Russia has begun its anticipated large-scale offensive operation in the eastern Donbass region of Ukraine, officials said Monday, marking a new phase in the nearly two-month-long war.
Ukraine has been bracing for a new onslaught from Russian forces since troops pulled back from the capital of Kyiv and other cities in the country’s north in late March, in order to refocus its efforts on the eastern flank. “Now we can state that the Russian forces have started the battle of the Donbass that they have been getting ready for for a long time,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address.
Ukraine’s national security council secretary Oleksiy Danilov said the offensive began Monday morning, with Russian forces attacking “along almost the entire front line” in the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces of the Donbass. “Our military is defending, we are not surrendering our territories,” Danilov said on social media.
He echoed his statement in televised comments on Ukrainian media channels. Read more: Ukrainian forces dig in as showdown with Russia in eastern Ukraine looms Ukrainian officials said Russian shelling killed four people in the eastern Donetsk region earlier on Monday, while a man and a woman were killed in Kharkiv when shells hit a playground near a residential building.