Russia has launched its long-foreshadowed offensive in eastern Ukraine offensive, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Monday, vowing that his people will continue to fight and "defend ourselves."
“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,” Zelenskyy announced Monday in a video address, stating that a significant portion of the Kremlin's army was concentrated in the effort.
He added: “No matter how many Russian troops are driven there, we will fight. We will defend ourselves. We will do it every day.”
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In recent days, Russia has reinforced its invading force in Ukraine, adding about 11 battalion tactical groups and as many as 11,000 troops, a senior U.S. Defense Department official said Monday.
Russian forces on Monday increased assaults in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions — both of which are part of the Donbas — as well as in the area of Zaporizhzhia.
“The occupiers attempted to break through our defenses,” said Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s national security council. “Fortunately, our military is holding out. They passed through only two cities — this is Kreminna and another small town.”
A Ukrainian military official said street battles have begun and evacuation is impossible in the town of Kreminna. That’s one of only two spots where the Ukrainians said the Russians managed to break through on Monday along a front stretching for hundreds of miles.
Luhansk regional military administrator Serhiy Haidai said the town came under heavy artillery overnight, setting seven residential buildings on fire, and that the Olympus sports complex where the nation’s Olympic team trains was targeted.
Haidai later said on Ukrainian TV that Russians took control of the city after “leveling everything to the ground,” so his guys retreated to regroup and keep on fighting. “It simply makes no sense to stand in one place, to die for everyone, without causing significant damage to the enemy,” he said.