Russia has launched an expected offensive aimed at taking control of eastern Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky said.
“The Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas, for which they have been preparing for a long time. A significant part of the entire Russian army is now concentrated on this offensive,” the Ukrainian president said in a video address on Monday night.
Ukrainian officials said earlier on Monday that Russia’s eastern offensive had begun with attacks on Kharkiv and targets in the Donbas further east.
Photographs coming out of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, and the Donetsk and Luhansk regions on Monday showed damage from shelling.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian minister said up to 30 per cent of his country’s physical infrastructure had been damaged or destroyed since the Russian invasion.
Oleksander Kubrakov, the infrastructure minister, told Reuters more than 300 bridges, more than 5,000 miles of roads and dozens of railway bridges had been affected.
The damage comes at a cost of $100bn (£77bn) but repairs could be paid for using frozen Russian assets, he said.
