Russian forces lay siege to key city in Ukraine

LVIV, Ukraine/STOCKHOLM－Severodonetsk, the main focus of the fighting in eastern Ukraine in recent weeks, isn't yet blocked off by Russian troops even though they control about 80 percent of the city, an official said on Tuesday.

Serhiy Haidai, governor of the Lugansk region, acknowledged that Ukrainian forces have been pushed out to the industrial outskirts of the city, where President Volodymyr Zelensky said the fighting was taking a "terrifying" toll as casualties soar.

With Russia's 16-week special military operation pushing Ukrainian resistance to the limit, Kyiv has reiterated its plea for Western nations to provide additional arms.

The cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk have been targeted for weeks as the last areas still under Kyiv's control in eastern Lugansk.

Zelensky, in his daily address to the Ukrainian people, said: "The human cost of this battle is very high for us. It is simply terrifying."

Last week in a rare disclosure of casualty figures, Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said up to 100 of his troops were dying daily and 500 sustaining injuries.

Now, with a ring tightening on the Lugansk region, Ukrainian forces in the area had two choices, "to surrender or die", said Eduard Basurin, a representative of local militias.

Meanwhile, a possible visit by French President Emmanuel Macron to Kyiv is one of "several options" on the table at present, although no firm decision has been taken on this yet, said government spokeswoman Olivia Gregoire.

German paper Bild am Sonntag reported this month that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz would travel to Kyiv on Thursday with Macron and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi.

Dialogue with Putin

Macron has sought to maintain dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin since the conflict began, but that stance has been criticized by some partners in Europe as they see it as undermining efforts to push Moscow to the negotiating table, Reuters reported.

On Sunday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he believes that it is possible to establish peace in Ukraine, but the question is what price Ukranians are willing to pay for it, Russian news outlet Sputnik reported.

The conflict has also prompted Finland and Sweden to give up decades of military nonalignment and seek to join the NATO alliance.

In terms of security, Sweden is "in a better place now than before it applied", Stoltenberg said on Monday, even though its application is in limbo with Turkey withholding its approval.

Contrary to previous assertions that the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO would be a quick process, Stoltenberg said "there is no way to say exactly when" this will happen when visiting Sweden.

While the parliaments of several NATO member states have already approved the two Nordic countries' bid to join the alliance, Turkey has so far not given its green light, citing concerns of the two countries' ties with the Kurdistan Workers' Party and other groups Turkey labels as terrorists.

Ankara has also voiced its dissatisfaction with Sweden's arms embargo on Turkey and despite hopes that these issues would be resolved ahead of the NATO summit in Madrid at the end of the month, Stoltenberg said that "the Madrid summit was never a deadline".

During his meeting with Finland's President Sauli Niinisto on Sunday, Stoltenberg called Turkey's concerns "legitimate". This was echoed by Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson.

Agencies - Xinhua