Fighting intensifies in eastern Ukraine, as Russian forces intensify their bombardment, threatening to close the last major escape corridor for civilians trapped in the Donbass region.

This comes at a time when Kyiv demanded that it be given more heavy weapons.

The Ukrainian army said today, Thursday, that Russian forces bombed more than 40 towns in the Donbass region, after failing to capture Kyiv or Kharkiv (the second largest city in Ukraine).

With this intense bombardment, Russia is trying to establish full control over Donbass, which consists of two provinces in the east in favor of the separatists.

Russia has sent thousands of troops to the region, where they are attacking from three sides, hoping to encircle Ukrainian forces stationed in the city of Severodonetsk on the east bank of the Seversky Donets River and the opposite city of Lyschansk on the west bank.

Their fall would bring the entire Lugansk region under Russian control, a key objective of the Kremlin.


bombardment and destruction

"The occupiers bombed more than 40 towns in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, resulting in the destruction or damage of 47 civilian sites, including 38 homes and one school; as a result of this bombing, 5 civilians were killed and 12 wounded," the Combined Task Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said on Facebook. .

Al-Jazeera correspondent reported the killing of a civilian and the wounding of 6 others as a result of Ukrainian shelling on the Kievsky district in Donetsk city.

The northern neighborhoods of the city witness daily shelling due to the mutual shelling between the Ukrainian forces on the one hand, and the so-called Donetsk People's and Russian Forces on the other.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian forces were "far outnumbered" in some areas of the east.

In the latest sign of Moscow's quest to consolidate its grip on the territories it has seized, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree facilitating the process for residents of newly captured areas to obtain Russian citizenship and passports.

On Wednesday, the Russian parliament abolished the maximum age for contractual service in the military, highlighting the need for troops to replace the missing ones.

Commenting on the new Russian conscription rules, Zelensky said - in a video speech late at night - "They no longer have enough young men, but they still have the will to fight. It will take some time to crush that will."

Zelensky: Russian forces "were far outnumbered" (Al-Jazeera)

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And earlier yesterday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba stressed at the Davos forum that his country urgently needs mobile rocket launchers that provide it with a firepower equivalent to that of Russia.

"The battle for Donbass is very similar to the battles of World War II," Kuleba told reporters at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.

He added - after talks with government officials and businessmen at the International Economic Forum - that "some villages and cities no longer exist" in this region in southeastern Ukraine, which has witnessed in recent days heavy Russian bombing.

The minister explained that these villages and cities "have been reduced to rubble by the fire of Russian artillery and Russian rocket launchers."

Russia is better equipped than Ukraine in the field of heavy weapons, but Kuleba stressed that the biggest imbalance in the balance of military power between the two countries relates to missile launchers, and therefore Kyiv asked Washington to provide it with this weapon, adding, "This is the weapon we desperately need."


Economic repercussions

In the economic repercussions of the war on global food security, Russia announced its willingness to secure export corridors from Ukraine on conditions.

The Interfax news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Redenko as saying that Moscow is ready to ease its blockade of the Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea in exchange for Western countries to lift part of the economic sanctions they imposed on Russia after it invaded Ukraine on February 24.

The Russian Foreign Ministry announced that 5 foreign ships managed to leave the port of Mariupol (southeast of Ukraine) after clearing mines.

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, millions of tons of shipments - especially wheat - have been stuck at Ukrainian ports.

This caused a global price crisis.

On the other hand, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister accused Russia of blackmailing the world by asking it to lift sanctions in exchange for allowing the passage of Ukraine's food exports.

The minister added that any foreign politician or official who might consider accepting this game should first visit the graves of Ukrainian children killed by Russia, and talk to their relatives.

Information and repercussions

And the Washington Post quoted a US government document as saying that US intelligence was recently declassified showing that the Russian naval blockade had halted sea trade in Ukrainian ports.

The document states that the Russian Navy completely controls traffic in the northern third of the Black Sea;

This makes it unsafe for commercial shipping, which has impeded the movement of agricultural exports from Ukraine.

For his part, Vice President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans said - in statements to Al Jazeera - that the commission seeks to help the affected countries in facing the food crisis.

He indicated that the food crisis exists for two reasons: the first is the Russian intervention in Ukraine, and the second is due to climate change, calling for this issue to be addressed quickly.

The Vice-President of the European Commission added that the Commission is working on an alternative energy model to get out of Russia's dominance of energy in Europe.