Russian attack Zelenskyi: Donbas is destroyed by hell, the war in eastern Ukraine was stuck in a large artillery battle

Abroad|The Russian attack

Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyi commented the night before Friday on the fighting in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, calling the region “hell” completely destroyed.

“The occupiers are trying to increase the pressure in the Donbass,” Zelenskyi said in a video message.

“It’s hell, and this is no exaggeration.”

According to a report by the Ukrainian headquarters on Thursday evening and Friday morning, Russian forces carried out numerous attempts to attack a total of 20 locations in the Donetsk region of Donetsk and Luhansk regions during the day. In the Lyman area, the Russians fired artillery areas without attempting to advance the infantry.

Donbasin the region became the main scene of the war in Ukraine at the turn of March-April, when Russia withdrew from the Kiev region and announced that it was focusing on fighting in eastern Ukraine. Russia’s obvious minimum goal has been to take over the entire Donetsk and Luhansk provinces. Prior to the February invasion, Russia and its separatists controlled the former provincial capitals and barely half the provincial area.

Seven years ago, Ukraine transferred the administration of the Luhansk region to the city of Severodonets in the northern part of the region. The Ukrainian regional government in Donetsk, in turn, was transferred to Mariupol, which has been thoroughly destroyed in the Russian invasion that began in February.

Russia occupied the city of Izjum on the western border of the Donbas region in late March, but since then the attacker’s progress has virtually come to a halt. The fighting has focused on the Donetsk River, which Russian forces have failed to cross despite attempts.

In recent weeks, fighting has been concentrated in the western part of Donetsk, north of the city of Sloviansk and around Severodonetsk. On the west side of Donetsk, the coking plant city of Avdijivka is still under Ukrainian control, as is the intersection of Lyman near Slovjansk. The city of the chemical industry in Severodonets is also still under the command of Ukraine.

Elapsed during the week, Russia has further increased artillery strikes in the region. Researcher at the French Institute of International Relations Léo Péria-Peigné estimates that Donbass has become the scene of a huge artillery battle. Artillery and rocket launchers from both sides are trying to destroy service links and discourage an opponent after troops get stuck in a station war.

“We see aircraft strikes and anti-tank missiles as their use is described,” Péria-Peigné commented on the newspaper Le Mondelle.

“In reality, more than 80 percent of the damage inflicted on Ukrainian opponents by Ukrainian forces is due to artillery.”

Russian artillery has caused significant damage, at least in Severodonets. Ukraine has fired on Russian stations in Donetsk, while the city of Luhansk has been peaceful.

The Donbas region is a densely populated mining and industrial area with a population of 7.5 million at the beginning of the millennium. There were ten cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants, and Donetsk was the fifth largest city in Ukraine.