Russia still pounds eastern Ukraine

Kyiv: Russia's military machine persevered in its ferocious effort to grind down Ukraine's defences on Monday, as the war's consequences for food and fuel supplies increasingly weighed on minds around the globe after warnings that the fighting could go on for years.

In Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region, which in recent weeks has become the focal point of Moscow's attempt to impose its will on its neighbour, battles raged for the control of multiple villages, the local governor said.

The villages are around Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk, two cities in the Luhansk region yet to be captured by the Russians, according to Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai.

Russian shelling and airstrikes on the industrial outskirts of Sievierodonetsk have intensified, he said.

Haidai told The Associated Press on Monday that the situation in Sievierodonetsk was very difficult, with the Ukrainian forces maintaining control over just one area the Azot chemical plant, where a number of Ukrainian fighters, along with about 500 civilians, are taking shelter.

The Russians keep deploying additional troops and equipment in the area, he said.

It's just hell there. Everything is engulfed in fire, the shelling doesn't stop even for an hour, Haidai said in written comments. Only a fraction of 100,000 people who used to live in Sievierodonetsk before the war remain in the city, with no electricity, communications, food or medicine.

Even so, Haidai said, the staunch Ukrainian resistance is preventing Moscow from deploying its resources to other parts of the country.

The British defence ministry noted that the war is not going all Russia's way, despite its superior military assets.

Russian ground troops are exhausted , the defence ministry said in an intelligence report on Monday. It blamed poor air support for Russia's difficulty in making swifter progress on the ground.

Across the world, drivers are rethinking their habits and personal finances amid surging prices for gasoline and diesel, fuelled by Russia's war in Ukraine as well as the global rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic. Energy prices are a key driver of inflation that is rising worldwide and making the cost of living more expensive.

The European Union's top diplomats gathered in Luxembourg on Monday for talks focused on Ukraine and food security.