Russian forces launched an attack on eastern Ukraine Monday, attempting to break through Ukrainian lines in the Donbas area, the secretary of Ukraine’s defense council said.
“We can now say that Russian forces have started the battle of the Donbas, for which they have long prepared,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address Monday.
“This morning, along almost the entire front line of Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions, the occupiers attempted to break through our defenses,” Oleksiy Danilov said in televised comments.
“They began their attempt to start the active phase this morning,” he added.
The Pentagon did not dispute Ukrainian reports, Monday, but characterized the attacks as so-called “shaping operations” in preparation of a larger, future assault.
“We still consider what we’re seeing to be a piece of shaping operations, that the Russians are continuing to set the conditions for what they believe will be eventual success on the ground,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
“We believe that the Russians are shaping and setting the conditions for future offensive operations. We also see that there is active combat going on the the Donbas — as there has been for the last several weeks,” he added.
Russian forces began their expected attack on eastern Ukraine, attempting to break through Ukrainian lines in the Donbas area. AFP via Getty ImagesThe Donbas, made up primarily of the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts along Ukraine’s eastern border with Russia, has been the site of sporadic fighting since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and Moscow’s simultaneous backing of Donbas separatist movements.
After Russian forces failed to take Kyiv last month, the Kremlin announced it was refocusing its efforts on taking the Donbas, while continuing to shell the whole of Ukraine.
Monday’s reports of fighting in the region come after days of Russian forces massing near Izyum, a city in the Kharkiv oblast just outside the Donbas.
The assault also comes just hours after a massive Russian bombardment campaign struck targets throughout Ukraine, including as far west as Lviv, 40 miles from the Polish border, where authorities said Russian missiles hit three military targets and a civilian business — a tire shop. Russian authorities also reported striking military targets in Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro and Mykolaiv, as well as in Donetsk in the heart of the Donbas.
The Donbas has been the site of sporadic fighting since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. REUTERSIn total, Russia claimed to have hit 315 Ukrainian targets in overnight strikes, state-run news agency TASS reported.
The Russian defense ministry reported destroying 22 artillery batteries, 18 command posts and at least one anti-aircraft battery. Russian forces also said they shot down three Ukrainian fighter jets. Those numbers could not be independently verified.
The news comes as:
- Zelensky submitted paperwork Monday bringing his country one step closer to joining the European Union. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said previously that a preliminary decision on Ukraine’s eligibility to join the bloc of nations could come within weeks. The Kremlin has long opposed Ukraine’s push to be considered part of the European bloc.
- A Russian teacher says he was fined after refusing to teach the Kremlin line on the war in Ukraine. Andrei Shestakov, a newly minted teacher and former police officer in Siberia, told Reuters he was fined 35,000 rubles last month for rejecting Moscow’s official lesson plan and teaching his students that the nation of Ukraine had predated the USSR. Shestakov also told his students he was against the war.
- Two British fighters captured in Ukraine by Russian forces appeared on Russian state TV on Monday and asked to be exchanged for a Ukrainian ally of Putin who is being held by the Ukrainian authorities. The broadcast came within hours of Ukrainian security services releasing a video of the Putin ally, Viktor Medvedchuk, reportedly asking for the same trade. Medvedchuck faces treason charges related to Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon assesses that Russia has reinforced its troops in southern and eastern Ukraine, adding tens of thousands of soldiers to the region across at least 10 new battalion tactical groups.
