Ukrainian Donbus was “destroyed” as Russian artillery and aircraft intensified strikes

Article content

Kyiv-Russian troops attacked the area of ​​Donbus in eastern Ukraine from land and air, killing at least 13 civilians, Ukrainian troops said on Friday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack “attacked the area. He said he changed it to “hell.”

As the war approached three months, Russians were stepping up their efforts to conquer the Donbus region, the Ukrainian General Staff said.

The staff said in a statement that they had attacked civilian infrastructure with “massive” artillery, including multiple rocket launchers. Russian aircraft also attacked the target.

Article content

Russian bombardment in the Luhansk region of Donbas has killed 13 civilians in the last 24 hours, said regional governor Serhiy Gaidai. Twelve of those deaths were in the town of Sievierodonesk, where Russia’s assault was unsuccessful, he said.

Reuters could not verify the report on its own, denying Russia targeting civilians.

“Dombus was completely destroyed,” President Zelensky said in a speech Thursday night. “It’s hell. It’s not an exaggeration.”

He said there were constant strikes in the southern Odesa region as well.

Reuters could not verify the report on its own, denying Russia targeting civilians.

Russia’s focus on Donbus follows the failure to occupy the capital, Kyiv, in the early stages of the invasion initiated by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24.

Article content

Thousands of people, many of them civilians, have been killed and the entire town or city has been hit by Europe’s most serious crisis in decades.

Almost one-third of Ukrainian people have been displaced, of which more than 6 million have left the country due to refugee outflows, while others remain trapped in cities shattered by Russian bombing. ..

British military intelligence said Friday that Russia is likely to further step up its operations in Donbus after Russia finally secures the southern port city of Mariupol.

The industrial powerhouse is endangering the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which Moscow claims on behalf of separatists.

Article content

Putin calls the Ukrainian invasion a “special military operation” and eliminates the fascist country. Kieu and his western allies claim to be an unfounded excuse for unprovoked war.

The Kremlin leaders were scheduled to hold a Security Council meeting later on Friday.

Western support

Western nations, which strongly condemned Russia’s actions and tried to isolate Moscow with a series of sanctions, were strengthening their support for Ukraine.

A group of seven rich nations on Thursday agreed to provide Ukraine with $ 18.4 billion to make up for the income lost as the war destroyed its economy.

The US Senate has approved about $ 40 billion in new aid to Ukraine, by far the largest US aid package to date.

The White House is also working to bring advanced anti-ship missiles into the hands of Ukrainian fighters to defeat Russia’s naval blockade, which has significantly blocked Ukraine’s food exports.

Article content

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has accused Russia of using food as a weapon by holding “hostage” supplies to millions of people around the world, not just Ukrainians. The war has skyrocketed global prices for grains, cooking oil, fuels and fertilizers.

The EU said it is considering ways to use Russia’s Oligarch’s frozen assets to fund the reconstruction of Ukraine, but the United States has ruled out the possibility of imposing sanctions on countries that buy Russian oil. Not done.

Present

Last week Russia won the biggest victory since the invasion began. The Kyiv government has ordered defenders of the Mariupol steelworks to confront after a prolonged siege.

According to British military intelligence, it is likely that as many as 1,700 soldiers have surrendered to the Azovstal ironworks, comparable to the similar number announced by Moscow on Thursday.

Article content

Ukrainian officials who tried to arrange prisoner exchange refused to comment on this number, saying it could endanger rescue operations.

Late Thursday, Subia Toslav Paramer, deputy director of the Azov Battalion defending the steelworks, released an 18-second video stating that he and the other commanders were still in the factory.

“A specific operation is being done, but we won’t reveal the details,” he said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it had registered hundreds of Russian-owned Azofustari prisoners, but the exact number has not been disclosed.

Russian-backed separatist leaders who control the region said almost half of the fighters remained in the steelworks.

He said the injured were treated and the healthy were taken to exile and well treated.

(Reported by Natalia Zinets and Max Hunder of Kyiv, Reuters journalist in Mariupol, additional report by Reuters bureaux, written by Stephen Coates and Angus MacSwan, edited by Frank Jack Daniel)