Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — After weeks of ferocious fighting, Ukrainian forces will retreat from a besieged city in the country’s east to avoid encirclement, a regional governor said Friday.

The city of Sievierodonetsk, the administrative center of the Luhansk region, has faced relentless Russian bombardment. Ukrainian troops fought the Russians in house-to-house battles before retreating to the huge Azot chemical factory on the city’s edge, where they remain holed up in its sprawling underground structures in which about 500 civilians also found refuge.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The European Union’s decision to make Ukraine a candidate for EU membership offered war-weary Ukrainians a morale boost and hope of a more secure future Friday as the country’s military ordered its fighters to retreat from a key city in the eastern Donbas region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed the decision of EU leaders as vindication for his nation’s fight against Russia’s aggression and said he was determined to ensure Ukraine retained the ability to decide if belonged in Europe or under Moscow’s influence.

KYIV, June 23 (Reuters) - Ukrainian troops may need to pull back from the key frontline city of Lysychansk to avoid being encircled after Russian forces captured two villages to its south, regional governor Serhiy Gaidai said on Thursday.

The retreat of Ukrainian troops from Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk, the last two Ukrainian-held cities in Luhansk, would bring Moscow closer to one of its key war aims of capturing all of that region.

June 23 (Reuters) - Ukraine said on Thursday it had received U.S. supplies of High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), a powerful long-range weapon system that Kyiv hopes can help turn the tide on Russia's invasion.

Moscow's forces are advancing in Ukraine's east in a bid to capture the industrial heartland known as the Donbas where Ukraine fears some of its troops could be encircled in a Russian pincer. 

KYIV, June 23 (Reuters) - Ukraine is set to be accepted as a candidate to join the European Union on Thursday, a move that boosts the country's morale as Russian assaults wear down the defenders of two cities in the eastern Donbas region.

Although the approval of the Kyiv government's application by EU leaders meeting in Brussels is just the start of what will be a years-long process, it marks a huge geopolitical shift and will anger Russia as it struggles to impose its will on Ukraine.

MARIUPOL, June 21. /TASS/: Turkey’s Azov Concord has become the first foreign ship to leave the port of Mariupol, a TASS correspondent reported, adding that the vessel was headed to Russia’s Novorossiysk.

The ship’s captain Ivan Babenkov said that the Azov Concord was not carrying any cargo.

The Turkish vessel was repaired after suffering damage from the Ukrainian military, and new crew members were hired.

KYIV, June 21 (Reuters) - German self-propelled howitzers have arrived in Ukraine in the first delivery of heavy weapons promised by Berlin, Ukraine's defence minister said on Tuesday.

Ukraine has pleaded with the West to send more and better artillery as the country runs out of ammunition for its existing Soviet-era arsenal, which is dwarfed by Russia's.

"We have replenishment!...The German Panzerhaubitze 2000 with trained Ukrainian crews joined the Ukrainian artillery family," Ukraine's Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on social media.

KIEV, June 20 (Xinhua) -- The head of the Ukrainian President's Office Andriy Yermak said that Kiev continues to consult with its partners on a security guarantee framework, local online media outlet LB.ua reported Monday.

"We continue permanent consultations... As of today, many countries from different continents have expressed their desire to be future guarantors," Yermak was quoted by the media outlet as saying.

KYIV, June 20 (Reuters) - Russian forces captured territory along a frontline river in eastern Ukraine on Monday, and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy predicted Moscow would escalate attacks ahead of a summit of European leaders expected to welcome Kyiv's bid to join the EU.

Moscow's separatist proxies claimed to have captured Toshkivka, a town on the mostly Ukrainian-held western bank of the Siverskyi Donets river, south of Sievierodonetsk, which has become the main battlefield city in recent weeks.

KIEV, June 20 (Xinhua) -- The head of the Ukrainian President's Office Andriy Yermak said that Kiev continues to consult with its partners on a security guarantee framework, local online media outlet LB.ua reported Monday.

"We continue permanent consultations... As of today, many countries from different continents have expressed their desire to be future guarantors," Yermak was quoted by the media outlet as saying.