.

Russian state-run news agency TASS reported meanwhile that the pro-Moscow head of the Russian-occupied village of Velikiy Burluk in Kharkiv had been killed after his car was blown up.

Moscow's slow advance into the east -- despite fierce Ukrainian resistance emboldened by recent deliveries of Western-supplied artillery -- contrasts with their failure to capture the capital Kyiv at the start of the invasion.

"In this atmosphere, I feel like nothing can happen and that life is normal," he said, sitting with his family outside his home. 

With no end to the fighting in sight, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte during a visit to Kyiv said his country would supply Ukraine with more long-range artillery and an aid package worth 200 million euro ($201 million).

But Moscow was also receiving a weapons boost, with Iran planning to supply hundreds of drones with combat weapon capabilities to Russia for use in Ukraine, a top US official said.

In a bureaucratic swipe at Kyiv, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree Monday to fast-track citizenship for all Ukrainians.

The decree builds on previous orders -- including one issued earlier in the invasion -- making it easier for Ukrainians living in Moscow-occupied territory to receive Russian passports.

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