Kyiv: Russia has launched a major attack on East Ukraine, the authorities in Kyiv said, opening the new phase of the invasion after being thwarted in an effort to capture the capital.
In recent weeks, Moscow’s military campaign has focused back in the eastern region of Donbas, which is partly by Pro-Kremlin separatists partially controlled since 2014.
“We can now confirm that Russian troops have started the battle for Donbas, which they have prepared for a long time,” said President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said on the telegram Monday night.
“No matter how many Russian soldiers are brought here, we will fight. We will defend themselves.”
In front of advances that are widely anticipated, Ukrainian authorities urged people in Donbas to escape west.
“The second phase of the war has begun,” said President Chief of Staff Kyiv Andriy Yermak.
Control Donbas will allow Moscow to make the southern corridor into the occupied Crimean Peninsula.
In the south of the region, Russia continued the urge to capture the port city of Mariupol, where the last remaining Ukrainian forces had taken the last stand.
But despite the desperate situation in the city, a senior official of the US Department of Defense said Mariupol was “still contested”.
Russia has also added 11 tactical battalion groups – consisting of, among other things, artillery, helicopters, and logistical support – to its troops in East Ukraine, officially more, bringing a total of 76 in the country.
Monday also saw the first shipment of new US military assistance packages arrived at the Ukrainian border to be handed over in his struggle against Russian invasion.
The United States on April 13 launched $ 800 million Tranche equipment for Ukraine, including helicopters, howitzers and armored personnel carriers.
Attack throughout Ukraine
Moscow’s forces on Monday pounded targets throughout the country, killed at least seven people in the far Lviv city.
Lviv has largely become a surviving bombing because Russia invaded on February 24, and the city and its surroundings have become a paradise for those who are looking for salvation from the war zone.
But “Today we clearly understand that we do not have a safe place in Ukraine. It’s very dangerous,” a bank employee who gave his name Natalia told AFP after a strike.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said that Monday had reached 16 military targets throughout Ukraine.
Among the sites that were beaten were depots near Lviv that Moscow said the weapons were recently conveyed to Ukraine from the United States and Europe.
In short, before Zelensky’s address, regional governor of Lugansk Sergiy Gaiday also announced the initial Russian attacks that were widely anticipated.
“It’s hell. Offensif has begun, which we have talked about for weeks. There are continuous battles in Rubizhne and Popasna, fighting in other peace cities,” he said on Facebook.
Russian shootings killed at least eight civilians in East Ukraine, according to local authorities.
Gaiday said four people died when they tried to escape from Kreminna City in Lugansk because Russian troops moved.
“The Russian army has entered there, with many military hardware … our defenders have retreated to a new position,” Gaiday said in a statement on social media.
But the adviser of the Oleksiy Ukrainian President Arestovich said Russian troops did not conquer the city.
Ukrainian officials on Monday stopped the evacuation of civilians from the city for the front line and cities in the east for the second day, accusing Russian forces to block and peel the runaway route.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk urged Moscow to open the humanitarian corridor from Mariupol to a shirts and from the Industrial Zone of the Azovstal Metallurgy – shelter for Ukrainian fighters.
“Your refusal to open this humanitarian corridor will, in the future, is the reason for demanding everything involved in war crimes,” he said in the telegram.