Moscow's separatist proxies claimed to have captured Toshkivka, a town on the mostly Ukrainian-held western bank of the Siverskyi
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Russian forces captured territory along a frontline river in eastern Ukraine on Monday, and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy predicted Moscow would escalate attacks ahead of a summit of European leaders expected to welcome Kyiv's bid to join the EU.
Moscow's separatist proxies claimed to have captured Toshkivka, a town on the mostly Ukrainian-held western bank of the Siverskyi Donets river, south of Sievierodonetsk, which has become the main battlefield city in recent weeks.
Ukraine acknowledged that Moscow had success in Toshkivka and said the Russians were trying to gain a foothold there to make a breakthrough into the wider, Ukrainian-held pocket of the eastern Donbas region. It also confirmed a Russian claim to have captured Metyolkine on Sievierodonetsk's eastern outskirts.
"Obviously, this week we should expect from Russia an intensification of its hostile activities," Zelenskiy said in a Sunday nightly video address. "We are preparing. We are ready."
Moscow, for its part, denounced a decision by EU member Lithuania to ban transport of some basic goods to Kaliningrad, a Russian outpost on the Baltic Sea surrounded by EU territory.
The Lithuanian ban, which took effect on Saturday, blocks shipments of coal, metals, construction materials and advanced technology to the outpost. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the move illegal and unprecedented, and said Moscow would announce a response soon.
Putin says the "special military operation" is aimed at disarming a neighbour Russia views as a threat and protecting Russian speakers there. Kyiv believes Moscow's true aim is to restore control over Ukraine and erase its national identity.
In the strongest step yet proposed by Kyiv to enforce a cultural break with Moscow, Ukraine's parliament passed bills on Sunday that would ban the publication of books or the public broadcast of music by citizens of post-Soviet Russia.
The measures, which require Zelenskiy's signature to become law, "are designed to help Ukrainian authors share quality content with the widest possible audience, which after the Russian invasion do not accept any Russian creative product on a physical level", said Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko.
Russian forces were defeated in an assault on the capital Kyiv in March, but have since launched a new assault to capture more territory in the east and solidify their hold on the south.
(Reuters)