Ukraine Seeks More NATO Support Amid “Difficult” Front-Line Situation

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukrainian forces are facing a “difficult” situation as they defend against Russian advances in several regions, while NATO members promised more weapons and equipment to help rebuild the country's damaged electricity infrastructure.

Ukraine's General Staff said on Wednesday that its forces had repelled six Russian attacks in the eastern Donbas region in the previous 24 hours, while Russian artillery shelled the right bank of the Dnieper River and Kherson city further south.

Ukrainians fled to bomb shelters on Tuesday after hearing air raid sirens in several cities, though the all-clear later sounded across the country. Russian forces pounded Ukrainian targets in the eastern Donetsk region with artillery, mortar and tank fire.

Separately, Zelenskyy claimed that the Russian military was also attacking Luhansk in the east and Kharkiv in the northeast, both of which Ukraine reclaimed in September.

“The situation at the front is difficult,” said Zelenskyy in his nightly video address. In Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv, “despite extremely large losses, the occupiers are still attempting to advance. They're planning something in the south,” he added.

The reports from the battlefield could not be independently verified.

They arrived as NATO ministers gathered in Romania's capital, Bucharest, for a two-day meeting.

According to US and European officials, ministers will focus on non-lethal aid such as fuel, medical supplies and winter equipment, as well as military assistance, during their talks. The United States announced a USD 53 million grant to purchase power grid equipment.

US President Joe Biden said that providing more military assistance to Ukraine was a priority, but Republicans, who take control of the House in January, have discussed pausing the funding, which has surpassed USD 18 billion.

Following a string of battlefield defeats, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of “trying to use winter as a weapon of war.”

Russia claims that it does not intend to harm civilians, but that their suffering will end only if Kyiv accepts its unspecified demands.

It has relentlessly attacked Ukraine's electricity transmission and heating infrastructure since October, in what Kyiv and its allies say is a deliberate campaign to harm civilians, a war crime.