Zelensky praises troops for defying expectations

KYIV/MOSCOW: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said no one knows how long the war in his country will last but that Ukrainian forces are defying expectations by preventing Russian troops from overrunning eastern Ukraine, where the fighting has been fiercest for weeks.

In his nightly video address, Zelensky said he was proud of the Ukrainian defenders managing to hold back the Russian advance in the Donbas region, which borders Russia and where Moscow-backed separatists have controlled much of the territory for eight years.

“Remember how in Russia, in the beginning of May, they hoped to seize all of the Donbas?” the president said late on Saturday.

“It’s already the 108th day of the war, already June. Donbas is holding on.”

Severodonetsk has become epicentre of the battle for control over the industrialised Donbas region in the east, made up of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces.

Luhansk governor Serhiy Gaidai said on Sunday that Ukrainian and Russian forces were still fighting street-by-street in Severodonetsk.

Meanwhile, a pro-Russian separatist leader in eastern Ukraine said on Sunday he would not alter the death sentences handed to two Britons and a Moroccan for fighting with the Ukrainian army.

“They came to Ukraine to kill civilians for money. That’s why I don’t see any conditions for any mitigation or modification of the sentence,” Denis Pushilin, the leader of the separatist Donetsk region, which tried them, told reporters.

Second Briton killed fighting for Ukraine

It’s already the 108th day of the war, already June. Donbas is holding on. VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, Ukrainian President

A British former soldier has been shot and killed in Ukraine, his family said Sunday, praising him as a “hero”. Jordan Gatley is the second Briton reported to have died fighting alongside Ukrainian forces against Russian invaders.

McDonald’s restaurants reopen under new name

McDonald’s restaurants flung open their doors in Moscow once again on Sunday under new Russian ownership and a new name: Vkusno & tochka, which translates as “Tasty and that’s it”. The new dawn for Russia’s fast-food scene will initially see 15 rebranded restaurants open in and around the capital after the US burger giant turned its back on the country.