The pleas came as the Russian army said its troops had launched an offensive in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region, where fighting intensified this week after several months of an almost frozen front.
In its daily report Saturday, Moscow's forces said they had carried out "offensive operations" in the region and claimed to have "taken more advantageous lines and positions".
Russia also said it had held a training exercise on repelling air attacks in the Moscow region, using an S-300 anti-aircraft missile system.
Ukraine's defence ministry reported 26 air strikes and 15 attacks from multiple-launch rocket systems Saturday.
"The enemy does not abandon its aggressive plans, focusing its main efforts on attempts to fully occupy the Donetsk region," on Ukraine's border with Russia, it said.
FUNERAL
In Kyiv, Zelenskyy attended the funeral of his interior minister and other officials killed in a helicopter crash outside the capital Wednesday.
The seven coffins were hoisted into the echoing hall in central Kyiv by military pallbearers in full ceremonial dress, to the sound of a lone trumpet and a snare drum.
Denys Monastyrsky, one of Zelenskyy's top aides, is the highest-ranking Ukrainian official to die in the war that Russia launched on February 24, 2022.
Zelenskyy and his wife Olena Zelenska wore all black and carried floral tributes.
"Ukraine is losing its best sons and daughters every day," Zelenskyy said in a statement.
"It hurts to think about it, it hurts to talk about it now," he added in his evening address.
The cause of the crash that killed him and 13 others when the chopper fell near a kindergarten is still being investigated.
US officials said Ukraine still faced an uphill battle against Russian forces who occupy one-fifth of the country 11 months after invading.
But they spoke of a possible Ukrainian counter-offensive in the coming weeks to retake parts of its territory.
But the Kremlin warned Friday that Western tanks would make little difference on the battlefield.
MEDIA WARS
"One should not exaggerate the importance of such supplies in terms of the ability to change something," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
On the media front, Russian news agencies quoted foreign ministry sources saying Moscow would retaliate against French media in Russia after the bank accounts of RT France, the French arm of its state broadcaster, were frozen.
Hours later, the director of RT France announced that it would be shutting down in France following the assets freeze.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiZGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNoYW5uZWxuZXdzYXNpYS5jb20vd29ybGQvdWtyYWluZS1zYXlzLWdsb2JhbC1pbmRlY2lzaW9uLWtpbGxpbmctbW9yZS1vdXItcGVvcGxlLTMyMjM0MjHSAQA?oc=5
2023-01-21 22:54:00Z
CBMiZGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNoYW5uZWxuZXdzYXNpYS5jb20vd29ybGQvdWtyYWluZS1zYXlzLWdsb2JhbC1pbmRlY2lzaW9uLWtpbGxpbmctbW9yZS1vdXItcGVvcGxlLTMyMjM0MjHSAQA
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