With a blessing for its EU ambitions and a pledge of unwavering support from Britain, Ukraine vowed on Saturday to prevail against Moscow as it battled Russian assaults near a key eastern city and multiple locations came under shell and missile attack.

European Union countries are expected at a summit next week to grant Ukraine EU candidate status following a recommendation from the bloc’s executive on Friday, putting Kyiv on course to realise an aspiration seen as out of reach before Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion, even if actual membership could take years. read more

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson made a surprise visit to Kyiv on Friday and offered training for Ukrainian forces. Back in Britain on Saturday, he stressed the need to avoid “Ukraine fatigue” after nearly four months of war.

“The Russians are grinding forward inch by inch and it is vital for us to show what we know to be true, which is that Ukraine can win and will win,” he told reporters. read more
“When Ukraine fatigue is setting in, it is very important to show that we are with them for the long haul and we are giving them the strategic resilience that they need.”

On the battlefields on Saturday, Sievierodonetsk, a prime target in Moscow’s offensive to seize full control of the eastern region of Luhansk, was again under heavy artillery and rocket fire as the Russian forces attacked areas outside the industrial city, the Ukrainian military said.

A Russian-backed representative said a big explosion rocked the Sievierodonetsk area on Saturday and a large orange-coloured cloud could be seen rising into the air.

Rodion Miroshnik, of the self-styled separatist administration of the Luhansk People’s Republic, posted a video on Telegram of what he said was the cloud, adding that he could not tell if the blast occurred in or near the city.

Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai said Russian attacks on towns just south of Sievierodonetsk were repulsed by Ukrainian forces, although the situation in satellite villages was “difficult.”

“The Russians have thrown all their reserves in the direction of Sievierodonetsk and Bakhmut,” he said in an online post. “They are trying to establish full control over the regional centre and to cut the Lysychansk-Bakhmut highway. They’re having no success, they are dying en masse.”

Gaidai said the city of Lysychansk was under constant shelling but remained fully in Ukrainian hands, although a ‘quiet’ evacuation was underway, and humanitarian convoys were being brought in daily. He said a key highway out of the city was now impassable due to Russian shelling.

To the northwest, several Russian missiles hit a gasworks in Izium district, and Russian rockets rained on a suburb of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, hitting a municipal building and starting a fire in a block of flats, but causing no casualties, Ukrainian authorities said.

Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskiy, whose defiance has inspired Ukrainians and won him global respect, said on Saturday he had visited soldiers on the southern front line in the Mykolaiv region.

“Our brave men and women. Each one of them is working flat out,” he said on Telegram. “We will definitely hold out! We will definitely win!”

A video showed Zelenskiy in his trademark khaki t-shirt handing out medals and posing for selfies with the servicemen. He did not say when the trip took place. read more

Ukrainian authorities also reported overnight shelling of locations further west in Poltava and Dnipropetrovsk, and on Saturday they said three Russian missiles destroyed a fuel storage depot in the town of Novomoskovsk sending three people to hospital.

Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield accounts.

One of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s stated goals when he ordered his troops into Ukraine was to halt the eastward expansion of the NATO military alliance and keep its southern neighbour outside of the West’s sphere of influence.

But the war, which has killed thousands of people, turned cities into rubble and sent millions fleeing, has had the opposite effect – convincing Finland and Sweden to seek to join NATO and helping to pave the way for Ukraine’s EU membership bid.

“Ukrainians are ready to die for the European perspective,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday, while announcing its decision to recommend Ukraine and its neighbour Moldova as candidates for EU membership.

“We want them to live with us the European dream,” she said, wearing a yellow blazer over a blue blouse, the Ukrainian colours.

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Former Soviet countries are part of Russia’s domain and risk Ukraine’s fate if they go up against the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin has insinuated.

© AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky Vladimir Putin – AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky

The Russian president made the remarks while on stage with Kazakhstan’s leader, with experts interpreting them as a “clear threat” against the neighbouring country.

His comments were in response to Kassym-Jomart Tokayev saying on live TV at an economic forum in St Petersburg on Friday that he did not recognise two pro-Russian rebel regions in the Donbas. 

Putin sat still, sucking in his lips before hitting back: “What is the Soviet Union? This is historic Russia.”

He went on to calmly praise Kazakhstan as a brotherly nation before adding in a thinly veiled threat: “The same thing could have happened with Ukraine, absolutely, but they wouldn’t be our allies.”

One observer based in Nur-Sultan, the Kazakh capital, said that Mr Tokayev had “humiliated Putin in front of his supporters” and that the threat was real, adding: “He’s making him aware that Kazakhstan may be Russia’s next prey.”

© Provided by The Telegraph Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Vladimir Putin – Gavriil Grigorov/TASS Host Photo Agency Pool via AP

Another commentator, based in Almaty, said: “He’s saying that if you are good neighbours, that’s fine. But if you step out of line and go pro-West, we can conquer your land because it is ours.”

Maximilian Hess, a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, said Mr Tokayev was especially vulnerable because he had relied on Putin’s support in January to defeat rivals in a fight for power in Kazakhstan.

“This is a clear threat,” he said of Putin’s comments. “Tokayev has no power base domestically and knows since January he is dependent on Putin.”

Other Kazakh analysts were more sceptical, saying that Mr Tokayev would only have stood up to Putin over Ukraine if it was worth the risk and that a Russian invasion of Kazakhstan was unlikely.

“Kazakhstan is already firmly rooted in the Russian domain of influence. Putin doesn’t need to reimpose the borders of the USSR to control it,” said Dimash Alzhanov, a Kazakh political analyst.

However, viewed from northern Kazakhstan, an invasion does not feel like an abstract concept.

“It’s a very real fear and it would be easy for Russia,” said Viktor, the owner of a curtain shop in Uralsk, a city of about 300,000 people lying 45 miles away from the border with Russia. 

“People’s views are stronger now and they don’t talk to each other,” he said. “The Russian propaganda now is so strong. Russians here have their heads and their hearts over the border with Putin.”

Grand Russian Imperial buildings line the main street in Uralsk, a reminder that it used to mark the edge of Russia’s Tsarist empire. Roughly a third of the population is Russian, a common character of towns in north Kazakhstan, although most of the country is predominantly ethnic Kazakh.

Kazakhstan is a mineral-rich country. Many of its metal and rare earth deposits lie in the north of the country. One of its largest oil and gas projects, Karachaganak – in which Shell is a shareholder – is near Uralsk. The Kazakh army is poor and no match for Russia’s, even in a weakened state.

Kremlin hawks have been circling and threatening the country. Last month, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, accused Kazakhstan of hosting US biological laboratories which may be used for building weapons, an accusation he lobs at Ukraine and Georgia, Russia’s foes.

© Provided by The Telegraph Donetsk fire Ukraine invasion – Leon Klein/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

A three-and-a-half-hour flight from Uralsk, in south-east Kazakhstan, lies Almaty, the relaxed former capital. There, in a Scottish-themed bar a fortnight ago, a pub quiz was in full swing.

“People here are very nervous that we’re next after Ukraine,” said Sabir, a shop interior architect.

On screens above shelves filled with bottles of whisky, two grainy black and white portraits of a man and a woman flashed up.

“Name the child of these two parents,” said the quizmaster.

There was an alarmed commotion among the teams. Could the quizmaster really have slipped in a reference to Putin, considered by most Kazakhs to be a warmonger, at a time like this?

“It can’t be, can it?” said Sabir. “That can’t be Putin’s parents, can it? That’s crazy.”

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