AVDIIVKA, Ukraine — Moscow again on Tuesday demanded the surrender of holdout Ukrainian forces in the besieged southern port of Mariupol and bombardment boomed across the country’s east in what Russia and Ukraine are calling a major new phase of the ferocious nearly 8-week-old war.
Although Ukraine says Russia has begun its long-expected all-out assault in the east — and Moscow’s top diplomat confirmed Tuesday the struggle has entered its next stage — some Western military officials and analysts suggest the current attacks are only a prelude to a larger and potentially far more brutal offensive.
President Joe Biden was to confer Tuesday with key allies about the next phase of the war and how the West will respond.
