Russia launches its battle for the Donbas
Huge offensive begins after failure to take Kyiv, says Zelensky
RUSSIA last night launched its long-awaited offensive in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
In a video message, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said: ‘We can now confirm that Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas. A large part of the Russian army is now dedicated to this offensive.’
After failing to take the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Moscow moved its ground forces east in preparation for the assault.
The Russian offensive came as air strikes killed seven people in the western city of Lviv, which has until now been a safe haven for families fleeing the fighting. They were the first civilian fatalities in the city since the war broke out.
Lviv has been a refuge for 200,000 displaced Ukrainians who have fled the bloodshed elsewhere in the country. The Russian missiles also wounded at least 11 people, including a three-year-old child.
Just days ago, Lviv’s cafes and restaurants were bustling with customers ahead of a governmentimposed 11pm curfew.
Locals even ignored air raid sirens yesterday, having been lulled into a false sense of security by the lack of military activity on Ukraine’s western frontier.
Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovyi warned that there were no longer any ‘safe’ or ‘unsafe’ areas left in Ukraine as Moscow launched a renewed assault in the eastern Donbas region.
‘What we see today is genocide. It’s a deliberate action by the aggressor to kill peaceful civilians,’ he said. ‘All our cities and villages are in the same situation.’
Maksym Kozytskyy, the regional governor of Lviv, said it was ‘barbaric’ for Russia to attack facilities that were ‘completely civilian’.
Thick plumes of black smoke bellowed over a residential area in the city, which is just 40 miles from the border with Poland, and nearby windows were blown out. Missiles appeared to land near Lviv’s main train station, sparking speculation the Kremlin was trying to choke arms and aid supplies to the rest of the country.
A 21-year-old Lviv resident, who gave his name only as Andrei, said he was sleeping when the sirens began wailing at 8am.
‘I slept through the first three strikes, but then when the last one hit, it was like my windows were about to break, and the furniture moved,’ he said.
Lyudmila Turchak, who fled with her two children from the eastern city of Kharkiv, said: ‘The nightmare of war has caught up with us even in Lviv.
‘There is no longer anywhere in Ukraine where we can feel safe.’
Moscow claimed the air strikes were in retaliation for alleged Ukrainian attacks on Russian soil.
The Russian defence ministry said they had also struck military facilities in the cities of Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, as well as the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions and the southern port of Mykolaiv. It came as nuclear bombers were spotted flying over western Russia. The planes were seen in the Kaluga and Smolensk regions, which are within striking distance of Ukraine.
General Lord Richard Dannatt, a former head of the British Army, told Sky News that yesterday’s air strikes were part of a ‘softeningup’ campaign by Russia ahead of an increased military offensive.
He added: ‘We have to accept that this is not going to be conflict that is ended in days and weeks. It is going to be a conflict that grinds on for months, and possibly years.’