An update from the Wall Street Journal:

Russian Offensive Bears Down on Donbas as West Races to Supply Ukraine With More Weapons
Ukraine is reinforcing units as it also counterattacks southeast of Kharkiv

In the Donbas port city of Mariupol, besieged by Russian forces since late February, the remaining Ukrainian defenders warned that time was running out and asked to be evacuated to a third country, alongside the wounded and the civilians sheltering in the shrinking area under Ukrainian control. Russia has insisted on an unconditional surrender and kept pounding the Ukrainian forces—who are mostly holed up in the sprawling Azovstal steel plant—with artillery and airstrikes.

Ukraine’s General Staff said in its Wednesday briefing that Russian forces had tried to attack the Ukrainian-controlled part of Donbas from the north and northwest, with artillery barrages followed by probes of weak points in Ukrainian defenses all along the front line. After seizing the town of Kreminna over the weekend and advancing toward the villages of Torske and Zelena Dolyna, Russian forces are regrouping ahead of a renewed push toward the town of Lyman, northeast of one of the main cities in Ukrainian-held Donbas, Slovyansk, the Ukrainian military added.

Large cities in the east have rubble where large apartment buildings used to sand, but Ukrainians are thinking ahead:

Pointing out that a new development plan for London was designed in 1943, after the British capital was ravaged by Nazi bombing, Mr. Terekhov said that he now is working with British architect Norman Foster on a project to rebuild Kharkiv once the war ends.

Photos in the article are striking. Perhaps most awful is the fire rescue crew preparing to zip up a body bag to move to the vehicle. The only parts of the body in view are a hand, part of a pants leg, and most striking, a stream of blood running away from the body in the street's gutter.

They've been asking for weapons for weeks.

“If we had obtained in the first week of the war what we are receiving today, it would have been much more useful for Ukraine and the cause of freedom in Europe,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his Tuesday night address.

He notes that if that equipment arrives now it will save lives.

I suspect western powers thought Ukraine would crumble and weapons wouldn't be of use, only be captured. Now they're getting the idea Ukraine means business. Better late than never.