Posted on 04/18/2022 2:11:14 PM PDT by Eleutheria5
LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched its long-feared, full-scale offensive to take control of Ukraine's east, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Monday.
“Now we can already state that the Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas, for which they have been preparing for a long time," he said in a video address. Zelenskyy said a "significant part of the entire Russian army is now concentrated on this offensive.”
The Donbas is Ukraine’s mostly Russian-speaking industrial heartland in the east, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces for the past eight years and have declared two independent republics that have been recognized by Russia.
In recent weeks, Kremlin declared the capture of the Donbas its main goal of the war after its attempt to storm Kyiv failed.
“No matter how many Russian troops are driven there, we will fight,” Zelenskyy vowed. "We will defend ourselves. We will do it every day.”
The announcement from Zelenskyy came as Russia bombarded the western city of Lviv and numerous other targets across Ukraine in what appeared to be an intensified bid to grind down the country's defenses. At the same time, the Kremlin continued building up its forces in the east.
At least seven people were reported killed in the missile strikes on Lviv, a city close to the Polish border that has seen only sporadic attacks during almost two months of war and has become a haven for civilians fleeing the fighting elsewhere. To the Kremlin’s increasing anger, Lviv has also become a major gateway for NATO-supplied weapons.
In other developments, a few thousand Ukrainian troops, by Russia's estimate, remained holed up at a mammoth steel mill in Mariupol, the last known pocket of resistance in the devastated southern port city.
And Zelenskyy submitted a filled-out questionnaire...
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(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
It'd be humorous if someone went and snatched Vladivostok.
Someone like China;-)
Will it be on ESPN? And will it have a halftime?
When did zombies get so fast?
In the 50’s they could barely move...
[click for slightly larger image]
“The Donbas is Ukraine’s mostly Russian-speaking industrial heartland in the east, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces for the past eight years and have declared two independent republics that have been recognized by Russia.”
Just let them have Donbas. I don’t care
Agreed. Let them sit down like adults and come to an agreement. Trying to resolve it with tanks is so 20th Century.
Good way to get nuked.
While Donbas is majority Russian-speaking, it is majority ethnic Ukrainian. Russian make up a little less than 40% of the population.
Halftime - Puppy Bowl...
The US is under no obligation to start a global nuclear war over a tactical nuke in Mariupol.
I also don’t think that will happen.
I'd settle for getting the Karafuto (Sakhalin) islands back to Japan. If we had to return Okinawa, the Russkies should return their postwar capture.
It's Sudetenland all over again, except this time the people there are resisting.
After the fighting. Russia is going to gobble as much of Eastern Ukraine as possible and then call a cease fire. It may turn into a long term divide like East Germany and West Germany.
What about Konigsberg?
It sure looks like Ukraine si winning bigtime!
😜😱🤪
zombie darwinism
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