Zelenskyy warns cities will be turned to ashes

The Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk is the centre of fierce fighting in the east. Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk says it is holding out even though a Russian reconnaissance and sabotage group went into a city hotel.

Stryuk said at least 1500 people have been killed in Sievierodonetsk and about 12,000 to 13,000 remain in the city, where he said 60% of residential buildings have been destroyed.

Sievierodonetsk is the only part of the Luhansk region in the Donbas under Ukrainian government control, and Russian forces have been trying to cut it off from the rest of Ukrainian-controlled territory.

Stryuk said the main road between the neighbouring town of Lysychansk and Bakhmut to the southwest remains open, but travel is dangerous.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pleaded with the West to send multiple launch rocket systems to Ukraine as soon as possible to give it a chance against the Russian offensive in the eastern Donbas.

‘‘We are fighting for Ukraine to be provided with all the weapons needed to change the nature of the fighting and start moving faster and more confidently toward the expulsion of the occupiers,’’ Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address to the nation.

He said Russian forces are wiping some eastern towns from the face of the Earth and the region could end up ‘‘uninhabited.’’

‘‘They want to turn Popasna, Bakhmut, Lyman, Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk into ashes as they did with Volnovakha and Mariupol,’’ Zelenskyy said.

In the shelling Thursday, local time, of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, Zelenskyy said at least nine people were killed and 19 wounded. Among those killed was a five-month-old baby and the infant’s father with the child’s mother seriously injured.

Zelenskyy also had harsh words for members of the European Union who are resisting imposing even tougher sanctions on Russia including a ban on the import of Russian oil and gas, the major source of revenue for Moscow.

Lions rescued

Nine lions have been rescued from a zoo in the Ukrainian city of Odesa after a risky mission by British ex-soldiers and wildlife activists.

Moving the pride had become urgent after a Russian missile strike on the nearby airport. There were fears a direct hit on the zoo could set the animals loose and they were already in danger of starving because of the ruined tourism market.

‘‘There had been a lot of shelling in the area and the lions were traumatised,’’ said Lionel de Lange, who organised the rescue at Biopark zoo and runs the animal charity Warriors of Wildlife.

Plans to liberate the animals ‘‘from under the noses of the Russians’’ – believed to be the biggest big cat rescue in an active war zone – were kept secret until the last minute, de Lange said. He was joined by Tom L-S, a British army veteran who prefers not to use his full name, and a team of war veterans and activists from the animal welfare charity Breaking the Chains, to carry out the daring raid on Tuesday.

‘‘The fighting could go on for a very long time and these animals are in the middle of it and they can’t feed themselves,’’ De Lange said.

Volunteer vets had to sedate the two adult males, five females and two cubs and stretcher them into a convoy of reinforced cages for a 25-hour drive across international borders and checkpoints to a safari park in northeastern Romania.

Keeping the family group of nine together was the priority, but this limited the options about their ‘‘for ever’’ home, De Lange said.

His sanctuary in South Africa, the Simbonga Game Reserve, will take in two lions rescued from another zoo in Ukraine at the beginning of the war. ‘‘But there is no room for a nine-strong pride,’’ he said, A large zoo in Colorado could be the best bet if permission to export the animals is granted.

The lions are still ‘‘destressing’’ in their crates after the arduous road trip, the first time any of them had travelled. They were expected to be calm enough to be allowed to begin exploring the grassy paddock at their temporary refuge yesterday.

The British army veteran said he had set up his animal charity after his ex-military dog helped him to recover following his medical discharge from the British army with PTSD. He told the Daily Mail: ‘‘It was an animal that saved my life. I understand the true beauty and value of animals and I wanted to make sure I could save their lives, which is why we are in Ukraine.’’ – AP, The Times