Zelenskky: Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine has begun
Source: AP
LVIV, Ukraine (AP) Russia launched its long-feared, full-scale offensive to take control of Ukraines east, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Monday. Now we can already state that the Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas, for which they have been preparing for a long time, he said in a video address. Zelenskyy said a significant part of the entire Russian army is now concentrated on this offensive.
The Donbas is Ukraines mostly Russian-speaking industrial heartland in the east, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces for the past eight years and have declared two independent republics that have been recognized by Russia. In recent weeks, Kremlin declared the capture of the Donbas its main goal of the war after its attempt to storm Kyiv failed. No matter how many Russian troops are driven there, we will fight, Zelenskyy vowed. We will defend ourselves. We will do it every day.
The announcement from Zelenskyy came as Russia bombarded the western city of Lviv and numerous other targets across Ukraine in what appeared to be an intensified bid to grind down the countrys defenses. At the same time, the Kremlin continued building up its forces in the east. At least seven people were reported killed in the missile strikes on Lviv, a city close to the Polish border that has seen only sporadic attacks during almost two months of war and has become a haven for civilians fleeing the fighting elsewhere.
To the Kremlins increasing anger, Lviv has also become a major gateway for NATO-supplied weapons. In other developments, a few thousand Ukrainian troops, by Russias estimate, remained holed up at a mammoth steel mill in Mariupol, the last known pocket of resistance in the devastated southern port city. And Zelenskyy submitted a filled-out questionnaire in the first step toward obtaining membership in the European Union a desire that has been a source of tension with Moscow for years.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-lviv-missile-strikes-536b8f0bb48ae21a6ee30991a5535ea3
Original article -
He said a significant part of the entire Russian army is now concentrated on this offensive. He vowed: No matter how many Russian troops are driven there, we will fight. We will defend ourselves. We will do it every day.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE.
Ligyron
(7,639 posts)BumRushDaShow
(129,440 posts)some of it may have which might explain the sudden attacks on Lviv.
Igel
(35,356 posts)Training begins "tomorrow".
By the time they're up to speed, deployment to the front lines north of Kryvyy Rih can start. (And can we stop using the LOC transliteration system? It's built for Ru, doesn't work for Ukr.)
Botany
(70,581 posts)Kill those Russian bastards by the truckload.
Warpy
(111,338 posts)from Mariupol and Crimea to the northeast through Donetsk and Luhansk all the way back across the Russian border. Let them tell people back home of running for their lives over the bodies of the people they killed. Kick them out and terrify them out of trying to invade again, ever. If Putin tries to order them back, let them rise up and kill HIM.
(Ukrainian grannies are absolutely fearless. I know quite a few back in Boston)
speak easy
(9,302 posts)Bringing them back into Ukraine at this time, even as an Autonomous Republic, would mean subjugating a hostile population.
blue-wave
(4,362 posts)legally part of Ukraine as is Donbas. Let the hostile population as you call them, run back to Russia before the bridge is blown to bits.
speak easy
(9,302 posts)at the point of a gun?
Response to speak easy (Reply #8)
Igel This message was self-deleted by its author.
blue-wave
(4,362 posts)genocidal butcher did? It is not Russian land. They stole it and occupy it illegally. It is legally part of Ukraine. So the Ukrainians should just fold and let Russia have it?
Gee, why don't you just say Pooty should be given all of Ukraine because of his delusional interpretations of history? The Russian occupation of Crimea and Donbas will never stand.
speak easy
(9,302 posts)According to Gallup ... 2%. That's a lot of ethnic cleansing you are contemplating. I can't think of a better way to alienate local and international opinion. Perhaps Poland should open a debate on returning Danzig's status to a free city.
blue-wave
(4,362 posts)determine race or ethnicity? Your way off here.
And as for the Crimean's, the vast majority agree that they would prefer being part of Ukraine, where they were an autonomous region that was part of Ukraine and living peacefully and happily before the first invasion and illegal annexation, than part of Russia. Pooty's so-called referendum "election" in Crimea after the first invasion, as with every election he has ever conducted, was a sham.
speak easy
(9,302 posts)About 2/3 of Crimeans were ethic Russians before 2014. About half a million Russians immigrated to Ukraine from Russia, after the annexation.
But what do they want now? Would you be in favor of a truly free and fair referendum to decide Crimea's future. It was an autonomous Republic before - a special status. Does it have a right to decide it's future? Or is, as I was responding to, ethnic cleansing, and blowing up the bridge, the way to go?
lapfog_1
(29,222 posts)Russian deserves it of course because they occupied it!
as a side note... does Crimea deserve the water from the Dnieper river? Or can Ukraine keep the canal that provides water to Crimea closed?