Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned European Union leaders on Thursday that "delays" in supplying his country with warplanes and long-range missiles could prolong the war, while Moscow considered that the arrest of President Vladimir Putin abroad would be considered a declaration of war on it.

From inside a train car, Zelenksy addressed a summit of the bloc in Brussels via video link after a visit to battle-ravaged areas along the frontline between his forces and the Russian military, a European official said.

The European official told reporters covering the summit that secure contact with Zelenskiy was briefly cut off.

He said the Ukrainian president welcomed a plan approved by the European Union this week, which aims to supply Kiev with one million artillery shells over the next 12 months. But Zelenskiy insisted that delays in supplying his country with modern warplanes and long-range missiles could prolong the war, the official said.

Zelenskiy also urged European leaders to impose more sanctions on Moscow, speed up his country's application for membership in the bloc and boost support for Kiev's proposed peace plan.

Slovakia announced at the start of the summit that it had sent four Soviet-era MiG-29 warplanes to Ukraine, after it was the first country besides Poland to commit to sending these old-fashioned aircraft.

But Kiev's allies have so far refrained from providing Western-made warplanes.

Ahead of his participation in the EU summit via videoconference, Zelenskiy inspected the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, which is partially controlled by Russian forces.


More support

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the United States, Britain, France, Germany and other Western countries would have to prepare to support Ukraine with weapons, ammunition and spare parts for a long time.

In an interview with the Guardian, Stoltenberg stressed that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not planning for peace, but for more war.

Stoltenberg revealed that Russia is boosting military-industrial production and is reaching out to what he described as authoritarian regimes to acquire more weapons.

U.S. Deterrence

The Wall Street Journal quoted U.S. officials as saying that the United States will transport modern fighter jets from the Middle East to the Asia-Pacific and European regions.

The move, due in April, is part of a broader plan to retain modest naval and land forces in the Middle East.

U.S. officials confirmed to the newspaper that the transfer of the planes to Europe and Asia is part of Washington's efforts to deter China and Russia.


Moscow warns

Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev warned of the repercussions of continuing to supply Ukraine with weapons, saying it increases the risk of nuclear war.

Medvedev also warned that arresting Russian President Vladimir Putin abroad was tantamount to declaring war on Russia.

The White House denied what it called Russian claims that the Ukrainian military had been supplied with munitions containing depleted uranium.

John Kirby, the U.S. National Security Council's strategic communications coordinator, said that if Russia was concerned about its forces, it should withdraw those troops from Ukraine.

Fierce battles in Bakhmut

On the ground, the situation of the city of Pakhmot, which is the focus of the fierce fighting on the Eastern Front, has returned to the fore, with Russian statements that Pakhmot is under siege, in contrast to Kiev's attempt to show the failure of that siege through the Ukrainian president's surprise visit to the city.

The Ukrainian army considers the battle for the city of Bakhmut essential for repelling Russian forces along the eastern front.

Russian media reported the outbreak of fighting in various areas of Bakhmot, noting that the most violent is taking place in the area of "Orikhovo-Vasilyovma", northwest of the city. It said Ukrainian forces were trying to send reinforcements to Pakhmot from the city of Konstantinovka, while Russian forces continued to bombard supply routes.

The pro-Russian Donetsk authorities announced that Wagner forces had taken control of 70% of the territory of Bachmut, and besieged the city from all directions.


In the same context, the spokesman for the Eastern Operations Command of the Ukrainian forces, Serhiy Chervaty, said that the city of Bakhmout remains a target for Russian operations and the main direction of attack of its forces, saying that Russian forces bombarded the Bakhmout fronts more than 200 times with artillery and missile systems during this day, according to his description.

The commander of the 30th Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian forces, Volodymyr Selenko, described the Battle of Bakhmot as a hotbed of attrition for Russian forces; he considered it to have turned into a political issue for the Russian president.

In turn, the commander of the Ukrainian ground forces, Alexander Sirsky, said that Russian forces continue their attempts to seize Bakhmot at any cost, despite their human and material losses, he said.

Sirsky stressed that the Ukrainian side will benefit from Russian losses, as it did near Kiev, Kharkiv, Balaklia and Kubansk.

Drain

Bakhomot is witnessing the longest battles, and the bloodiest since the beginning of Russia's war on Ukraine in February 2022, and has turned into a battle of military and human attrition for both sides.

The Russian army continues its attempts to tighten the encirclement of Pakhmot, especially from the northern and southern axes.

In contrast, the Ukrainian army is defending the city center of Bachmot and seeking to relieve pressure on the main supply route to the city.

As fighting intensified in Bachmot, home to 80,<> people before the war broke out, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called for urgent aid for residents in the city. In an interview with Al Jazeera, an ICRC spokesman said the humanitarian situation in Pakhmut was extremely difficult.


Targeting fortifications

Ukrainian forces are clearing about 30 kilometers along the left bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson, spokeswoman for the Southern Ukrainian Operations Command, Natalia Humeniuk.

On the southern front, the Ukrainian Forces Operations Command confirmed that Russia had placed 15 ships on a combat mission in the Black Sea, while doubting that Russian forces were able to fully re-equip the ships with Kalibr missiles after the explosions in Cankoy, north of Crimea.

On other fronts, the Russian military website Ryadrivka reported that Russian forces targeted fortifications for Ukrainian troops at a coal plant in the city of Avdiivka, north of Donetsk.

The site published photos of the scene of the bombing, noting that Russian forces bombed sites believed to belong to units of the Ukrainian 72nd Mechanized Brigade.

The website added that there are data indicating that the coke plant, which is the largest of its kind in Europe, includes underground shelters, where Ukrainian forces are holed up.

In a parallel context, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that Russian forces killed more than 450 Ukrainian military personnel during the military operations carried out last day, he said.

He added that a Ukrainian warplane was shot down in the Kharkiv province and sixteen drones in different areas, as he put it.

Ukraine's military high command on Thursday mistakenly withdrew Russian troops from the town of Nova Kakhovka in the southern Kherson region, saying a malfunction caused the error.

The Ukrainian army's General Staff, in a rare retreat, said Russian troops were still in the town on the east bank of the Dnipro River. It said the initial report was published "as a result of a misuse of available data", without giving further details.