Ukraine live: fighting intensifies in Sievierodonetsk, with fierce close-quarter combat

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy joined officials in Kharkiv on Sunday for his first visit to the eastern frontline since Russia's assault on the country began.

Meanwhile, fighting has intensified in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk, with Russian and Ukrainian troops trading blows in fierce close-quarter combat. Ukrainian officials claim that Russian artillery barrages have destroyed critical infrastructure and damaged 90% of the buildings in the city.

**Follow the latest developments on Monday in our live blog below.**

In Mariupol on Sunday, an aide to its Ukrainian mayor alleged that after Russia's forces gained complete control of the city they piled the bodies of dead people inside a supermarket. The aide, Petro Andryushchenko, posted a photo on the Telegram messaging app of what he described as a “corpse dump” in the occupied city. It showed bodies stacked alongside closed supermarket counters.

“Here, the Russians bring the bodies of the dead, which were washed out of their graves during attempts to restore the water supply, and partially exhumed. They just dump them like garbage,” he wrote.

It was not immediately possible to verify his claim.

(AP)

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy joined officials in Kharkiv on Sunday for his first visit to the eastern frontline since Russia's assault on the country began.

"I feel boundless pride in our defenders. Every day, risking their lives, they fight for Ukraine’s freedom,” Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram messaging app after the visit.

Russia has kept up its bombardment of the northeastern city from afar, and explosions could be heard shortly after Zelenskyy's visit. 

Shelling and airstrikes have destroyed more than 2,000 apartment buildings in the city since