Russian forces turn sights on Lysychansk in battle for eastern Ukraine - Reuters.com

KYIV/POKROVSK, Ukraine, June 27 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged Western leaders to step up weapons supplies to his country as Russian forces fought to capture Lysychansk, the last big city still held by Ukrainian troops in eastern Luhansk province.

Luhansk governor Serhiy Gaidai said Lysychansk was suffering "catastrophic" damage from shelling as Russian forces targeted the city following the fall of neighbouring Sievierodonetsk over the weekend.

But Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown no sign of changing course as his troops battled to pick off another Ukrainian city.

The General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said on Monday Russian forces were using artillery to try to cut off Lysychansk from the south.

Russian war planes had also struck near Lysychansk, the general staff said in its daily update.

Tass news agency on Sunday quoted an official from Moscow-backed separatists as saying Russian forces had entered Lysychansk from five directions and were isolating Ukrainian defenders.

A smoke rises over remains of a building destroyed by a military strike, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Lysychansk, Luhansk region, Ukraine June 17, 2022.

"Lysychansk, it was a horror, the last week," said Elena, an elderly woman from the city who was among dozens of evacuees who arrived in the Ukrainian-held town of Pokrovsk by bus from frontline areas.

In a big setback for Ukraine, Russian forces won full control of Sievierodonetsk, Lysychansk's twin city on the eastern bank of the Siversky Donets River, over the weekend when Ukrainian troops pulled out after weeks of intense bombardments and street fighting.

Missiles hit a bridge in the central city of Cherkasy linking western Ukraine and the eastern battlefields on Sunday, Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Monday he would take a decision nearer to the time whether to attend the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia in November if Russian President Vladimir Putin also attends.