Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday made his first trip to the country’s war-torn east since the launch of Moscow’s invasion, as Russian forces intensified their efforts to seize key cities in the Donbas region. Follow the day’s developments on FRANCE 24’s liveblog. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).

8:10pm: Zelensky says top Kharkiv official fired over city’s defence

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday he had fired Kharkiv’s security services chief for “not working on the defence of the city” since the start of Russia’s invasion.

“I came, figured out and fired the head of the Security Service of Ukraine of the (Kharkiv) region for the fact that he did not work on the defence of the city from the first days of the full-scale war, but thought only about himself,” Zelensky said in his daily national address. He spoke after visiting the country’s war-ridden east for the first time since Russia’s invasion.

7:57pm: EU fails to agree on Russia oil embargo, to try again Monday before summit

The EU failed on Sunday to agree on an embargo of Russian oil, but diplomats but will still try to make progress ahead of a Monday-Tuesday summit on an exemption for pipeline deliveries to landlocked Central European countries, officials said.

However, a senior EU diplomat said there was “still too much detail to sort out” to hope for an agreement before European Union leaders gather in Brussels on Monday afternoon.

The proposed sanctions on oil imports is part of the European Union’s sixth sanctions package on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

7:30pm: All critical infrastructure in Severodonetsk destroyed, Zelensky says

Russian shelling has destroyed all of the critical infrastructure in the Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday, describing the taking of the city as Russia’s “principal aim” right now.

“As a result of Russian strikes on Severodonetsk, all the city’s critical infrastructure is destroyed… More than two-thirds of the city’s housing stock is destroyed,” Zelensky said in a televised speech.

6:12pm: EU unity on Russian sanctions ‘starting to crumble’, German minister says

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck on Sunday expressed fears that the European Union’s unity was “starting to crumble” ahead of a summit to discuss an oil embargo against Russia and plans to cut dependence on Russian energy.

EU leaders will meet on Monday and Tuesday to discuss a new sanctions package against Russia, which could also include an oil embargo, and a programme aiming to speed up ending dependence on fossil fuels, including Russian gas.

“After Russia’s attack on Ukraine, we saw what can happen when Europe stands united. With a view to the summit tomorrow, let’s hope it continues like this. But it is already starting to crumble and crumble again,” Habeck told a news conference.

5:49pm: ‘A bold step by the Ukrainian president’

“It’s the first time that Volodymyr Zelensky has visited troops in eastern Ukraine since the invasion began; he had been outside Kyiv but only to places in Kyiv region,” FRANCE 24’s Gulliver Cragg reported from Ukraine’s Bukovel. “So this is clearly a bold step by the Ukrainian president.”

4:27pm: Several explosions heard in Kharkiv after Zelensky visit

Several explosions were heard in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Sunday hours after a visit by President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was making his first trip outside of the Kyiv region since the start of Russia’s invasion, a Reuters journalist said.

A large plume of dark smoke could be seen rising northeast of the city centre. Kharkiv has been subjected to Russian shelling in recent days after several weeks of relative quiet.

4:27pm: Ukrainian forces hold out in Donbas city under heavy fire

Ukrainian forces endured heavy artillery barrages on Sunday as they held off Russian attempts to capture Severodonetsk, the largest city Kyiv still controls in the Luhansk region of the Donbas, Ukrainian officials said.

The shelling was so intense it was not possible to assess casualties and damage, Luhansk governor Serhiy Gaidai said. Dozens of buildings have been destroyed in the past few days. “The situation has extremely escalated,” Gaidai said.

4:27pm: Serbia ignores EU sanctions and secures gas deal with Putin, president says

As the war in Ukraine rages, Serbia‘s president announced that he has secured an “extremely favourable” natural gas deal with Russia during a telephone conversation Sunday with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has refused to explicitly condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Serbia has not joined Western sanctions against Moscow. Vucic, a former pro-Russia ultranationalist, claims that he wants to take Serbia into the European Union but has spent recent years cementing ties with Russia, a long-time ally.

Serbia is almost entirely dependent on Russian gas and its main energy companies are under Russian-majority ownership.

4:23pm: Poland gives 18 howitzers to Ukraine

Poland has given Ukraine 18 AHS Krab self-propelled howitzers, Polish public radio reported on Sunday citing a government source, as Kyiv seeks to repel an intense Russian assault in the Donbas region in the east.

Faced with heavy shelling in its eastern provinces, Ukraine has called on the West to provide it with more longer-range weapons.

2:57pm: Zelensky visits front lines in first appearance outside Kyiv region since invasion

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Ukrainian troops on the front lines in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region on Sunday, the president’s office announced.

The visit marks his first official appearance outside the Kyiv region since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

“You risk your lives for us all and for our country,” the website of the president’s office cited Zelensky as saying to the soldiers, adding that he handed out commendations and gifts.

2:49pm: Putin has ‘no interest’ in negotiating before he achieves territorial goals, Eastern Europe expert says

French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday. However, “the problem simply is that Putin does not want to negotiate, there is very little to say,” said Oleg Kobtzeff, an Eastern Europe specialist at the American University in Paris.

“His objective is to seize as much territory as possible. Now, seizing the whole country – taking complete control of the entire country – that is something he realises he will not be able to do. So he’s concentrating on the eastern regions of Donbas and the region of Luhansk – and also the northern shores of the Black Sea. Why would he negotiate if there’s absolutely no interest for him in negotiating until he accomplishes his goals?”

2:16pm: Turkey’s Erdogan says still against Finnish, Swedish NATO bids

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told journalists he still intends to block Finland and Sweden’s accession to NATO. Erdogan said meetings this week with Finnish and Swedish delegations had not been “at the expected level”, noting there had been no steps taken to alleviate Turkey’s security concerns.

“As long as Tayyip Erdogan is at the head of the Republic of Turkey, we cannot say ‘yes’ to countries that support terror joining NATO,” he told journalists on his plane following a visit to Azerbaijan Saturday, according to newspaper Hurriyet.

Erdogan referred to an interview on Swedish state television with Salih Muslim, a member of the Syrian Kurdish administration in northeast Syria, on the night of the delegation meeting. He cited this as evidence of Sweden’s support for Syrian Kurdish militants that Turkey views as an extension of an outlawed Kurdish group that has led an insurgency against Turkey since 1984.

1:04pm: Patriarch Kirill ‘understands’ Ukrainian church schism

Patriarch Kirill said Sunday that the Russian Orthodox Church “understands” a decision by its branch in Ukraine to cut ties amid Moscow’s offensive in the pro-Western country. “We fully understand how the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is suffering today,” the head of the Russian Orthodox Church said in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in central Moscow.

“We understand that His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy and the episcopate should act as wisely as possible today so as not to complicate the lives of their believers,” Patriarch Kirill said in his first comments since the announcement. He added that the “spirits of malice” wanted to divide the Orthodox people of Russia and Ukraine but they would not succeed.

12:19pm: Russian, Serbian presidents agree on further gas supplies

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic agreed in a phone call on Sunday that Russia will continue supplying natural gas to Serbia and the two countries will bolster their partnership, the Kremlin said. The two leaders also discussed the issue of Ukraine and Kosovo, according to the Kremlin.

10:49am: Russia says it has destroyed a Ukrainian arsenal in central Ukraine

The Russian defence ministry said on Sunday that Russian missiles have destroyed a large Ukrainian arsenal in the city of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine, state news agency TASS quoted the ministry as saying.

The ministry also said Russian anti-aircraft defence systems shot down a Ukrainian SU-25 fighter jet in the Dnipro region, TASS reported.

8:52am: Russia’s Gazprom continues shipping gas to Europe via Ukraine

Russian gas producer Gazprom said on Sunday its supply of gas to Europe through Ukraine via the Sudzha entry point stood at 44.1 million cubic metres (mcm), up from 43.96 mcm on Saturday. An application to supply gas via another major entry point, Sokhranovka, was rejected by Ukraine, Gazprom said.

6:26am: Fighting for Severodonetsk continues, Ukraine’s military says

Fighting for the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk continues with Russian forces conducting assault operations on Saturday, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said on Sunday. “With the use of artillery, Russian forces carried out assault operations in the area” of the city, the general staff said in a statement on its Facebook page.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky voiced hope in a late-night video address that Ukraine’s allies would provide more weapons, adding that he expected “good news” this week.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and REUTERS)

Originally published on France24