MOSCOW: Russia launched dozens of air strikes across eastern Ukraine overnight, its defence ministry said on Tuesday, after Kyiv accused Russian forces of unleashing a major new offensive in the Donbas region.
Russia’s defence ministry said that “high-precision air-based missiles” had hit 13 Ukrainian positions in parts of the Donbas while other air strikes “hit 60 military assets”, including in towns close to the eastern frontline.
Russia’s defence minister said Moscow was seeking to “liberate” east Ukraine, but accused the West of dragging out the military operation by supplying Kyiv with arms.
“We are gradually implementing our plan to liberate the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics,” Sergei Shoigu said in reference to eastern Ukraine’s two rebel regions, which Moscow has recognised as independent states.
“We are taking measures to restore peaceful life,” he said in a televised meeting with Russian military commanders. Ukraine’s armed forces also confirmed that fighting had increased throughout the east just hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had kicked off the widely anticipated offensive in the Donbas region on Monday.
“The Russian occupiers intensified offensive operations along the entire line of contact,” the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said in a report published early on Tuesday.
Ahead of the advance, Ukrainian authorities had urged people in Donbas to flee west to escape, even as officials called off evacuations for a third straight day from frontline cities due to ongoing fighting. –Agencies
