| Translate This News In |
|---|
On Monday, Russia launched its long-awaited full-scale ground operation to retake control of Ukraine’s east, attacking over a broad front stretching over 300 miles (480 kilometres), according to Ukrainian officials, signalling the start of a new and potentially decisive phase of the conflict. In a televised address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared, “Russian soldiers have initiated the struggle for the Donbas.” “”A substantial section of the Russian army is currently concentrated on this attack,” he said. The Donbas is Ukraine’s predominantly Russian-speaking industrial heartland in the east, where Moscow-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian forces for the past eight years and established two separate republics that Russia recognises. Following the failure of its attempt to overrun Kyiv in recent weeks, the Kremlin designated the Donbas to be the war’s principal objective. Following its withdrawal from the capital, Russia began reorganising and bolstering its ground forces in the east in preparation for an all-out assault.
“We will fight no matter how many Russian forces are sent there,” Zelenskyy declared. “We’re going to fight back.” Every day, we shall do it.” The operation began after Russia pounded Lviv, Ukraine’s western city, as well as a slew of other targets across the nation, in what appeared to be a renewed effort to whittle down the country’s defences. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces, according to the Ukraine military’s general staff, are expanding assaults in the Donbas’ Luhansk and Donetsk areas, as well as in the Zaporizhzhia region.”No matter how many Russian forces are driven there, we will fight,” Zelenskyy said. “Every day, we will protect ourselves.” The offensive began after Russia bombarded the western city of Lviv and a number of other locations around Ukraine in what appeared to be an intensified effort to erode the country’s defences.According to the Ukraine military’s general staff, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces are expanding their assaults in the Luhansk and Donetsk areas, both of which are part of the Donbas, as well as in the Zaporizhzhia region.
According to a Ukrainian military official, street fights have erupted in Kreminna, and evacuation is difficult. According to Serhiy Haidai, the regional military administrator for Luhansk, heavy artillery fire put seven residential buildings on fire and targeted the sports centre where the nation’s Olympic team practises. Haidai later informed Ukrainian media that Russians took control of the city after “levelling everything to the ground,” so his soldiers evacuated to regroup and continue fighting. Meanwhile, in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Denys Prokopenko, commander of the Azov Regiment of the Ukrainian National Guard, said in a video message that Russia had started dropping bunker-buster bombs on the Azovstal steel plant, where the regiment was holed up, against Russian forces.
The enormous factory is home to a maze of tunnels where both fighters and civilians can seek refuge. It is thought to be the final major pocket of resistance in the destroyed city. At least seven people were reported killed in missile strikes on Lviv, a city near the Polish border that has witnessed only occasional bombardment in nearly two months of war and has become a safe haven for citizens fleeing the fighting elsewhere. Lviv has also become a significant gateway for NATO-supplied armaments, much to the chagrin of the Kremlin. According to the governor of the region, Maksym Kozytskyy, the attack on Lviv targeted three military infrastructure buildings and an auto business.He claimed that among the injured was a child. According to Mayor Andriy Sadovyi, a Lviv hotel that housed Ukrainians fleeing war in other parts of the nation was also heavily damaged.
The city’s population has grown as a result of old people, mothers, and children fleeing the fighting. “The nightmare of war has caught up with us even in Lviv,” said Lyudmila Turchak, who escaped from Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine with two children. “There is no longer a single place in Ukraine where we may feel safe.” Lviv, the largest city in western Ukraine and a significant transportation centre, is roughly 80 kilometres (50 miles) from Poland, a NATO member. Russia has expressed strong opposition to the escalating transfer of Western weapons to Ukraine, warning that such assistance could have unintended effects.Some Russian official media anchors have claimed that the supplies amount to direct Western involvement in the struggle against Russia. According to residents, a strong explosion also jolted Vasylkiv, a town south of Kyiv that is home to an airbase.
The nature of the strike was not immediately apparent. According to Associated Press journalists on the ground, Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, was pounded by shelling that killed at least three people. One of the deceased was a woman who appeared to be going out to gather rainwater. She was discovered with a water canister and an umbrella by her side. According to military analysts, Russia is expanding its strikes on weapons facilities, railroads, and other infrastructure in preparation for its assault on the Donbas.
According to the official, four US cargo flights arrived in Europe on Sunday with a first delivery of weaponry and other materiel for Ukraine as part of a $800 million package agreed by Washington last week. Ukrainian servicemen would be trained on US 155 mm howitzers in the next days. The capture of Mariupol, where Ukraine says 21,000 people have been killed, is considered as critical, and not just because it would deprive Ukraine of a major port and complete a land bridge between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, which Ukraine took in 2014.According to a US defence official, if Russian forces successfully take full control of Mariupol, roughly a dozen battalion tactical groups might be freed up for use elsewhere in the Donbas.
