KRAMATORSK, Ukraine — Ukraine officials said Monday that Russia began its long-anticipated assault to seize control of their country’s eastern industrial heartland, launching a ground assault along a nearly 300-mile front while pounding the nation, including the western city of Lviv, with a deadly barrage of missile strikes.
“It can now be stated that Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas, for which they have been preparing for a long time,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address to the Ukrainian people.
“No matter how many Russian troops are driven there, we will fight,” he said. “We will defend ourselves.”
