Siversk

Civilians continue to die across Ukraine as analysts warned that delays in U.S. military assistance would see Kiev struggle to fight off Russian offensives.

Russian shelling killed four people in the eastern Ukraine region of Donetsk, authorities said yesterday, as Moscow's forces aim to push deeper into the war-battered industrial region.

Russia said on Jan. 13 its forces had wrested control of the war-scarred town of Soledar in east Ukraine, its first claim of victory in months of battlefield setbacks, but Ukraine said fierce fighting was still under way.