“Another phase” of the Russian invasion of Ukraine “is beginning now,” Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in a television interview broadcast in India on Tuesday, stressing that Russia’s goal is the “complete liberation of the Donetsk and Luhansk republics.” His comments came hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia’s offensive in the east of the country had begun.
“Russian troops have started the battle for Donbass,” Zelenskyy said in a video address late Monday. A “significant part of the entire Russian army is now focused on this offensive”.
The eastern Donbass region of Ukraine is mostly Russian-speaking. Moscow-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian forces there for eight years and have proclaimed two independent republics recognized by Russia.
In recent weeks, after its failed attempt to storm Kyiv, the Kremlin has declared that its main aim of the war is to conquer the Donbass region. After withdrawing from the capital, Russia began to regroup and reinforce its ground forces in the east for a full-scale offensive.
“No matter how many Russian troops are driven there, we will fight,” Zelenskyy said. “We will defend ourselves. We will do it every day.”
Moscow said it hit 1,200 targets in Ukraine overnight and told the last Ukrainian forces defending the huge Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol that they would “keep their lives” if they surrendered before noon.
Ukrainian troops, who have defended the city for seven weeks, have ignored previous similar offers. The Azovstal plant, covering an area of about 4 square miles, is the last major Ukrainian pocket of resistance in Mariupol. Mariupol is a strategic port on the Azov Sea. Its capture is important for Russia because it stands in the way of a land bridge to Crimea.
Eduard Basurin, a spokesman for the Russian-backed separatists in the Donbass region, said earlier Tuesday that after bombing and artillery fire, assault groups moved into the Azov Valley to uproot Ukrainian troops there.
Meanwhile, Reuters news agency reported that the governor of East Luhansk region said Russian troops had taken the city of Kreminna. If true, Kreminna appears to be the first city to be captured in the new Russian offensive.
“Kreminna is under the control of the ‘Orcs’ (Russians). They’ve invaded the city. Our defenders had to retreat. according to Reuters.
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