Russia has begun a long-awaited major new offensive in the country’s eastern Donbas border region after its forces intensified attacks along the frontline, Ukraine’s president said.
Volodymyr Zelensky said in a late-night TV address that Russia had concentrated a “significant part” of its forces and vowed Ukraine would defend itself.
“We will fight. We won’t give up anything Ukrainian,” he added.
Russia withdrew from several regions in central Ukraine in late March after failing to take Kyiv and said it would refocus its efforts on the Donbas, where it claims it is protecting Russian speakers in an eight-year separatist conflict.
Oleksiy Danilov, chairman of Ukraine’s national security council, said Russia’s attacks began on Monday morning across the frontline in the Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine.
He said Ukrainian forces had surrendered two small towns but otherwise managed to hold their ground.
Though Russian president Vladimir Putin has said “liberating” the Donbas is Russia’s main goal, Ukrainian officials are worried the new offensive could precede more attacks to capture territory in the rest of the country.
“Putin hasn’t removed the goal to destroy us as a state and our political leadership,” Danilov said on Ukrainian television.
He claimed that Russian troops were trying to capture the whole of Donetsk and Luhansk regions before Orthodox Easter Sunday on April 24 as a “present” to Putin. Much of the region is already controlled by pro-Russian separatists.
Read more about the Russian offensive here
