Ukrainian forces were holding their positions in intense street fighting in the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk, where Russians were "dying like flies", the region's governor said on Thursday, but they faced a "catastrophic" lack of artillery.
The battle amid the ruins of Sievierodonetsk, a small industrial city, has become one of the war's bloodiest, with Russia concentrating its invasion force there. Both sides say they have inflicted massive casualties.
In the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), one of Russia's proxies in eastern Ukraine, a court sentenced two Britons and a Moroccan who were captured while fighting for Ukraine to death, Russian news agencies reported.
Britain slammed the court's decision as a "sham judgment" with no legitimacy.