- Russian forces attack along most of the front line to the east
- Zelenskyy says Ukrainian forces will continue fighting
- US President Biden talks to allies about aid to Ukraine
LVIV/Kyiv, April 19 – Russian forces have launched their expected offensive in eastern Ukraine, attempting to breach defenses along almost the entire front line early Tuesday in what Ukrainian officials have described as the second phase of the war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had started the “Battle for Donbass” in the east and a “very large part of the entire Russian army is now concentrating on this offensive”.
“No matter how many Russian troops they send there, we will fight. We will defend ourselves,” he said in a video address on Monday.
Zelenskyy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak assured the Ukrainians that their forces could repel the offensive in the “second phase of the war”.
“Believe in our army, it’s very strong,” he said.
There was no immediate comment from the Russian Defense Ministry on the recent fighting. The governor of Russia’s Belgorod province said Ukrainian troops attacked a border village, injuring a resident. Continue reading
Ukrainian media reported a series of explosions, some powerful, along the front line in the Donetsk region, with shelling taking place in Marinka, Slavyansk and Kramatorsk.
Explosions were also heard in Kharkiv in the northeast, Mykolaiv in the south and Zaporizhzhia in the southeast, while air raid sirens also went off in the main centers near the frontline, officials and media said.
Reuters could not immediately verify the reports.
Ukraine’s top security official Oleksiy Danilov said Russian forces tried to breach Ukraine’s defenses “along almost the entire front line of the Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions.”
Pushed back by Ukrainian forces in the north, Russia has refocused its ground offensive in the two eastern provinces known as Donbass, while launching long-range attacks on other targets, including the capital Kyiv.
Donbass has been the focus of Russia’s campaign to destabilize Ukraine, which began in 2014 when the Kremlin installed proxies to set up two separatist “people’s republics” in the former Soviet state. It is also home to much of Ukraine’s industrial wealth, including coal and steel.
Ukraine’s General Staff said Russian forces are aiming to take full control of the Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson regions while stepping up missile attacks in western Ukraine.
A woman pulls a wheelchair while transporting an injured man on a road in the wake of the Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 18, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko
Continue reading
BIDEN TO HOST A CALL WITH ALLIES
Western countries and Ukraine are accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of unprovoked aggression, and the White House said US President Joe Biden will hold a call with allies on Tuesday to discuss the crisis, including how to coordinate to hold Russia accountable. Continue reading
French President Emmanuel Macron said his dialogue with Putin stalled after mass killings in Ukraine were discovered. Continue reading
The United Nations said Monday the war’s civilian death toll had surpassed 2,000, reaching 2,072 at midnight April 17 since the invasion began on February 24.
About 4 million Ukrainians have fled the country.
Russia denies targeting civilians in a so-called special operation to demilitarize Ukraine and root out dangerous nationalists. She dismisses what Ukraine calls evidence of atrocities, saying Ukraine staged them to undermine peace talks.
‘HELL OF EARTH’
Russia is attempting to take full control of the south-eastern port city of Mariupol, which has been under siege for weeks and which would be a major strategic asset, by linking pro-Russian separatist-held territory to the east with the Moscow-annexed Crimea region in 2014 and liberating the besieging troops.
Video footage showed block after block in charred ruins. Residents of Primorskyi district, shocked by shells, cooked on open fires in front of their damaged houses.
“We’re not doing well, to be honest,” a resident named Olga told Reuters. “After air raids, I have mental problems, that’s for sure. I am really scared. If I hear a plane I just run away.”
The city council said at least 1,000 civilians were still hiding in temporary shelters under the vast Azovstal Steelworks, which contains myriad buildings, blast furnaces and railway tracks. Continue reading
Major Serhiy Volyna, commander of Ukraine’s 36th Naval Brigade, which is still fighting in Mariupol, wrote to Pope Francis asking for help.
“This is what hell on earth looks like… It is time (for) help, not only through prayers. Save our lives from satanic hands,” he said in the letter, according to excerpts posted to Twitter by the Vatican ambassador.
Reporting by Reuters journalists in Kyiv and Lviv; Additional reporting from Lidia Kelly in Melbourne, Ronald Popeski in Winnipeg and Reuters offices worldwide; writing by Lincoln Feast, Robert Birsel; Editing by Himani Sarkar