Russian forces yesterday tried to push through Ukrainian defenses along almost the entire front line in eastern Ukraine, launching what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the “Battle of the Donbas.”
A “very large part of the entire Russian army is now focused on this offensive,” Zelenskiy said in a video address overnight. “No matter how many Russian troops they send there, we will fight. We will defend ourselves.”
Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, assured Ukrainians that their forces could hold off the offensive.
Photo: AP
“Believe in our army. It is very strong,” he said.
Russia has been launching long-distance strikes at targets throughout Ukraine, including the capital, but mostly along the front line in the Donetsk region, with shelling especially in Marinka, Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, Ukrainian media reports said.
Ukrainian Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov said Russian forces attempted to break through Ukrainian defenses “along almost the entire front line of Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions.”
Russia has been trying to take full control of the southeastern port city of Mariupol.
In Russian-held districts, shell-shocked residents cooked on open fires outside damaged homes.
“To be honest, we are not well,” one resident named Olga said. “I have mental problems after the airstrikes, that’s for sure. I’m really scared. When I hear a plane, I just run.”
The city council said at least 1,000 civilians were still hiding in shelters beneath the vast Azovstal steel plant, which contains myriad buildings, where defenders remain holed up.
Ukrainian 36th Marine Brigade Commander Major Serhiy Volyna, whose troops are still fighting in Mariupol, appealed for help in a letter to Pope Francis.
“This is what hell looks like on earth... It’s time [for] help, not just by prayers. Save our lives from satanic hands,” he said in the letter, according to excerpts that Ukraine’s Vatican ambassador posted on Twitter.
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