KRAMATORSK, Ukraine -- Russian troops pushed deeper into a key eastern Ukrainian city Monday, fighting street by street with Ukrainian forces in a battle that the mayor said has left Sievierodonetsk in ruins and driven tens of thousands of people from their homes.
Military analysts described the fight for Sievierodonetsk as part of a race against time for the Kremlin. The city is important to Russian efforts to complete the capture of the eastern industrial region of the Donbas before more Western arms arrive to bolster Ukraine's defense.
Weapons from the West earlier helped Kyiv's forces thwart a Russian advance on the capital in the early weeks of the war. That failure forced Moscow to withdraw, regroup and pursue the more limited objective of seizing the Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists already held swaths of territory and have been fighting Ukrainian troops for eight years.
"The Kremlin has reckoned that it can't afford to waste time and should use the last chance to extend the separatist-controlled territory because the arrival of Western weapons in Ukraine could make it impossible," Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said.
In a potential setback for Ukraine, however, President Joe Biden appeared to dismiss reports that the U.S. was considering sending long-range rocket systems to the country.
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia's Security Council, called it a "reasonable" decision. He said that "otherwise, if our cities come under attack, the Russian armed forces would fulfill their threat and strike the centers where such criminal decisions are made."
Medvedev added that "some of them aren't in Kyiv."
In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the situation in the Donbas remains "extremely difficult" as Russia has put its army's "maximum combat power" there.
The Ukrainian military said Russian forces reinforced their positions on the northeastern and southeastern outskirts of Sievierodonetsk, a city 90 miles south of the Russian border in an area that is the last pocket of Ukrainian government control in Luhansk.
Sievierodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Striuk said the city has been "completely ruined." Artillery barrages have destroyed critical infrastructure and damaged 90% of the buildings, and power and communications have been largely cut to a city that was once home to 100,000 people, he said.
"The number of victims is rising every hour, but we are unable to count the dead and the wounded amid the street fighting," Striuk said, adding that Moscow's troops advanced a few more blocks toward the city center.
He said only about 12,000 to 13,000 residents remain, sheltering in basements and bunkers to escape the Russian bombardment. The situation recalls the siege of Mariupol, which trapped residents and led to some of the worst suffering of the war.
Striuk estimated that 1,500 civilians have died in Sievierodonetsk since the war began, from both Russian attacks and dire conditions that include a lack of medicine and medical treatment. More than 20,000 people are feared dead in Mariupol.
FRENCH JOURNALIST KILLED
A 32-year-old French journalist, Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff, died Monday near Sievierodonetsk when he was hit by shrapnel from shelling while covering Ukrainians evacuating the area, according to his employer, French broadcaster BFM TV.
The TV station said Leclerc-Imhoff was killed as he was "covering a humanitarian operation in an armored vehicle" near Sievierodonetsk. He had worked for the television station for six years.
French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to Leclerc-Imhoff on Twitter, saying he "was in Ukraine to show the reality of the war."
"Aboard a humanitarian bus, alongside civilians forced to flee to escape Russian bombs, he was fatally shot," Macron tweeted.
The president expressed condolences to his family, relatives and colleagues and spoke of "France's unconditional support" to "those who carry out the difficult mission of informing in theaters of operations."
BFM TV said Leclerc-Imhoff was accompanied by a male colleague who was slightly injured. A Ukrainian woman who was working with them was not hit.
Zelenskyy said Leclerc-Imhoff was the 32nd media worker to die in Ukraine since Russia invaded Feb. 24.
While focusing on Sievierodonetsk, Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said the Russians were also pushing toward nearby Lysychansk. In addition to Leclerc-Imhoff, two civilians were killed in the latest Russian shelling, he said.
Haidai announced Leclerc-Imhoff's death in a Telegram post, saying Russian forces fired on an armored vehicle that was traveling to pick up people for evacuation.
"Shrapnel from the shells pierced the vehicle's armor, fatally wounding an accredited French journalist in the neck who was reporting on the evacuation. The patrol officer was saved by his helmet," he wrote.
He said the patrol officer accompanying the vehicle was hit in the head by shrapnel and taken to a military hospital.
The governor said three civilians were also killed Monday in the Donetsk region, which together with Luhansk makes up the Donbas. Authorities in Kharkiv reported one dead in the latest shelling of Ukraine's second-largest city.
The head of Reporters Without Borders, Christophe Deloire, said that "from the beginning of the war we have noticed that the journalists, and other citizens of course, civilians, are targeted by Russian forces."
Deloire said Leclerc-Imhoff was heading to the Donbas region on a humanitarian bus which was going to pick up people and evacuate them.
FIGHTING INTENSE
The Russian advance in Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk on either side of the strategically important Siverskiy Donetsk River is part of an all-out push, said Zhdanov, the Ukrainian military analyst.
Zelenskyy said Russian troops also shelled Kharkiv on Monday, as well as the Sumy region near the Russian border. He said the struggle also continued for the southern Kherson region, which has been largely controlled by Russian troops since the early days of the war. Russia-installed officials there said they would ask the Kremlin to annex it, while Kyiv has vowed to liberate the region.
Zelenskyy said Monday that "step by step, we are liberating our land and gradually approaching the point where Russia will still have to lay down its arms, count all its dead and move on to diplomacy."
The intensity of the latest fighting and the influx of Russian troops have surprised Ukrainians, who are trying to hold out until more weapons can arrive, Zhdanov said.
In the Kherson region, the Russia-installed deputy head of the regional administration, Kirill Stremousov, told Russia's Tass state news agency that grain from last year's harvest is being delivered to Russian buyers, adding that "obviously there is a lot of grain here."
Russia, meanwhile, has pressed the West to lift sanctions against it as it seeks to shift the blame for the growing food crisis, which has led to skyrocketing prices in Africa.
Zelenskyy said the Russian blockade of Ukrainian sea ports is preventing Kyiv from exporting 22 million tons of grain intended for foreign markets. He accused Moscow of "deliberately creating this problem" and said Russia's claim that sanctions are to blame is a lie. He said sanctions haven't blocked Russian food, and he accused Russia of stealing at least a half-million tons of Ukrainian grain.
Information for this article was contributed by Yuras Karmanau, Elena Becatoros, Angela Charlton, Nicolas Garriga, Catherine Gaschka and additional reporters for The Associated Press.
A local resident points towards a residential building heavily damaged in a Russian bombing in Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine, Monday, May 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Ukrainian firefighters try to extinguish a fire in a warehouse after a Russian strike in Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, Monday, May 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
A Ukrainian Territorial Defence Force member shows his weapon in Kharkiv area, eastern Ukraine, Monday, May 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
A girl sits on a swing outside destroyed buildings during attacks in Irpin outskirts Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, May 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
A boy sits on a window of a building destroyed during attacks in Irpin outskirts Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, May 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
A woman walks with a baby stroller near a destroyed building during attacks in Irpin outskirts Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, May 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
A child standing next to a damaged car looks up at a building destroyed during attacks in Irpin, on the outskirts Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, May 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Yarik plays at a playground in front a building destroyed during attacks in Irpin outskirts Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, May 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Ukrainian tanks move in Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Monday, May 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)