Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has visited troops on the front line in Ukraine's north-eastern Kharkiv region, home to Ukraine's second-largest city, in his first official appearance outside Kyiv since the start of Russia's invasion on February 24.
"You risk your lives for us all and for our country," the President's office website cited him as telling the soldiers, adding that he handed out commendations and gifts.
"I feel boundless pride in our defenders," Mr Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post.
"Every day, risking their lives, they fight for Ukraine's freedom."
Mr Zelenskyy's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, wrote on the Telegram app that he had toured destroyed residential areas along with Mr Zelenskyy.
They discussed the prospect of rebuilding new homes, noting that their replacements had to be built with bomb shelters in place.
Mr Yermak added that 31 per cent of the Kharkiv region was currently occupied by Russia, and a further 5 per cent had been taken back by Ukrainian forces.
According to a statement from Mr Zelenskyy's press office, regional Governor Oleh Synyehubov told the President that Russian forces had destroyed over 2,100 apartment blocks, with the northern and eastern parts of the regional capital of Kharkiv particularly affected.
"The state must provide in terms of guarantees, and cities must find super projects and find the money."
'Liberation' of Donbas an 'unconditional priority'
The "liberation" of Ukraine's Donbas region was an "unconditional priority" for Moscow, while other Ukrainian territories should decide their future on their own, RIA news agency cited Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on Sunday.
"The liberation of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, recognised by the Russian Federation as independent states, is an unconditional priority," Mr Lavrov said in an interview with French TV channel TF1, according to RIA.
For the rest of the territories in Ukraine, "the people should decide their future in these areas," he said.
Ukrainian forces endured heavy artillery barrages on Sunday as they held off Russian attempts to capture Sievierodonetsk, the largest city Ukraine still controls in the eastern region of Luhansk, officials said.
In a Facebook post, Ukrainian forces in Donbas said they had been on the defensive all day on Sunday.
Russian forces fired on 46 communities in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, killing at least three civilians, wounding two others and destroying or damaging 62 civilian buildings.
Russian shelling also continued across several regions such as in Novy Buh in Mykolaiv and Sumy.
The city council in Novy Buh, in southern Ukraine, said on its Telegram channel that a Russian missile attack had caused considerable damage in the city centre.
Russian shelling has destroyed all of Sievierodonetsk's critical infrastructure, Mr Zelenskyy said, adding that Moscow's main aim right now was to take the city.
"Some 90 per cent of buildings are damaged. More than two-thirds of the city's housing stock has been completely destroyed. There is no telecommunication. There is constant shelling," he said in a televised speech.
The Ukrainian government meanwhile urged the West to provide it with more longer-range weapons in order to turn the tide of the war, now in its fourth month.
Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War in Washington said the Russians had still not managed to encircle Sievierodonetsk and the Ukrainian defenders had inflicted "fearful casualties" on them.
The Ukrainians were taking serious losses themselves, civilians as well as combatants, they said in a briefing paper.
Kalush Orchestra sells off Eurovision trophy
Ukraine's Kalush Orchestra, which won the Eurovision Song Contest earlier this month, raised $US900,000 ($1.2 million) for the country's military by selling the contest's trophy.
The group won Eurovision with their entry Stefania, surfing a wave of public support to claim an emotional victory that was welcomed by the country's President.
On Sunday the group sold the crystal microphone they were awarded in a Facebook auction led by Ukrainian TV presenter Serhiy Prytula.
The funds raised would be used to buy for the armed forces the PD-2 unmanned aerial system, which includes three aircraft and a ground control station, Mr Prytula said at the auction.
Heartbroken residents struggle to rebuild
Two million residents used to live in the Kyiv region before the war. It is believed half of them fled their homes amid the fighting.
With their cities and towns back in Ukrainian control, some of the displaced have now returned, but many have come back to find their homes heavily damaged or even destroyed.
Olga Chernenko's home, in the town of Irpin on the outskirts of Kyiv, burned down.
She gave a team of journalists a tour of the remains of the building where she lived almost all her life.
"It's painful for me," Ms Chernenko said.
With no other place to live, she has found a temporary shelter with friends, but she is at a loss for how to rebuild her home.
"I have only the hope that the government will help us," she said.
The local authorities, however, say they do not have the funding to repair enough private homes to house those without a roof over their heads.
About 26,000 houses were destroyed or damaged in the region during heavy fighting in February and March, according to Governor Oleksii Kuleba.
ABC/wires
