KYIV (Reuters) -- 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.
In a flurry of weekend diplomacy, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke with the leaders of the United States, France and Turkey ahead of planned Group of Seven (G7) and EU meetings on Monday that could agree further sanctions on Russia.
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.
The two countries have held a series of contacts in Turkey.
U.S. President Joe Biden told Zelensky during a call on Sunday that Washington was prioritizing efforts to boost Ukraine’s air defenses, the White House said. Zelensky said he had thanked Biden for the “unprecedented defense and financial” help the United States has provided.
On the ground in Ukraine, the Black Sea port of Odesa on Monday resumed operations that had been suspended after Russia used drones on Saturday to hit two energy facilities. Power is slowly being restored to some 1.5 million people, officials said.
Zelensky said other areas experiencing “very difficult” conditions with power supplies included the capital Kyiv and Kyiv region and four regions in western Ukraine and Dnipropetrovsk region in the centre of the country.
There were no reports of fresh strikes or blackouts overnight into Monday.
In its daily update on the military situation around the country, Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces had repelled Russian assaults on four settlements in the eastern Donetsk region and on eight settlements in the adjacent Luhansk region.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told CBS’s “60 Minutes” Washington’s support for Ukraine’s military and economy – more than $50 billion and counting - would continue “for as long as it takes” and reiterated that ending the war was the single best thing the United States could do for the global economy.
Putin said last week that Moscow’s near-total loss of trust in the West would make an eventual settlement over Ukraine much harder to reach and warned of a protracted war.