West needs more courage in helping in our fight LiVe:

Ukraine forces launch counterattack, reclaim several  villages

• West needs more courage in helping in our fight Live: 

Ukraine has reclaimed several villages from Russian forces in a series of counterattacks, including to the east of Kharkiv and northwest of Mariupol, after Russian missiles struck the western city of Lviv on Saturday.

Britain's defence ministry said on Sunday that the battlefield across northern Ukraine remains largely static as local Ukrainian counterattacks hamper Russian attempts to reorganise their forces. It said Russia's forces looked to be trying to encircle Ukrainian forces directly facing the separatist regions in the country's east. Moscow has claimed that its focus is on wresting the entirety of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region from Ukrainian control. The region has been partially controlled by Russia-backed separatists since 2014. A highranking Russian military of ficial said on Friday that troops were being redirected to the east from other parts of the country.

Despite those assertions, Russian rockets struck the western city of Lviv on Saturday while Biden visited neighbouring Poland, serving as a reminder that Moscow is willing to strike anywhere in Ukraine.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said on Sunday that it used air-launched cruise missiles to hit a fuel depot and a defence plant in Lyiv. Konashenkov said an other strike with sealaunched missiles destroyed a depot with air defence missiles in Plesetske just west of Ukraine's capital, Kyiv

Early Sunday a chemical smell still lingered in the air as firefighters in Lviv, about 72 km from Polish border, sprayed water on a burned section of an oil facility hit in the Russian attack

A security guard at the site, Yaroslav Prokopiv, said he saw three rockets strike and destroy two oil tanks but no one was hurt.

The third strike threw me to the ground," he said.

Russia's back-to-back airstrikes shook the city that has become a haven for an estimated 200,000 people who have fled bombarded towns and cities. Lviv also has been a way-station for most of the 3.8 million refugees have left Ukraine since Russia first invaded on February 24.

The city had been largely spared since the invasion began, although missiles struck an aircraft repair facility near the main airport a week ago.

In the dim, crowded bomb shelter under an apartment block a short way from the first blast site, Olana Ukrainets, a 34-year-old IT professional, said she couldn't believe she had to hide again after fleeing from

Kharkiv, one of the most bombarded cities of the war.

• West needs more courage in helping in our
• fightLiVe: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused the West of lacking courage as his country tights to stave off Russia's invasion, making an exasperated plea for fighter jets and tanks to sustain a defence in a conflict that has ground into a war of attrition. Speaking after US President Joe Biden met with senior Ukrainian officials in Poland on Saturday, Zelenskyy lashed out at the West's "ping-pong about who and how should hand over jets and other defensive.      weapons to us" while Russian missile attacks kill and trap civilians.ve talked to the defenders of Mariupol today. I'm in constant contact with them. Their determination, heroism and.         firmness are astonishing," Zelenskyy said early Sunday referring to the besieged southern city. "If only those who have been thinking for 31.    days on how to hand over dozens of jets and.      tanks had 1% of their courage Rucciale inine.      now in its 32nd day, has stalled in many areas, its aim to quickly enarde KVI and force its.                surrender faltering in face of staunch Ukrainian resistance.be weapons from the US and other.     Westem allies.