President Zelensky says 'about 20 percent' of Ukraine occupied by Russian forces

Russia currently occupies about 20 per cent of Ukraine’s territory, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said, as Russian forces continued to pound towns and cities, tightening their grip on the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk.

The UK Defense Ministry reported that Russia had captured 80 per cent of the city, one of two in Luhansk province that had remained under Ukrainian control.

Speaking by video link to a security conference in Slovakia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy again called for more weapons and sanctions targeting Russia.

    "As of today, the occupiers control almost 20 per cent of our territory, almost 125,000 square kilometres," he said.

Mr Zelenskyy said Russia had fired 15 cruise missiles in the past day and used a total of 2,478 missiles since invading Ukraine on February 24, adding that "most of them targeted civil infrastructure".

“We have to defend ourselves against almost the entire Russian army. All combat-ready Russian military formations are involved in this aggression,” he said, adding that the front lines of battle stretched across more than 1,000 kilometres.

Mr Zelenskyy expressed gratitude for the military assistance received so far and called for weapons supplies to be stepped up.

Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists have fought in the eastern region for eight years, and the separatists held swaths of territory before the Russian invasion.

UK pledges missiles to Ukraine

Britain pledged to send sophisticated medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine, joining the United States and Germany in equipping the embattled nation with advanced weapons for shooting down aircraft and knocking out artillery.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the UK would send an unspecified number of M270 launchers, which can fire precision-guided rockets up to 80 kilometres.

Ukrainian troops will be trained in the UK to use the equipment, he said.

Western arms have been critical to Ukraine’s success in stymieing Russia’s much larger and better-equipped military during a war now in its 99th day.

A Kremlin spokesman warned of "absolutely undesirable and rather unpleasant scenarios" if the latest Western-supplied weapons were fired into Russia.

"This pumping of Ukraine with weapons ... will bring more suffering to Ukraine, which is merely a tool in the hands of those countries that supply it with weapons," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

A Ukrainian military expert said an uptick in Russian missile strikes came in response to the newly promised arms.

"Supplies of Western weapons are of great concern for the Kremlin, because even without sufficient weapons the Ukrainian army is daringly resisting the offensive," military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said.

After Western-supplied arms helped Ukraine fend off Russian attempts to storm the capital, Moscow shifted its focus to seizing all of eastern Ukraine's industrial Donbas region.

Military analysts think Russia is hoping to overrun the Donbas before any weapons that might turn the tide arrive.

It will take at least three weeks to get precision US weapons and trained troops onto the battlefield, the Pentagon said.

But Defense Undersecretary Colin Kahl said he believes they will arrive in time to make a difference in the fight.

New US ambassador to Ukraine

Bridget Brink was set to become the new US ambassador to Ukraine on Thursday.

Ms Brink will be Washington's first ambassador in Kyiv since former US President Donald Trump abruptly forced out Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch in 2019.

She later became a key figure in the first impeachment proceedings against Mr Trump.

Ahead of her Senate confirmation last month, Ms Brink promised senators she would work to make Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a "strategic failure".

Her work in Kyiv is expected to focus on coordinating Western weapon shipments.