KYIV: Russian forces pounded targets in eastern and southern Ukraine with missiles, drones and artillery, Ukraine’s General Staff said on Monday, while millions remained without power in subzero temperatures after further strikes on key infrastructure.

European Union foreign ministers agreed to put an­other two billion euros ($2.1 billion) into a fund that has been used to pay for military support for Ukraine, after it was largely depleted during almost 10 months of the war.

The EU ministers were also due to to discuss a ninth package of sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, while Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelens­kiy was set to address an online gathering of Group of Seven (G7) leaders about the war.

At least two people were killed and five wounded in Kherson on Monday after what regional governor Yaroslav Yanushevych said was “massive shelling” by Russian forces of the southern city liberated by Ukrainian forces last month.

Many members of Russia’s private Wagner military group were killed when Ukraine targeted a hotel in the town of Kadiivka in Luhansk where they were based, the exiled governor of the Russian-occupied region, Serhiy Gaidai, said on Sunday.

Ukrainian forces had also hit a recreational centre used by Russian troops in Melitopol in the southeast, the city’s exiled mayor, Ivan Fedorov, said.

There are no peace talks and no end in sight to the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two, which Moscow describes as a “special military operation” and Ukraine and its allies call an unprovoked act of aggression. Russia does not yet see a “constructive” approach from the United States on the Ukraine conflict, RIA news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin as saying on Monday.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2022