President Volodymyr Zelensky said "a stalemate is not an option" for Ukraine as he once again appealed to the West to send more and better weapons to help defeat the Russians and end the Kremlin's grinding invasion.
Speaking at conference organized by the Financial Times newspaper, Zelensky said the ultimate victory would be for Ukraine to regain "all of our territory," including areas that were under the control of Moscow before the full-scale invasion was launched on February 24.
In the meantime, the president said a "serious temporary victory" would be pushing back Russian and allied forces to where they were prior to the assault that started 104 days ago.
Zelensky said that "victory must be achieved on the battlefield," but that Ukraine remained open to meeting with Russia at the negotiating table.
Ukraine needed the "abiding" support of the West, he said, repeating his call for heavier and more sophisticated weaponry to be delivered quickly.
"We are inferior in terms of equipment and, therefore, we are not capable of advancing," he told the Financial Times. "We are going to suffer more losses and people are my priority."
The Russian onslaught and Ukrainian counter-offensives has for weeks been centred in the eastern area known as the Donbass.
Poland is in the process of signing a wide-ranging treaty for the delivery of weapons to Ukraine, said Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
The deal is "one of the biggest, if not the biggest weapons export deal of the last 30 years," he said after a visit to the south-eastern Polish armaments company Huta Stalowa Wola.
The United States, Britain and Germany all recently said they would provide Ukraine with up-to-date equipment - including anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems - but Kiev has expressed exasperation at the amount of time it takes for the weapons to arrive in the country.
Russia has been making incremental gains in the Donbass, despite fierce Ukrainian resistance.
The Defence Ministry in Moscow claimed on Tuesday that Russian forces were in control of all residential areas of Severodonetsk, a heavily contested industrial city. The next step was to capture all of the city and the surrounding villages.
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said that 6,500 Ukrainian soldiers had been taken captive so far during the war.
He also said Russian troops had destroyed 50 pieces of military hardware from abroad, including armoured vehicles and howitzers, during the past 10 days.
Meanwhile, at least three people were killed and six others injured due to Russian shelling in the eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv, the regional governor said.
Russian troops had fired on Kharkiv as well as several nearby villages, Governor Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram. "The enemy is not able to break the resistance of our defenders. Instead, the occupiers are proceeding with terror, firing at unarmed people."
In the community of Bashtanka, located in the southern Ukrainian region of Mykolaiv, two people were killed and three injured in Russian missile attacks, the local prosecutors' office said.
In the city of Mykolaiv, the administrative centre of the region of the same name, loud explosions were heard, according to Ukrainian media.
