Agencies-Gaza post
Ukraine: Russia launches new Donbas offensive
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reported on Tuesday that Russia began a new stage of what it calls its special military operation in Ukraine.”The next phase of this operation is now beginning,” Lavrov stated in a press statement.
“I am sure that this will be a very important moment of the entire special operation,” he said.
Russia attacked cities and reduced civilian areas to rubble since raiding Ukraine on February 24. It denies targeting civilians, however, and states it is taking part in a “special operation” to demilitarize its neighbor.
Lavrov reported that the operation’s purpose was to liberate the self-declared separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.
He also added that Moscow was not considering the option of using nuclear weapons in Ukraine and declared that Russian forces there are only targeting the country’s military infrastructure and not the civilian people.
Russia’s Defense Ministry clarified its forces had carried out dozens of targets in eastern Ukraine overnight.
An assistant to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported Russia’s new offensive in eastern Ukraine is going “very cautiously” and will ultimately not succeed.
Presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych reported that Russian forces were trying to find “sensitive spots” in Ukraine’s defenses, but added, “Their offensive will fail — I give you a 99% guarantee — they simply do not have enough strength.”
Russian troops have been regrouping to concentrate on a new offensive in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region after they were moved back from the capital, Kyiv.
Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday that Russian forces were now trying to push through Ukrainian guards ahead much of the front line in the country’s east.
“The battle for Donbas, which was reported and apparently started yesterday, is underway and is going very cautiously. The action will not go in Russia’s favor,” Arestovych clarified on national television.
