Ukraine’s Zelensky cancels foreign visits as Putin’s forces advance around Kharkiv

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has cancelled all his upcoming foreign trips as he looks to concentrate on Russia’s advance in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region.

It comes as US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced a new $2 billion (£1.6bn) weapons deal during a visit to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, before suggesting Washington could sign a bilateral agreement with Ukraine in the coming weeks.

Mr Blinken did not go into detail about what would be included in the latest pledge, which will be drawn from the $61bn package passed by Congress last month.

But during a press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, he said the US was focused on sending Patriot missile systems and other forms of critical air defence.

Mr Blinken said that the support for Ukraine comes at a "critical time" as the country faces a renewed Russian onslaught.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Ukrainian president met with senior military personnel, including commander-in-chief Oleksandry Syrskyi, to discuss the difficult situation in the Kharkiv region.

His press secretary Sergii Nykyforov announced on Facebook after the meeting that Mr Zelensky had “instructed that all international events scheduled for the coming days be postponed and new dates coordinated” so that he could focus on Kharkiv.

King Felipe of Spain had been due to hold a reception for Mr Zelensky on 17 May and host a meal in his honour. The Ukrainian President had also been expected  to sign a bilateral security cooperation agreement with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez following a joint declaration by Nato last year. He was later scheduled to visit neighbouring Portugal.

But the situation in Kharkiv has deteriorated quickly as Russian forces appear to have moved within artillery range of the city centre of the region’s namesake capital, where more than 1.3 million civilians are currently living.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, during his own meeting with top military generals, as well his new defence minister Andrei Belousov and his predecessor Sergei Shoigu, now the secretary of the security council, said the work of the military was "proceeding according to the plan".

Russia’s defence ministry claimed to have captured two more villages in the northernmost of their two attacks across the border into the Kharkiv region.

Kremlin troops have advanced nearly five miles towards the region’s capital since last Friday, when the first units of infantry rushed into the “grey zone”, a portion of land that was previously outside the control of both the Russian and Ukrainian forces.

The recent captures of the towns of Hlyboke and Lukyantsi mean that Putin’s forces have taken eight towns in that sector of fighting and an additional four in the neighbouring attack towards the small city of Vovchansk. According to DeepState, a Ukrainian war tracker, Russia’s forces have occupied a total of more than 50 square miles of land in the Kharkiv region in just six days.

Ukraine’s military, in its latest update, claimed that they had repelled multiple attacks along both sectors of fighting.

After a local Vovchansk police chief said Russian forces had “taken positions in the streets” of the town, Ukraine’s military said they had “expelled [Russian] forces … in the northern and northwestern suburbs”.

Ukrainian tracker DeepState said Russian forces were using artillery to “level everything to the ground” in the two areas of fighting.