Kyiv: Russia’s new offensive in eastern Ukraine begins
Russia appears to have launched a new offensive in eastern Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian security official said late this afternoon.
“This morning, on almost the entire front line of the Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions, the occupiers tried to break through our defenses,” said Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. . broadcast on television.
“They started their effort to start the active phase this morning,” he said.
Chief Zelensky: The “second phase” of the war has begun
The spokesman for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said today that “the second phase of the war has begun”, referring to Russia’s new offensive in eastern Ukraine.
His remarks echoed the sentiment of a top Ukrainian official, who earlier said Russia had launched a new offensive this morning.
“Believe in our army, it is very strong,” Andriy Germak, the Ukrainian president’s spokesman, told the Telegram, assuring his countrymen that Ukrainian forces would repel them.
About 40,000 civilians displaced from Mariupol to Russia, says city mayor
The mayor of the besieged Mariupol claimed today that about 40,000 civilians had been forcibly displaced to Russia or to areas controlled by Russia and Ukraine.
“Unfortunately, I have to say that from today they are forcibly displacing the residents,” Vadim Boichenko said on Ukrainian television. “We have verified through the municipal registry that more than 40,000 people have already been displaced,” he added.
At least 1,000 civilians are hiding under the Azofstal factory, according to the Mariupol municipality
At least 1,000 civilians are hiding in underground shelters under the vast Azofstal steel plant in Mariupol, according to the city council.
The municipal authority in its statement claims that the Russians are bombing this factory, which is still controlled by the Ukrainians, in the besieged port city.
The civilians are “mostly women with children and the elderly,” the city council said in a Telegram post.
Street battles have been raging in Mariupol all week as Russian forces try to take full control, with the United States and Ukraine stressing that Mariupol is not under full Russian control.
Russian warplanes destroy a warehouse of foreign weapons near the Ukrainian city of Lviv
Russian Air Force planes have carried out air strikes on a Ukrainian army logistics center near the city of Lviv, destroying a large number of foreign-made weapons stored there, the Russian Defense Ministry has said.
The announcement was made by the Russian news agency TASS, relayed to Reuters and the French Agency.
In particular, the Russian military has claimed to have built a large stockpile of foreign-made weapons recently delivered to Ukraine with “high-precision missiles”.
“The logistics center and large consignments of foreign weapons delivered to Ukraine over the past six days by the United States and European countries stored there have been destroyed,” said Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov.
Russian forces also destroyed a Tochka U ballistic missile repair center in the city of Dinipro, the ministry said.
Source: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ