Russia has launched its long-feared, full-scale offensive to take control of Ukraine’s east, Volodymyr Zelensky has said. The Ukrainian president made the announcement in a video address.
He said: “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 added that a “significant part of the entire Russian army is now concentrated on this offensive”.
The Donbas is Ukraine’s 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 recognised by Russia. In recent weeks, the Kremlin said the capture of the Donbas is its main goal of the war after its attempt to storm Ukraine’s capital Kyiv failed.
