President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that his country’s troops are suffering heavy losses in battles with Russian troops in the city of Severodonetsk and the Kharkiv region.

Zelenskiy stressed in a televised address that “Ukraine now needs modern anti-missile weapons,” noting that “there can be no excuse for partner countries to delay their delivery to Kyiv,” and explained that “it needs more long-range weapons.” to repel Russian forces, especially in the Donbas region.

The city of Severodonetsk has seen violent clashes between Russian troops and their Ukrainian counterparts for several days due to its strategic location in the east of the country. And Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said last week that “about 100 of his soldiers are killed and 500 are injured daily in combat with Russian troops.”

At the end of May last year, the Ukrainian president traveled to the east of the country for the first time since the beginning of the Russian offensive, visiting the Kharkiv region.

Kharkiv is the second city in the country to have been bombed almost daily since the Russian offensive into Ukraine began on February 24.