Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has implored European leaders to speed up and increase the supply of weapons, including long-range missiles and fighter jets, after a visit to the southern region of Kherson, where Ukrainian forces achieved a battlefield success last year.
Zelenskiy said delays in the delivery of long-range missiles and fighter jets could extend the war.
"Time is of the essence. Not just months and weeks, but days. The sooner we act together, the more lives we save," Zelenskiy said.
"If Europe hesitates, the evil may have time to regroup and prepare itself for years of war," he added, speaking in a video address on March 23 to European leaders that he recorded as he traveled by train to Kherson, which was recaptured by Kyiv in November 2022.
Speaking at a press conference after the meeting, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said any new sanctions against Russia would mostly crack down on evasion of previously imposed sanctions.
She also said the EU would work with other organizations to find Ukrainian children deported to Russia and press for their return.
"It is a horrible reminder of the darkest times of our history...to deport children. This is a war crime," she said.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) last week issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, a Russian children's rights official, for the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children.
Zelenskiy also welcomed the endorsement by EU foreign and defense ministers of a plan for sending Ukraine 1 million rounds of artillery ammunition within the next 12 months.
Earlier on March 23, Ukraine's military General Staff said it mistakenly announced the withdrawal of Russian forces from Nova Kakhovka in the southern Kherson region.
"The occupiers are still temporarily in Nova Kakhovka. Information about the alleged withdrawal of the enemy from this settlement was made public as a result of incorrect use of available data," the General Staff said on Telegram on March 23.
After the initial announcement, a Moscow-installed official in the Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, denied the withdrawal of Russian forces, saying all Russian military personnel deployed in Nova Kakhovka remained in place.
The earlier General Staff statement said the Russian forces left Nova Kakhovka as of March 22. It added that the Russian forces looted homes before they departed, taking large quantities of household and electronic appliances, jewelry, clothing, and mobile phones.
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Nova Kakhovka lies on the east bank of the Dnieper River, where Russian forces redeployed in November after abandoning positions on the west bank.
Kyiv's forces continue to battle Russian troops in the east amid what the Ukrainian military said were the first signs of Russian "exhaustion" in the fierce fighting for the city of Bakhmut.
Ukrainian defenders repelled 83 Russian attacks over the past 24 hours, most of them directed at Bakhmut, the city in the Donetsk region that has become the epicenter of Moscow's offensive in the east, the General Staff said in its morning bulletin on March 23.
Russians kept their pressure on other settlements in Donetsk, such as Lyman, Avdiyivka, Maryinka, and Shakhtarsk, the military said, adding that "the enemy is losing a significant amount of manpower, weapons, and military equipment."
The claims could not be independently verified.
General Oleksandr Syrskiy, commander of Ukraine's ground forces, said on March 23 that the Russians' relentless push in Bakhmut is beginning to take its toll on their strength and that Ukrainians are preparing to take advantage of their enemy's perceived weakness "very soon."
WATCH: Zaporizhzhya was one of several Ukrainian cities attacked on March 22 in Russia's latest wave of air strikes on the country. Several residential buildings were destroyed in the city, resulting in more than 30 casualties.
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"The aggressor has not given up hope of taking Bakhmut whatever the cost, despite losses in manpower and equipment. Russia's main fighting force in this area is the Wagner mercenary group," Syrskiy said on Telegram.
"Not sparing anything, they are losing significant strength and becoming fatigued. Very soon, we will take advantage of this opportunity, like we did near Kyiv, Kharkiv, Balaklia and Kupyansk," he said.
British military intelligence has also suggested that Moscow's relentless pressure on Bakhmut, which has been mostly turned to rubble, is beginning to lose momentum in the face of Ukraine's staunch defense amid serious losses sustained by both sides.
But Serhiy Cherevatiy, a spokesman for the Eastern Group of Ukraine's forces, cautioned that Bakhmut was still seeing intense combat.
"So far, Bakhmut remains the epicenter of hostilities, the main target of the enemy's attack," Cherevatiy told national television, answering a question about whether the Russian offensive near Bakhmut has weakened.
Cherevatiy added that the second-most intense fighting was taking place on the alignment between Kupyansk, in the Kharkiv region, and Lyman, in Donetsk.
WATCH: Residents who have remained in the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiyivka are now deciding to move somewhere safer as danger grows. The badly battered municipality has seen growing Russian artillery shelling. As the enemy makes small gains in areas around Avdiyivka, Ukrainian soldiers, medics, and police remain committed.
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Remaining Avdiyivka Residents Told To Evacuate Amid Russian Shelling
Meanwhile, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin does not appear to be interested in immediate peace and was engaged "in a war of attrition."
In an interview with The Guardian, the NATO chief said Putin was "reaching out to authoritarian regimes like Iran or North Korea and others to try to get more weapons."
He said Russia was boosting its military production capacity and cautioned that Ukraine's Western allies must be prepared to supply Kyiv with weapons, ammunition, and military equipment for a long period of time.
"President Putin doesn't plan for peace. He's planning for more war," Stoltenberg said.