Russia continued bombing eastern Ukraine on Saturday, confirming that its forces were advancing in the Donbass.

As Washington approved massive new aid to Kiev worth $40 billion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that the current phase of the war "will be bloody."

The Ukrainian General Staff announced that Russian forces continue to bombard Ukrainian sites in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

It also indicated that its forces repelled 9 Russian attacks targeting the city of Severodonetsk and its suburbs;

The last Ukrainian stronghold in Lugansk province.

Severodonetsk and Lysichansk, located on the Seversky Donets River, form the eastern part of a Ukrainian-controlled enclave that Russia has been trying to storm since mid-April after it failed to capture Kyiv.

Kyiv said Russian forces are using aircraft, artillery, tanks, rockets, mortars and rockets along the entire front line to attack civilian buildings and residential areas.

They said at least 7 people were killed in the Donetsk region.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, the adviser to the Ukrainian President and Dean of the Kyiv School of Economics Timofey Milovanov said that the Russian forces had not made tangible progress in Donbass.


Destroy a shipment of weapons

On the other hand, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the progress of its forces in the Donbass region, noting the destruction of a large shipment of weapons and military equipment sent by the United States and European countries near the Malin railway station in the Zhytomyr region, east of Donbas.

A day after the Russian Defense Ministry announced the completion of control of Lugansk Province, the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Russian State Duma and a member of the Russian Negotiations Committee with Ukraine Leonid Soltsky said that the Donbass region will witness important events in the next few months.

Zelensky's remarks

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the situation in the Donbass region as very difficult and that the current stage of the war "will be bloody", but he indicated that his country's army repelled the Russians' attacks.

Zelensky also said that diplomatic methods would end the war in his country, adding that he could not predict the timing and shape of the upcoming talks between his country and Russian officials.

Zelensky expressed his readiness again to hold a meeting, if necessary, "at the presidential level" with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, who has refused to do so so far.

"These are our lands, and step by step we will liberate them," he added, speaking of his country's need, in particular, for "armored vehicles."


With the war continuing, US President Joe Biden, during his visit to Seoul, signed a law passed by Congress last Thursday providing for the allocation of a huge amount of $40 billion to Ukraine.

This amount may allow Kiev to obtain, in particular, armored vehicles and strengthen its air defense.

Zelensky welcomed the assistance, which he saw as "needed now more than ever."

Trial of prisoners

Meanwhile, Yury Shvetkin, deputy head of the Defense Committee of the Russian State Duma, said that prisoners in Donetsk and Lugansk could be sentenced to death.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Shvetkin accused the West of fueling the war in Ukraine by supporting Kyiv with weapons and fighters.

In turn, the leader of the separatists in Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, said that the prisoners of the Ukrainian military who surrendered Friday in the Azovstal industrial complex in the coastal city of Mariupol (southeastern Ukraine) will be put on trial.

Some of the prisoners of the Azovstal plant during their surrender to the Russian forces (Reuters)

Pushlin added that according to information, there are foreigners out of about 2,500 prisoners currently in detention in Donetsk, including 78 women.

Donetsk separatists also announced that they had information about the presence of foreign prisoners among the forces that surrendered in the Azovstal complex, and added that they continue to comb the complex in anticipation of the presence of some Ukrainian soldiers inside it.

After full Russian control of Mariupol, Russia now controls a land route linking Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, with mainland Russia and regions of eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian separatists.