LVIV, Ukraine (AP) – Russia on Monday launched a long -awaited full -scale offensive to take control of eastern Ukraine, attacking 300 miles (480 kilometers) from the wide front, Ukrainian officials said, marked the opening of Ukraine. A new and possible climatic stage of war.
“Russian troops have already started fighting for the Donbas,” Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said in a video speech. He said that “a significant part of the entire Russian army is now engaged in this attack”.
Donbass is Ukraine’s predominantly Russian-speaking industrial center in the east, where Moscow-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian forces for the past eight years and declared two independent republics recognized by Russia.
In recent weeks, the Kremlin has declared the capture of Donbass as the main target of the war after a failed attempt to attack Kiev. After the departure from the capital, Russia began to regroup and strengthen ground forces in the east for a comprehensive offensive.
“No matter how many Russian soldiers retreat there, we will fight,” Zelensky promised. “We will defend ourselves. We do this every day. “
The general staff of the Ukrainian army said that the forces of Russian President Vladimir Putin were stepping up attacks in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions – which are both parts of the Donbas – as well as in the Zaporizhia region.
“This morning, with almost the entire front line in the Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions, the occupiers tried to break our defenses,” Olek Danilov, secretary of the National Security Council of Ukraine, told Ukrainian media. “Fortunately, our military can handle it. They passed only two cities. It is Kremina and another small town.
He added: “We will not give up anyone from our territory.”
Meanwhile, in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Denis Prokopenko, commander of the Azov regiment of the Ukrainian National Guard fighting Russian forces, said in a video message that Russia had started firing bunker bombs on Azovstal steel. The factory where the regiment was trained.
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.
Last night and Monday, Russia bombed the western city of Lviv and several other targets across Ukraine in a seemingly escalating attempt to destroy the country’s defenses.
At least seven people were killed in a missile attack in Lviv, a city near the Polish border where only sporadic attacks occurred during the nearly two months of the war and became a haven for fleeing civilians. in battle elsewhere. Due to the growing anger of the Kremlin, Lviv has become the main gateway for weapons supplied by NATO.
According to the governor of the region, Maxim Kozicki, the attack in Lviv attacked three military infrastructures and a car shop. He said a child was among the injured.
The Lviv hotel was also badly damaged, housing Ukrainians who fled the war in other parts of the country, Mayor Andrei Sadovi said. The city saw a population of seniors, mothers and children trying to flee the war.
“The nightmare of the war overcame us even in Lviv,” said Ludmila Turchak, who fled to the eastern city of Kharkov with her two children. There is no place in Ukraine where we are safe.
Lviv, the largest city and major transportation hub in western Ukraine, is approximately 80 kilometers (50 miles) from NATO member Poland.
Russia strongly opposes the growing flow of Western arms into Ukraine and warns that such assistance could have repercussions. In the Russian state media, some presenters accused the forwarding as direct involvement of the West in the fight against Russia.
Residents said a powerful explosion occurred in Vasilkov, south of the city of Kiev, where there is an air base. It was not immediately clear what was hit.
Kharkov, Ukraine’s second largest city, has killed at least three people in an explosion, according to Associated Press reporters on the ground. One of the dead was a woman who was collecting water in the rain. A can of water and an umbrella were seen next to him.
Military analysts said Russia was stepping up attacks on arms factories, railways and other infrastructure prior to the attack on the Donbas.
Moscow said its missiles had hit more than 20 military facilities in eastern and central Ukraine in recent days, including ammunition depots, command headquarters, and troop and vehicle groups.
He also said his artillery hit another 315 Ukrainian targets and the military aircraft struck 108 rounds against troops 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 at the start of the war, which is typically a unit capacity of 700 to 800 troops, but it is difficult to determine the number at this stage of the battle.
The official also said four U.S. cargo flights arrived in Europe on Sunday with initial deliveries of weapons and other material to Ukraine as part of an 800 million dollar package announced by Washington last week. And in the coming days, Ukrainian personnel will be trained on the 155 mm American howitzer.
The capture of Mariupol, where approximately 21,000 people have been killed in Ukraine, is critical, and not only because it deprives Ukraine of a viable port and completes the bridge between Russia and the Crimean peninsula that was confiscated from Ukraine from in 2014.
A U.S. defense official said that if Russian forces succeed in taking full control of Mariupol, they could free nearly a dozen battalion combat groups for use in the Donbas.
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Associated Press reporters Niko Maunis and Philip Crowter in Lviv, Ukraine, Adam Shrek in Vasilkov, Ukraine, and Robert Burns in Washington, DC contributed to this report, as well as other AP staff members in the whole world.
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Source: Huffpost
