Ukrainian leader Zelensky pursuing closer cooperation with European Union

Ukraine will work to ramp up its cooperation with European institutions this year, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday after meeting European Parliament President Roberta Metsola who travelled to Ukraine.

"The task is to actively prepare everything for our country's membership in the European Union, increase arms deliveries to Ukraine and strengthen sanctions against Russia," Zelensky said in his daily video address.

Zelensky has repeatedly called for a faster pace for accession negotiations with the EU and held talks with Metsola on the sidelines of a conference in Lviv.

The event focussed on uncovering Russian crimes committed during the past year since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion, but also rehabilitation for the victims of the violence, Zelensky said. Those affected must be given the chance to return to their normal lives, he stressed.

Meanwhile, Metsola called for an expansion of arms deliveries to the Ukrainian armed forces.

"Member states should seriously consider sending fighter jets to Ukraine," Metsola said on the sidelines of the Lviv conference. She said she would continue to call for providing all the equipment Ukraine needed for victory.

Referring to Ukraine's aspiration to join the European Union, Metsola said she hoped accession negotiations could begin as early as this year. She said she was impressed by the pace at which the country was making progress.

Alongside Zelensky, she also met Ukrainian Speaker of Parliament Ruslan Stefanchuk and together they laid flowers at a monument to fallen soldiers.

After the meetings, Ukrainian officials said the leaders had also discussed Metsola's meeting with Zelensky, the Ukrainian side said that one of the topics discussed was the "peace formula" proposed by Kyiv and the prospects for a peace summit with broad participation of the countries of the Global South. In addition, the Ukrainian president had assured that he would meet the demands of the EU.

Metsola also joined the international conference "United for Justice," which focuses on how Russia can be held accountable for aggression against Ukraine.

Commenting on the conference, Metsola said that without accountability, freedom and justice, there can be no peace. "Appeasement has never worked," she added.

As officials spoke about the future, further south, emergency workers pulled the body of a baby girl from the remains of a building in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhya that collapsed after a Russian missile attack earlier in the week, bringing the death toll from the attack to 11.

The baby "died together with her family," the Civil Defence officials said.

The Kremlin illegally annexed the area of Zaporizhzhya but has yet to overpower the regional capital of the same name.

The front line of fighting runs less than 50 kilometres from the city, which is targeted relatively frequently with missile and artillery attacks.

Meanwhile, Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu inspected the front in the eastern Ukrainian war zone, according to official sources in Moscow.

Shoigu listened to the situation report at a forward command point in the Donbas region and awarded servicemen and servicewomen, the ministry announced on its Telegram channel.

"The awards are deserved and earned, you are fighting properly. A lot of work lies ahead," Shoigu said during the ceremony.

Russia launched its full-scale war against Ukraine more than a year ago. Visits from Moscow's leadership to the front lines, however, have been relatively rare, compared to Ukrainian officials.

Zelensky, Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny and the head of the land forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, regularly appear at contested sections of the front like Bakhmut.

The situation of the Ukrainian defenders in the embattled town of Bakhmut is becoming increasingly precarious, according to British intelligence.

Bakhmut has become a Ukrainian outpost threatened by Russian attacks from three sides, the daily briefing by the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) said on Saturday.

Russian forces and fighters from the mercenary group Wagner are said to have taken control of the northern suburbs of the town, according to the British. The Ukrainian army was now deploying elite units in Bakhmut, the report added.

In the 36 hours before, two bridges had been destroyed, including a connecting bridge important for transport and supplies, which led from Bakhmut to the town of Chasiv Yar. Transport routes under Ukrainian control are becoming increasingly scarce.

The Russian military has been trying to capture the town for weeks. The head of Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said on Friday that his fighters had almost completely surrounded the town. The information could not be independently verified.

As Kyiv seeks to fend off the Kremlin's attacks, Saudi Arabia sent $100 million worth of humanitarian aid, including generators that are desperately needed after waves of Russian missile strikes on power generation facilities.

"Among the relief, goods were 135 powerful generators with 20 to 400 kilowatts of power, thermal blankets and hygiene materials," the head of Ukraine's presidential office, Andriy Yermak, wrote on his Telegram channel. Kyiv is extremely grateful for the aid, he said.

According to Yermak, the goods that arrived in the country on three transport planes will be distributed to six Ukrainian regions where they will benefit thousands of people.

"The humanitarian aid is a sign of the solidarity and support that exists between our states," Yermak added.

The Saudi aid also has great symbolic importance, as Kyiv and its Western allies continue to vie with Moscow for support in other regions of the world, including the Middle East.