‘DONBAS ASSAULTS INTENSIFYING’
13 people killed in Russian shelling of civilian infrastructure in eastern region, says Ukraine
RUSSIAN forces intensified their offensive in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region using artillery, rocket-launchers and aircraft to damage defences around Donetsk, Ukraine’s general staff said on Friday.
“The Russian enemy carried out massive artillery shelling of civilian infrastructure, including multiple rocket-launchers,” it said.
Russian shelling in Luhansk, also in the Donbas region, killed 13 civilians, said regional governor Serhiy Gaidai, adding that 12 of them were killed in the town of Sievierodonesk, where a Russian assault had been unsuccessful.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor-General Office said 232 children had been killed and 427 wounded since the start of the Russian invasion.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports and Russia denies targeting civilians.
The industrial Donbas region, the focus of recent Russian offensives, had been destroyed, said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as some of the world’s richest countries pledged to bolster Kyiv with billions of dollars.
Since turning away from the capital, Russia is using massed artillery and armour to try to capture more territory in the Donbas, comprised of the Donetsk and Luhansk areas, which Moscow claims on behalf of separatists.
“The occupiers are trying to exert even more pressure. It is hell there — and that is not an exaggeration,” Zelenskyy said in an address on Thursday, adding that there were also “constant strikes” on the Odesa region in the south.
“The Donbas is completely destroyed,” he said.
Moscow calls its invasion a “special military operation” to rid Ukraine of fascists, an assertion Kyiv and its Western allies say is a baseless pretext for an unprovoked war.
Russia is likely to reinforce its operations in the Donbas region once it secures the southern port city of Mariupol, scene of a weekslong siege, British military intelligence said.
As the invasion nears the threemonth mark, the United States Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly approved nearly US$40 billion in new aid for Ukraine, by far the largest US aid package to date.
The Group of Seven rich nations agreed to provide Ukraine with US$18.4 billion. Ukraine said the money would speed up victory over Russia and was as important as “the weapons you provide”.
The White House was working to put advanced anti-ship missiles in the hands of Ukrainian fighters to help defeat Russia’s naval blockade, officials said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Russia of using food as a weapon by holding “hostage” supplies for not just Ukrainians, but also millions around the world.
The war has caused global prices for grains, cooking oils, fuel and fertiliser to soar.