Moscow's offensive in eastern Ukraine gathered momentum as several areas came under heavy shelling Thursday, amid suspicions Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to score a major battlefield success in time for Victory Day, one of Russia's proudest holidays, on May 9.
Ukrainian authorities reported intense Russian fire in the Donbas - the eastern industrial heartland that the Kremlin is bent on capturing - and near Kharkiv, a northeastern city outside the Donbas that is seen as key to the offensive.
