Kiev, Ukraine (AP) – On Tuesday, Russian forces attacked a large front in eastern Ukraine as part of a massive ground offensive to take control of the country’s eastern industrial center, which Ukrainian officials called ” New stage of war. “. “”
Ukraine’s general staff said Russian forces were taking full control of the Donbas region. “The occupiers tried to break through our defenses on almost the entire front line,” staff said in a statement Tuesday morning.
Intensified attacks along more than 300 miles (480 kilometers) of the frontline began on Monday, focusing on the Donbass regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, where Russian forces tried to advance on several section, including from the neighboring Kharkiv region.
General staff in southern Donetsk said the Russian army continued to block and bomb the strategic port of Mariupol and fire rockets at other cities.
On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video speech that “a significant part of the entire Russian army is now focused on this attack.”
Moscow -backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces in the Russian -majority Donbas for eight years and have declared two independent republics recognized by Russia. Russia has declared the capture of the Donbas as its main goal since the war, after failing in the capital Kiev.
“No matter how many Russian soldiers retreat there, we will fight,” Zelensky promised. “We will defend ourselves”.
Luhansk regional military administrator Serhi Haidai said troops were fighting in the streets of Cremina on Monday before Russia took control of the city.
Haidai said that before advancing, Russian forces were “just beginning to level everything on the ground”. He said his forces retreated to reunite and continue fighting.
The Kremina breakthrough brings the Russians closer to the city of Slovyansk, considered the main target of Russia’s attack. Slovyansky was captured by pro-Russian fighters in 2014, but recaptured by Ukrainian forces a few months later after intense fighting.
Russian troops have already captured the city of Izium, located on the highway north of Slovyansk, and are ready to move towards the city from the north and east. Slovyansk is located north of another major city, Kramatorsk, where it killed more than 50 people before a Russian attack on a railway station.
On Monday morning, the secretary of the National Security Council of Ukraine, Olex Danilov, told the Ukrainian media that the defensive line was not interrupted elsewhere.
“Fortunately, our military can handle it,” Danilov said.
In Mariupol, Denis Prokopenko, commander of the Azov regiment of the Ukrainian National Guard, said in a video speech that Russia began firing bunker bombs at the Azovstal steel plant where the regiment was stationed.
The large factory contained tunnels where fighters and civilians took refuge. It is believed to be the last big pocket of resistance in a ruined city.
Russia besieged Mariupol and waged a bloody war to occupy it. If Russia takes Mariupol, it will free troops for use in the Donbass, take Ukraine as an important port, and complete the bridge between Russia and the Crimean peninsula, which Ukraine has occupied since 2014.
In western Ukraine, near the Polish border, at least seven people were killed in a missile attack in Lvov on Monday.
Lviv is a haven for civilians fleeing fighting elsewhere. Due to the growing anger of the Kremlin, the city has become the main gateway for weapons provided by NATO.
According to the governor of the region, Maxim Kozicki, the attack took place against three military infrastructure and a workshop.
Lviv Mayor Andrei Sadovi said the hotel was a haven for Ukrainians fleeing the fighting in other parts of the country.
“The nightmare of the war overcame us even in Lviv,” said Ludmila Turchak, who fled Kharkov to the east with her two children.
According to Associated Press reporters, Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkov, was bombed on Monday, killing at least three people. The sound of shelling was heard at night and Tuesday morning in the main eastern city, which has been hit several times but remains firmly under Ukrainian control.
Moscow said its missiles hit military targets in eastern and central Ukraine, including ammunition depots, command headquarters, and groups of troops and vehicles. He said his artillery hit hundreds of Ukrainian targets and military planes hit 108 soldiers and military equipment. Complaints cannot be verified independently.
General Richard Danat, a former British Army commander, told Sky News that Russia was launching a “softening” campaign before the attack on Donbass.
A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the Pentagon’s assessment of the war, said Russia now has 76 combat units in eastern and southern Ukraine, known as the Battalion Tactical Group, which was 65 last week. This could translate to approximately 50,000-60,000 troops, based on what the Pentagon said early in the war was a typical split of 700 to 800 troops.
Associated Press reporters Felipe Dana of Kharkov; Nico Maunis and Philip Crouter in Lviv, Ukraine; And Robert Burns contributed to this report in Washington, DC, as well as other AP staff members around the world.
Source: Huffpost
