Russia Ukraine War News Live Updates: Zelenskyy says ‘happy towns’ in ruins now; artillery war with better-armed Russians in Sievierodonetsk

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia was trying to “break every town in the Donbas.” Both sides say they have inflicted mass casualties.
Members of a foreign volunteers unit which fights in the Ukrainian army take positions, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Sievierodonetsk, Luhansk region. (Reuters)
Zelenskyy adviser Oleksiy Arestovych estimated the Russian army is losing on average five to six times as many fighters as the Ukrainian side. Asked in a social media interview whether that suggested the Ukrainian army had lost up to 10,000 fighters in the first 100 days of the war, Arestovych said, “Yes, something like that.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched what he terms his “special military operation” in Ukraine on February 24, saying his aim was to disarm and “denazify” Russia’s neighbour. Kyiv and its allies call it an unprovoked war of aggression to capture territory.
Weapons experts from France are helping their Ukrainian counterparts collect evidence of possible Russian war crimes in the northern region of Chernihiv, Ukraine’s prosecutor general said. Russia denies targeting civilians.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Saturday reinforced Washington’s commitment to the region in light of Russia’s actions. “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is what happens when oppressors trample the rules that protect us all,” Austin told an Asian security forum in Singapore. “It’s a preview of a possible world of chaos and turmoil that none of us would want to live in.”