Zelenskyy says Russia has initiative in Ukraine’s east but new western aid on way

Ukrainian serviceman at the front line in Donetsk (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said his country’s army is facing “a really difficult situation” in eastern regions where troops are battling to hold at bay an intense Russian push along parts of the front line.

Russia has sought to exploit Ukraine’s shortages of ammunition and manpower as the flow of western supplies since the outbreak of the war petered out, assembling large troop concentrations in the east as well as in the north and gaining an edge on the battlefield, Mr Zelenskyy said.