Kyiv, Ukraine — The European Union pledged on Friday to lend Ukraine up to 35 billion euros ($39 billion) as part of a loan package organized by the Group of Seven major industrial nations, as it seeks to help the country rebuild its economy and its war-shattered power grid.

The European Union will loan Ukraine up to €35 billion ($39 billion) to help rebuild its economy, the bloc’s executive arm announced Friday.

The capture of Ukrainsk underscored Russia’s steady advances in the Donetsk region. Ukraine is trying to counter with strikes on Russian military infrastructure.

Russia said it was working to repel a Ukrainian drone attack on Toropets, where there's a major military depot, as explosions lit up the night.

Russia targeted Ukrainian energy facilities and struck civilian infrastructure in overnight attacks, Ukrainian officials said on Thursday, and a U.N. monitoring body said Moscow's strikes on the power grid probably violated humanitarian law.

Russia said on Friday that its army would regain control of its Kursk region "in a timely manner", declining to say how soon this could be achieved. Ukraine on Aug. 6 launched the biggest foreign attack on Russia since World War Two,

Russia since World War Two, bursting through the border into the western Kursk region supported by swarms of drones and he