Ukrainian soldier fire a mortar on the front line in Bakhmut.
Air-raid sirens rang out across Ukraine on February 4 as Ukrainian defenders came under renewed Russian attacks in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk over the past 24 hours.
The alert was declared for the whole territory of the country for a second day in a row, after two similar ones were canceled on February 3 without any massive Russian strikes on civilian and infrastructure targets being reported.
Amid warnings that a massive Russian offensive is in the making as Moscow's unprovoked invasion nears the one-year mark, the military said fighting had intensified in the Donbas.
"The enemy continues offensive operations in the Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiyivka, and Novopavlivka areas [of Donetsk], suffering heavy losses," Ukraine's General Staff said in its report.
Battles have been raging for months for the city of Bakhmut, where waves of Russian attackers are piling increasing pressure on the Ukrainian forces.
Witnesses have told RFE/RL that street fighting is under way in Bakhmut, with building-by-building combat on the outskirts of the city.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on February 3 that Ukrainian forces will continue their fight to hold on to Bakhmut.
"Nobody will give away Bakhmut. We will fight for as long as we can. We consider Bakhmut our fortress," Zelenskiy said as he hosted European Union leaders to discuss Kyiv's desire to join the bloc and an additional sanctions package.
Zelenskiy's comments come after U.S. media reports saying the United States had advised Ukraine to withdraw from Bakhmut. U.S. officials quoted by Bloomberg said this would allow Kyiv to gather forces for a spring offensive.
The General Staff said on February 4 that the Ukrainian military also repelled Russian attacks in the Grekivka, Nevske, Kreminna, and Dibrova settlements in the Luhansk region.
Russian forces carried out 20 air strikes and three missile strikes, the military said, targeting civilian infrastructure of the Kharkiv and Mykolayiv regions, causing civilian casualties.
Zelenskiy said Ukrainian forces "have a chance" of beating back a looming Russian offensive if supplied with the right Western weapons.
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"If weapon [supplies] are accelerated, specifically long-range weapons, not only will we not abandon Bakhmut but we will also begin to remove the [Russian] occupiers from the Donbas," he said.
Zelenskiy said European sanctions should aim to ensure Russia cannot rebuild its military capability.
The United States on February 3 announced a fresh $2.2 billion package of military aid for Ukraine that will include rockets with a range twice the distance of the rockets Ukraine now has.
The Ground-Launched Small-Diameter Bomb (GLSDB) is included in the package announced by the Pentagon.
GLSDBs have a range roughly double that of the High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) already supplied.
Kyiv is requesting more powerful modern weapons, including F-16 fighter jets, even after securing pledges from its Western allies to send tanks as its forces brace for an expected new Russian onslaught in the east.
The EU announced on February 3 that it is ramping up its military training mission for Ukraine, raising it from an initial target of 15,000 troops to up to 30,000.
