Key Ukrainian city under 'massive' Russian bombardment

Zelensky says 'will do everything' for Ukraine to become EU candidate

Ukraine says their troops will 'hold on as long as necessary'

"Massive" Russian bombardment of Ukraine's battleground eastern Lugansk region and key city Severodonetsk has been "hell" for soldiers there, Kyiv said Wednesday, while insisting that defenders would hold on "as long as necessary".

Moscow's troops have been pummelling eastern Ukraine for weeks and are slowly advancing, despite fierce resistance from the outgunned Ukrainian military.

"The Russian army is... just destroying everything" in Lysychansk, Sergiy Gaiday, governor of the Lugansk region, which includes both cities, wrote on Telegram.

"Our boys are holding their positions and will continue to hold on as long as necessary," he added.

"Over the past several days enormous work has been accomplished," Andrei Marochko, an officer in the separatist army of Lugansk, told Russian state television.

Taking control of the two cities would give Moscow control of the whole of Lugansk, allowing them to press further into the Donbas.

But daily bombardment also continues in other parts of the country.

Leyla Shoydhry, a young woman in a park near the opera house, said the situation was "very bad".

Roman Pohuliay, a 19-year-old in a pink sweatshirt, said most residents had fled the city.

In his daily address Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused the Russian army of "brutal and cynical" shelling in the eastern Kharkiv region, where the governor said 15 people had been killed Tuesday.

Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych told Ukrainian television that the strike hit two firms and a school, sparking a blaze that authorities could not put out.

"When you can do something, it's not so scary to take a machine gun in your hands," said Ulyana Kiyashko, 29, after moving through an improvised combat zone in a basement.

Most patients it had evacuated by train blamed Russian or Russian-backed forces for a spectrum of gruesome injuries, it added.

On the Russian side, officials said Wednesday two drones had hit an oil refinery in the Rostov region bordering Ukraine, causing an explosion and a fire but no casualties.

The territory is around 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometres) from Moscow, bordering Lithuania and Poland.

The United States made clear its commitment to Lithuania as an ally in NATO, which considers an attack against one member an attack on all.

Also on Wednesday, a Turkish cargo ship left the Russian-occupied city of Mariupol on Ukraine's Sea of Azov coast.

But it was not immediately clear whether the Azov Concord was carrying wheat.

- 'Marshall Plan' -

In Brussels, ministers unanimously agreed Tuesday to grant Ukraine and neighbour Moldova candidate status for membership in the European Union.

Ukraine and Russia were "still far from negotiations... because Putin still believes in the possibility of a dictated peace", he added, urging Kyiv's Western allies to keep up their military and financial support.

Moscow, meanwhile, complained that its delegates to an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) assembly in Britain next month had been refused UK visas.

Russia is "actively redirecting its trade flows and external economic contacts towards reliable international partners, above all the BRICS countries," Putin told a business forum by video link ahead of a virtual leaders' summit Thursday.

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