The “Battle of Donbas” remains Russia’s main strategic focus in Ukraine, Britain’s defence ministry said on Friday, but it has suffered significant losses for limited territorial gains.
Russia withdrew its forces from outside Kyiv last month after failing to take the capital in the initial stages of its Feb. 24 invasion and launched a massive attack in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
Moscow regards winning the “Battle for Donbas” as crucial if it is to achieve its stated aim of securing control over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Britain’s defence ministry said.
“Fighting has been particularly heavy around Lysychansk and Severodonetsk, with an attempted advance south from Izium towards Slovyansk,” the ministry said on Twitter.
Due to strong Ukrainian resistance, Russian territorial gains have been limited and achieved at significant cost, the ministry added in the regular bulletin. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
Some of the fiercest fighting and bombardments have occurred in the south and east of Ukraine, with the southern port of Mariupol under siege for months and in ruins. Its remaining residents and Ukrainian forces are holed-up underground in the Azovstal steel works.
Capturing Mariupol would link pro-Russian separatist territory with the Crimea region that Moscow annexed in 2014.
Mariupol city council has said about 100,000 city residents were “in mortal danger” because of Russian shelling and unsanitary conditions. It said the shortage of drinking water and food was “catastrophic”.
A Ukrainian presidential adviser said this week that Russia was hitting the Azovstal steel plant with bunker-buster bombs. Reuters could not verify the details.
Ukrainian commanders at Azovstal have vowed not to surrender.
Ukraine’s general staff said on Friday that Russia was shelling Ukrainian positions along the line of contact in the south and east to prevent them regrouping. It said Azovstal remained cut off.
Two Russian missiles struck Kyiv during a visit by the head of the United Nations on Thursday, Ukrainian officials said, highlighting concerns that the capital remains vulnerable.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the blasts “prove that we must not drop our vigilance. We must not think that the war is over.”
Moscow’s assault in the east drew new U.S. pledges of military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine on Thursday.
Heeding repeated Ukrainian pleas for heavier weaponry, U.S. President Joe Biden asked Congress for $33 billion to support Kyiv, a massive jump in funding that includes over $20 billion for weapons, ammunition and other military aid.
“We need this bill to support Ukraine in its fight for freedom,” Biden said. “The cost of this fight — it’s not cheap — but caving to aggression is going to be more costly.”
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