Russia launches ‘Battle of Donbas’ on eastern front, Ukraine says

LVIV/KYIV, April 19 (Reuters) – Russian forces tried to push through Ukrainian defences along almost the entire front line in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, launching what President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the “Battle of the Donbas” – the long-awaited second phase of the war.

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 their forces could hold off the offensive.

“Believe in our army, it is very strong,” he said.

Driven back by Ukrainian forces in March from an assault on Kyiv in the north, Russia has poured troops in to the east to regroup for a ground offensive in two provinces known as the Donbas. It has also been launching long-distance strikes at other targets including the capital.

There was no immediate comment from Russia’s defence ministry on the latest fighting. The governor of the Russian province of Belgorod said Ukrainian forces had struck a border village wounding one resident. read more

Ukrainian media reported explosions, some powerful, along the front line in the Donetsk region, with shelling taking place in Marinka, Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.

Blasts were also heard in Kharkiv in the northeast, Mykolaiv in the south and Zaporizhzhia in the southeast while air raid sirens were also going off in main centres near the front line, officials and media said.

Ukraine’s top security official, Oleksiy Danilov, said Russian forces attempted to break through Ukrainian defences “along almost the entire front line of Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions”.

The coal and steel producing Donbas has been the focal point of Russia’s campaign to destabilise Ukraine since 2014 when the Kremlin used proxies to set up separatist “people’s republics” in Luhansk and Donetsk.

Ukraine’s general staff said Russian forces aimed to establish full control over the Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson regions, while intensifying missile strikes in west Ukraine.

Zelenskiy’s office said at least eight people had been killed and 13 wounding in shelling or fighting in Luhansk and Donetsk frontline towns and villages. It listed Kremennaya, Popasna, Avdiivka, Maryinka, Toretsk, Vuhledar and Lymanske.

Oleh Sinegubov, governor of Kharkiv province just north of the Donbas, said five people had been killed and 17 wounded in the past 24 hours there, from shelling and grad missiles.

BIDEN TO HOST CALL WITH ALLIES

Western countries and Ukraine accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin of unprovoked aggression. The White House said U.S. President Joe Biden, who has called Russia’s actions “genocide”, would hold a call with allies…