Major Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine
Mariupol defenders given new ultimatum to surrender or die
KYIV: Russian forces tried to push through Ukrainian defences along almost the entire front line in eastern Ukraine yesterday, launching what President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the “Battle of the Donbas”, the long-awaited second phase of the war.
A “very large part of the entire Russian army is now focused on this offensive,” Zelenskiy said in a video address overnight.
“No matter how many Russian troops they send there, we will fight. “We will defend ourselves.” Zelenskiy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak assured Ukrainians their forces could hold off the offensive.
“Believe in our army, it is very strong,” he said.
Meanwhile, in the besieged, ruined city of Mariupol, Russia gave the last Ukrainian defenders holed up in a giant steel works an ultimatum to surrender by noon or die.
“All who lay down their arms are guaranteed to remain alive,” the Defence Ministry said.
Russian-backed separatists said the pro-Moscow forces were preparing to storm the Azovstal factory, believed to be the last base of Ukrainian troops, who have survived the longest and most brutal siege of the war.
Driven back by Ukrainian forces in March from an assault on Kyiv in the north, Russia has poured troops in to the east to regroup for a ground offensive in two provinces known as the Donbas.
It has also been launching long-distance strikes at other targets, including the capital.
Ukrainian media reported explosions, some powerful, along the front line in the Donetsk region, with shelling taking place in Marinka, Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.
Blasts were also heard in Kharkiv in the northeast, Mykolaiv in the south and Zaporizhzhia in the southeast while air raid sirens were also going off in main centres near the front line, media said.
The governor of the Russian province of Belgorod said Ukrainian forces had struck a border village wounding one resident.
Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council secretary Oleksiy Danilov said Russian forces attempted to break through Ukrainian defences “along almost the entire front line of Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions”.
The coal and steel producing Donbas has been the focal point of Russia’s campaign to destabilise Ukraine since 2014 when the Kremlin used proxies to set up separatist “people’s republics” in Luhansk and Donetsk.
Ukrainian generals said Russian forces aimed to establish full control over the Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson, while intensifying missile strikes in west Ukraine. – Reuters