Live updates | Ukraine says east under relentless attacks

A regional governor in Ukraine says that the situation in a key eastern town has worsened

KYIV, Ukraine — A regional governor in Ukraine says that the situation in a key eastern town has worsened.

Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said Monday that fierce fighting was continuing in the city of Sievierodonetsk in the epicenter of the Russian offensive. He described the combat situation as “quite dynamic."

“Our defenders managed to conduct counteroffensive and free nearly half of the city, but the situation has worsened again now," Haidai told the AP. “Our guys are defending the positions in the industrial zone on the outskirts of the city.”

“The shelling of Sievierodonetsk has intensified, (the Russians) are destroying everything in line with their scorched earth tactics,” he alleged.

Haidai said that the Russians have continued intensive bombardment also of nearby Lysychansk.

The Russians “have an enormous amount of equipment and personnel, they have pulled up a lot of reserves,” he said. He added that they had shelled a humanitarian center in Lysychansk and destroyed a bakery, and that 98 people had left the town over the past 24 hours.

Haidai said that a key highway between Bakhmut and Lysychansk has been under constant shelling even though it remains in Ukrainian hands.

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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:

— UK boosts Ukraine with high-tech missile system

— American spy agencies review their misses on Ukraine, Russia

— In eastern Ukraine, keeping the lights on is a dangerous job

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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France — Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had strong words about the war in Ukraine at a ceremony Monday commemorating the 78th anniversary of D-Day.

Speaking in the American Cemetery of Colleville-sur-Mer, overlooking Omaha Beach, Milley said that "Kyiv may be 2,000 kilometers away from here, they too, right now, today, are experiencing the same horrors as the French citizens experienced in World War II.”

He spoke in the presence of more than 20 World War II veterans and several thousand people who came to pay tribute to those who fell that day.

“The world has come together in support of the defense of Ukraine against a determined invader. The fight in Ukraine is about honoring these veterans of World War II,” he said.

“It’s about maintaining the so called global rules-based international order that was established by the dead who are buried here at this cemetery.”

Gen. Milley recalled the principle underlined in that order that “strong countries cannot just invade small countries. Each country is sovereign and each country has the right to territorial integrity.”

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MOSCOW — The Russian military says it has struck a Ukrainian factory that was being used to repair armor.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Monday that Russian warplanes fired long-range missiles to destroy a plant on the edge of the town of Lozova in the northeastern Kharkiv region that was fixing armored vehicles.

Konashenkov said that the Russian aircraft hit 73 areas of concentration of Ukrainian troops and equipment, while the Russian artillery struck 431 military targets. His claims couldn’t be independently verified.