Volodymyr Zeleskyy, President of Ukraine, said Monday in a televised address that his country will continue to fight back against Russia’s aggression on eastern Ukraine. fully capturing the Donbas region, a more limited military campaign that comes after Moscow’s forces failed to seize Kyiv and other major cities.
“It can now be stated that Russian troops have begun the battle for Donbas, for which they have been preparing for a long time,” Zelenskyy warnedMonday night. “A very large part of the entire Russian army is now focused on this offensive.”
“No matter how many Russian soldiers are driven there, we will fight,” he added. “We will defend ourselves. We will do it every day. We will not give up anything Ukrainian, and we do not need what’s not ours.”
While Moscow is focusing its offensive on eastern Ukraine — where Russia-backed separatists have been battling Ukrainian forces for years — its military is still attacking other parts of the country. Earlier Monday, Russian missile strikes killed at least seven peopleLviv is located in the Western region.
Russia continued its efforts to capture Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine, which has become the location of one of the most important international events. worst humanitarian disastersThe war lasted for weeks. Ukrainian forces in the besieged city have rejected Russia’s demands that they surrender.
“Securing Mariupol would free Russian troops up to move elsewhere in the Donbas, deprive Ukraine of a vital port, and complete a land bridge between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, seized from Ukraine from 2014,” the Associated Press noted Tuesday.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said that the country’s forces struck nearly 1,300 Ukrainian targets late Monday and early Tuesday. Russian forces also captured Kreminna in eastern Ukraine, the regional governor said Tuesday. The first Russian offensive has seen the Ukrainian troops withdraw from the city.
The New York Times reported that “Ukrainian troops were fighting Russian forces across the sprawling eastern front on Tuesday, the Ukrainian military said, as the battle for control over the industrial heartland of the nation intensified.”
Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, saidDue to the intensifying fighting, there won’t be any humanitarian corridors created Tuesday to evacuate civilians trapped in their homes. Thus far, Russia’s invasion has displaced more than 10 million Ukrainians.
“Intense shelling continues in the Donbas,” said Vereshchuk. “According to Mariupol, the Russians refuse to provide a corridor for civilians in the direction of Berdyansk. We continue difficult negotiations on the opening of humanitarian corridors in Kherson and Kharkiv regions.”
The talks to end the war seem to be in limbo. Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said peace negotiations were “at a dead end.”
The Pentagon was completed a day later hostedBiden administration is one of the top U.S. arms producers authorizedAnother $800 million in military aid for Ukraine. The U.S. is expected to start training Ukrainian forces how to use the new military assistance. operate howitzer artillery systems as they braceFor Russia’s eastern assault.
“The Russian invasion of Ukraine has brought immense suffering to the people of that land, while sparking calls for increased military spending in both the United States and Europe,” William Hartung and Julia Gledhill wrote for TomDispatch Over the weekend. “Though that war may prove to be a tragedy for the world, one group is already benefiting from it: U.S. arms contractors.”
During a press briefing on Monday, a spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called on “all parties to enact an urgent and immediate humanitarian ceasefire, which will enable the safe and secure functioning of humanitarian corridors, help evacuate civilian residents, and also deliver lifesaving humanitarian and medical assistance.”
“Genuine negotiations must be given a chance to succeed and to bring lasting peace,” said Stéphane Dujarric. “The secretary-general and the U.N. stand ready to support such efforts.”
