Russia continued its offensive in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, after NATO declared Moscow the greatest "direct threat" to Western security and vowed to modernize Kyiv's embattled military.
"Constant warfare is occurring. Russia is perpetually on the offense. There is no relief in sight," the governor of the region Serhiy Gaidai disclosed on Ukrainian television.
Officials in Ukraine have stated that they are attempting to evacuate civilians from the eastern frontline city of Lysychansk, which is the target of Russia's attacks and where some 15,000 people remain under constant fire.
Oleskiy Arestovych, an adviser to the president of Ukraine, stated in an online video that Ukrainian soldiers were retaliating with their own artillery attacks in the southern area of Kherson.
During a conference on Wednesday that was overshadowed by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the resulting geopolitical upheaval, NATO asked Sweden and Finland to join and committed a sevenfold increase in combat forces on high alert along its eastern flank beginning in 2023.
President Vladimir Putin said that Russia would retaliate in kind if NATO established infrastructure in Finland and Sweden following their accession to the U.S.-led military alliance.
The Russian leader was quoted by Russian news outlets as stating he could not rule out the possibility of Moscow's relations with Helsinki and Stockholm becoming strained as a result of their NATO membership.
President Joe Biden of the United States announced the deployment of additional land, sea, and air forces across Europe, from Spain in the west to Romania and Poland bordering Ukraine.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg stated during a press conference, "President Putin's campaign against Ukraine has broken the peace in Europe and created the worst security crisis in the region since World War II."
The United Kingdom said that it will deliver an additional 1 billion pounds ($1.2 billion) in military aid to Ukraine, including air defence systems, unmanned aerial vehicles, and advanced electronic warfare technology.
While the 30 national NATO leaders met in Madrid, Russian forces stepped up assault in Ukraine, including missile strikes and shelling in the southern Mykolaiv region near the Black Sea.
The mayor of the Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv said that a Russian missile had killed at least five people in a residential building, while Moscow stated that its forces had struck a training facility for foreign mercenaries in the region.
