RUSSIA intensified shelling of towns in Ukrainian-held parts of Donetsk and Lugansk today, killing and wounding dozens of civilians.

Its troops also redoubled their assault on the Azovstal steel mill in occupied Mariupol.

Claims and counter-claims over Moscow’s aims traded as the Kremlin dismissed speculation that it intended to declare war on Ukraine on May 9, the anniversary of Nazi Germany’s surrender to the Soviet Union. 

So far, the invasion has been termed a “special operation” by the Russian government and Russians have faced penalties for even referring to it as a war, but a formal declaration of war would be necessary if it wished to order a general mobilisation.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky struck an upbeat tone speaking to US CEOs, claiming Ukraine had halted the Russian offensive in “stage one” of the conflict and would move to stage two, expelling Russian troops from its territory. Stage three would mean “fully restoring territorial integrity,” presumably a reference to restoring Ukrainian control over the separatist Donetsk and Lugansk “people’s republics” and the Crimean peninsula.

He would not agree any ceasefire that left Russian troops occupying Ukrainian land, he declared in a hardened position from that expressed earlier in peace talks, where he had agreed an international mechanism to determine the future of the Donbass and Crimea was necessary.

The EU announced plans for a sweeping ban on Russian oil in a tightening of sanctions, though Hungary and Slovakia, which have no alternative sources of oil, are likely to be granted exemptions.

But a ban on gas imports remains beyond reach, with German trade unions and business leaders saying it would trigger a European recession.

The EU did slap sanctions on the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, who hit back at the Pope for referring to him as “Putin’s altar boy” for supporting the war.

The Pope made the remarks in an interview in which he also rebuked Nato for “barking at the door” of Russia, saying it was a factor in the build-up to war.

The first US F-35 warplanes have arrived to replace older F-16s in patrolling eastern Europe, the US air force said, though pilot Lieutenant-Colonel John “Rocky” McRae insisted: “We’re not there to start anything.”