Fighting increases near Kreminna, a city key to Putin’s objectives in the east.

As President Volodymyr Zelensky pursued his whirlwind diplomatic mission in Europe on Thursday and lobbied for powerful new weapons, the opening phase of Moscow’s offensive in eastern Ukraine was growing in scale and intensity.

Better trained and equipped Russian divisions have joined tens of thousands of newly mobilized soldiers trying to break through well fortified Ukrainian lines, Ukrainian officials and analysts say. Read more

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