President Zelensky says major Russian assault in Eastern Ukraine has begun

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky says an expected major Russian assault in Eastern Ukraine has begun.

Speaking in his nightly address, Zelensky says a significant part of the Russian army is now concentrated in an effort to take the Donbas region.

Ukrainian officials have been warning of this assault for days, feverishly preparing and sending additional troops and weapons to the east.

Eastern Ukraine is not the only area still under attack by Russia. A Russian Defence Ministry spokesman says strikes were launched across the country overnight. For the first time, one of those strikes has killed civilians in a western city, previously spared from the fighting.

At least seven died and 11 were injured after four Russian missiles slammed into the western city of Lviv. The deputy mayor says one of the missiles hit a civilian area destroying a large auto mechanic shop and three hit military warehouses. This is the first time civilians in Lviv have been killed in the war.

In the east, two people were killed in a Russian missile strike in Kharkiv. Ukrainian officials say Russia has finished regrouping for a major push to try and claim all of the contested Donbas region, made up of Luhansk and Donetsk.

A spokesperson for Ukraine’s Defence Ministry says Russia has brought in additional units and is hoping to create a land bridge from occupied Crimea to Donbas, where some of the heaviest fighting is occurring.

The mayor of Kramatorsk which lies in Donbas, says rocket attacks are coming every night.

The nearby town of Kreminna is said to have been lost to Russian troops advancing westward, according to the local military administrator. Analysts say the assault in the east is being weakened by a small contingent of Ukrainian soldiers still fighting to hold Mariupol. That battle is tying up Russian troops who would otherwise be available to fight in Donbas.

Ukraine has completed its questionnaire for membership in the European Union and submitted it today, just ten days after receiving it. It was given to the EU’s ambassador to Ukraine at a ceremony today by President Zelensky himself.

A desire to join the EU was one of the issues that led to the initial invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2014.