Fighting in the Donbas area of eastern Ukraine is at maximum intensity and is “escalating”, Ukraine’s deputy defence minister says
Russians are storming Ukrainian positions in several areas simultaneously, Hanna Maliar adds
The cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk in the Donbas earlier came under intense bombardment.
Russia’s military has been making gains in eastern Ukraine, having shifted most of the focus of its war there – putting the Ukrainian army under more pressure than at any time since the first desperate weeks of the war.
The battle for Ukraine’s old industrial heartland known as Donbas is likely to decide the fate of the Russian invasion.
It comes as Ukraine is beginning to admit Russia is getting the upper hand in some eastern areas – Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the Russians could be killing up to 100 Ukrainian soldiers a day in Donbas.
Zelensky has described conditions in eastern Ukraine as extremely difficult despite having some of their best-trained forces already posted in the east because of an eight-year war with Russian-backed separatists.
BBC
