Russian forces step up shelling

KYIV, May 23 (AP): Russian forces have stepped up shelling in Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland as they press their offensive in the region that is now the focus of fighting in the 3-month-old war.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian court is expected to sentence a Russian soldier on Monday in the first war crimes trial of the conflict. The 21-year-old sergeant, who has pleaded guilty to shooting a Ukrainian man in the early days of the war, could get life in prison.
Grinding battles in the Donbas, where Ukrainian and Russian forces are fighting town by town, have forced many civilians to flee their homes.
"We haven't been able to see the sun for three months. We are almost blind because we were in darkness for three months," said Rayisa Rybalko, who hid with her family first in their basement and then in a bomb shelter at the local school before fleeing their village of Novomykhailivka. "The world should have seen that."
Her son-in-law Dmytro Khaliapin said heavy artillery pounded the village. "Houses are being ruined," he said. "It's a horror."
In Tokyo on Monday, U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida joined in condemning Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Earlier on his trip to Asia, Biden signed legislation granting Ukraine $40 billion more in U.S. support for its defense against the Russian attack.
Polish President Andrzej Duda traveled to Kyiv on Sunday to support Ukraine's European Union aspirations and addressed Ukraine's parliament, receiving a standing ovation when he thanked the lawmakers for letting him speak where "the heart of a free, independent and democratic Ukraine beats."
Poland has become an important ally of Ukraine, welcoming millions of Ukrainian refugees and becoming a gateway for Western humanitarian aid and weapons and a transit point for some foreign fighters who have volunteered to fight Russian forces.
Western support - both financial and military - has been key to Ukraine's defense, helping their outgunned and outnumbered forces to repel Russia's attempt to take the capital of Kyiv and fight them to a standstill in other places.
In the face of those setbacks, Moscow has outlined more limited goals in Ukraine, with its sights now on trying to expand the territory that Russia-backed separatists have held since 2014.
Ukrainian forces dug in around Sievierodonetsk, the main city under Ukrainian control in the Luhansk province of the Donbas, as Russia intensified efforts to capture it. Gov. Serhiy Haidai accused the Russians of "simply intentionally trying to destroy the city ... engaging in a scorched-earth approach."