Conflict grinds on past 100-day mark

KYIV/MOSCOW－With the Russia-Ukraine conflict having passed the 100-day mark on Friday, the fighting shows no sign of easing.

Kyiv was rocked by several explosions early on Sunday, the mayor of the Ukrainian capital said, a day after officials said its troops had recaptured a swath of the eastern battlefield city of Sievierodonetsk.

"Several explosions in Darnytskyi and Dniprovskyi districts of the capital," Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on the Telegram messaging app. "Services are already working on site."

A Reuters witness saw smoke in the city after the explosions.

At least one person was hospitalized but no deaths had been reported on early Sunday, Klitschko said. Other officials said the Russian bombardment appeared to be targeting the railway network.

Despite the widespread destruction, Kyiv has been relatively calm in recent weeks after Moscow turned its military focus to the east and south, especially in an intense battle for Sievierodonetsk.

Russia has concentrated its forces on the industrial city for one of the biggest ground battles of the conflict.

Serhiy Gaidai, governor of the Lugansk region that includes Sievierodonetsk, said on Sunday that Ukrainian forces controlled about half the city after recapturing a large chunk from Russian troops.

"It had been a difficult situation, the Russians controlled 70 percent of the city, but over the past two days they have been pushed back," Gaidai said on Ukrainian television. "The city is now, more or less, divided in half."

The claims could not be independently verified.

Both sides claim to have inflicted huge casualties in the fighting, a battle that military experts say could determine which side has the momentum for a prolonged conflict of attrition in the coming months.

In the diplomatic sphere, Moscow has said that Western weapons will pour "fuel on the fire" but will not change the course of the "operation".

On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that Moscow will strike new targets if the West supplies long-range missiles to Ukraine and said new arms deliveries to Kyiv were aimed at "prolonging the conflict".

Western countries have been heaping sanctions on Moscow over the military operation since it began on Feb 24.

Harsh words have also been issued in Ukraine, with Kyiv rebuking French President Emmanuel Macron for saying it was important not to "humiliate" Moscow.

"We must not humiliate Russia so that the day when the fighting stops we can build an exit ramp through diplomatic means," Macron said in an interview on Saturday, adding he was "convinced that it is France's role to be a mediating power".

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted in response: "Calls to avoid humiliation of Russia can only humiliate France and every other country that would call for it."

Agencies Via Xinhua