Ukraine Reports Battle Gains, Challenges
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) -- A regional governor in southern Ukraine says Russian troops are retreating and blowing up bridges to obstruct a possible Ukrainian advance.
Mykolayiv region governor Vitaliy Kim claimed Wednesday on the Telegram messaging app that Russia was on the defensive.
"They are afraid of a breakthrough by the (Ukrainian Armed Forces), but we are not afraid and we support our troops," he wrote.
Kim didn't specify exactly where the retreat he described was happening. The parts of the Mykolayiv region which have been held by Russian forces in recent days are close to the large Russia-occupied city of Kherson.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Tuesday that Ukrainian fighters had seen "some success in the Kherson direction."
Russia is concentrating most of its military power on trying to capture all of eastern Ukraine's Donbas region.
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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:
- Report: China bars Russian airlines with foreign planes
- US sending medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine
- Italy imports more Russian oil despite impending embargo
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- High prices, Asian markets could blunt EU ban on Russian oil
- Sanctioned Russian oligarch's megayacht hides in a UAE creek
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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
BRUSSELS (AP) -- The European Union's asylum agency says the number of people from former Soviet countries seeking international protection in Europe has skyrocketed since Russia launched its war in Ukraine.
The agency said Wednesday that about 14,000 Ukrainians sought asylum in March, a figure some 30 times higher than before the war that started Feb. 24.
The number is on top of the estimated 3 million Ukrainians who have applied for emergency protection under an EU program that provides shelter, access to jobs, medical treatment and education to war refugees.
The biggest increases in asylum-seekers were recorded among citizens from Belarus, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. But the EU agency says it's not clear whether these people came from their home countries or were living in Ukraine when the war started.
The number of Russians seeking asylum in the EU also rose to 1,400 in March, the highest level since 2018.
Asylum is usually granted to people in danger of suffering serious harm due to their race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership of a social group, and to those fleeing war, torture and degrading treatment.
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BERLIN (AP) -- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says his country will supply Ukraine with modern anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems, stepping up arms deliveries amid criticism that Germany isn't doing enough to help Kyiv.
Scholz told German lawmakers on Wednesday that the government has decided to provide Ukraine with IRIS-T missiles developed by Germany together with other NATO nations.
He said Germany will also supply Ukraine with radar systems to help locate enemy artillery.
The announcements come amid claims at home and abroad that Germany has been slow to provide Ukraine with the weapons it needs to defend itself against Russia.
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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) -- A regional governor in eastern Ukraine says Russian forces control 70% of Sievierodonetsk, a city that in recent days became the focus of Moscow's offensive.
Luhansk region governor Serhiy Haidai said in a Telegram post on Wednesday that some Ukrainian troops were fighting with the Russians in the city while others had pulled back.
"The evacuation (of civilians) has been halted. There is no possibility to bring in humanitarian aid," Haidai said.
He said the only other city in the Luhansk region not taken by Russia or Moscow-backed separatists -- Lysychansk -- is "fully" under Ukrainian control.
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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) -- Ukraine's president says the country is losing between 60 and 100 soldiers a day in the fighting with Russian forces.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told American TV channel Newsmax that "the most difficult situation is in the east of Ukraine," including Donetsk and Luhansk provinces.
"The situation is very difficult. We're losing 60-100 soldiers per day as killed in action and something around 500 people as wounded in action. So we are holding our defensive perimeters," Zelenskyy said.
Ukraine has largely refrained from disclosing its military losses since the beginning of the Russian invasion, but Zelenskyy previously said the country was losing between 50 and 100 soldiers a day.