Top Ukrainian officials said the expected Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine had begun on Monday, but some of their colleagues and foreign military analysts described the action as merely the preliminaries to a much larger assault.
Russia both conducted missile strikes throughout the country and stepped up its artillery and rocket attacks on cities, infrastructure and military positions along the roughly 300-mile front, as Russian ground forces pushed forward.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said in a video address: “Now we can state that the Russian forces have started the battle for the Donbas that they have been getting ready for a long time.”
But others noted that Russia was still funneling troops and equipment into the southeastern Donbas region, and that the ground movements seen on Monday were well short of the anticipated large-scale offensive. Read more
@nytimes