French foreign minister to meet President Zelensky in Kyiv on Monday

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna will visit the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on Monday for talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to a statement from the foreign ministry in Paris.

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna. REUTERS - PHILIPPE WOJAZER

"The minister wants to show France's solidarity with the Ukrainian people and its full determination to reinforce its support, from a humanitarian and financial point of view, as well as in terms of supplying defence equipment," the statement said.

Talks between Colonna and Zelensky are expected to focus on ways of relieving the Russian blockade on the export of cereal and oil-seed crops, a situation which is hampering the Ukrainian war effort and raising fears of food shortages.

Colonna will be the highest-ranking French official to visit Kyiv since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February last.

In addition to the capital, Colonna will visit the town of Bucha, where Russian troops have been accused of committing war crimes against the civilian population.

Russian eastern advance continues

Russian forces were meanwhile edging closer to the centre of the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk, despite fierce resistance, according to the regional governor.

"The Russians are advancing into the middle of Severodonetsk. The fighting continues. The situation is very difficult," the Lugansk regional governor Sergiy Gaiday said in a statement on social media on Monday.

Later on Monday, President Zelensky is to address European leaders meeting in Brussels for a special summit on the situation in Ukraine.

After failing to capture Kyiv in the early stages of the war, Russia has shifted its focus to the eastern Donbas region and is attempting to consolidate areas under its control.

"Severodonetsk's critical infrastructure is destroyed and 60 percent of damaged residential buildings cannot be restored," Gaiday said on Telegram.

The regional governor added that three doctors in the area were reported missing after their vehicle was discovered badly damaged, and that two volunteers had been targeted while driving.

Severodonetsk, with a pre-war population of around 100,000 people, is one of several important urban hubs that lie on Russia's path to capturing the entire Lugansk region, a key objective of Moscow's military.

Russian forces earlier said they had captured Lyman, a smaller town and former railway hub in the area, and are ramping up pressure on Severodonetsk and its sister city Lysychansk.