INTERNATIONAL: Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told state news agency RIA Novosti on Wednesday that Russia's military "tasks" in Ukraine now go beyond the eastern Donbas region.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday (July 20) that it makes no sense to resume peace talks with Kyiv at the moment, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

Lavrov said the geographical objectives of what Moscow calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine were no longer limited to the eastern Donbas region.

Lavrov also said Moscow's objectives will expand further if the West keeps supplying Kyiv with long-range weapons such as the U.S.-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS).

"That means the geographical tasks will extend still further from the current line," he said.

Ukrainian armed forces said on Thursday they had killed 111 Russian soldiers in the south and east over the past day, as comments from Russia's foreign minister showed the Kremlin's goals had grown during the five-month war.

Russia's invasion has killed thousands, displaced millions and flattened cities, particularly in Russian-speaking areas in the east and southeast of Ukraine. It has also raised global energy and food prices and increased fears of famine in poorer countries as Ukraine and Russia are both major grain producers.

The United States estimates that Russian casualties in Ukraine so far have reached around 15,000 killed and perhaps 45,000 wounded, CIA Director William Burns said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, concern that Russian supplies of gas sent through the biggest pipeline in Europe could be stopped by Moscow prompted the European Union to tell member states to cut gas usage by 15% until March as an emergency step.

"Russia is blackmailing us. Russia is using energy as a weapon," EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, describing a full cut-off of Russian gas flows as "a likely scenario" for which "Europe needs to be ready".

EU diplomats meeting in Brussels agreed a new round of sanctions against Moscow, including a ban on importing gold from Russia and freezing the assets of top lender Sberbank. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy dismissed the sanctions as inadequate.

"Russia must feel a much higher price for the war to force it to seek peace," Zelenskiy said in a late-night video address.

^{PHOTO: RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER SERGEI LAVROV COMMENTING ON RUSSIA-UKRAINE CONFLICT}