Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine.

Amid an intensified military campaign in eastern Ukraine, and as Russian forces continue to carve out incremental gains there, the wide-scale devastation of towns and cities in the region has widened a spiraling crisis for civilians.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine warned in an overnight address late Thursday that Russian forces were trying to turn cities and towns in the east of the country “to ashes.”

Anxiety has been building among Western allies that the war could grind to an extended impasse with spiraling economic consequences. But U.S. military officials pushed back against descriptions of the battle in Donbas as a stalemate.

In other developments:

- At least nine people were killed when Kharkiv came under fire on Thursday.

- Mr. Zelensky expressed frustration that the EU had yet to approve a sixth package of sanctions against Russia that would include an oil embargo. Read more

@nytimes