Ukraine insisted on the need for faster supplies of weapons from the West with the central city of Dnipro reeling from a Russian missile strike that killed at least 40 people in an apartment block and Ukrainian troops came under increased pressure on the eastern front.
Ukraine's army General Staff said Russian artillery pounded around 25 towns and villages around Bakhmut and Avdiika, the two focal points of Russian attempts to advance in the strategic eastern industrial Donbas region.
It said Russia also kept up shelling of over 30 settlements in the northeast Kharkiv and Sumy areas near the Russian border. In the south, Russian mortar and artillery fire hit several towns, including the regional capital Kherson, which Russian forces abandoned in November.
The death toll from Saturday's missile strike in Dnipro rose to 40, including three children, Ukrainian officials said. They said 25 people were missing or unaccounted for but 39 people, including six children, were rescued from the rubble.
"What happened in Dnipro, the fact that Russia is preparing new attempts to seize the initiative in the war, the fact that the nature of military action at the front requires new decisions on arms supplies – only underscores how important it is to coordinate all the efforts of the coalition defending Ukraine and freedom," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his Monday night video address. "And to speed up decision-making."
Western countries have produced a steady supply of weapons to Ukraine since Russian forces invaded last February 24 but Zelenskyy and his government are insisting they need tanks.
Britain confirmed it was going to send 14 Challenger 2 tanks and other hardware including hundreds more armoured vehicles and advanced air defence missiles.
