(Reuters) – Russian forces have launched their long-anticipated offensive in eastern Ukraine, attempting to push through defences along almost the entire front line in what Ukrainian officials described as the second phase of the war.
FIGHTING
* Zelenskiy said Russia had begun the “Battle of Donbas” in the east and a “very large part of the entire Russian army is now focused on this offensive”.
* Ukrainian media reported a explosions along the front line with shelling in Marinka, Slavyansk and Kramatorsk. Air raid sirens were also going off in main centres near the front.
* The United States military expects to start training Ukrainians on using howitzer artillery in coming days, a senior U.S. defence official said.
* At least 1,000 civilians are hiding in shelters beneath the vast Azovstal steel plant in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, the city council said, adding that Russia was dropping heavy bombs on the Ukranian-held factory.
DIPLOMACY
* U.S. President Joe Biden would hold a call with allies on Tuesday to discuss the crisis, including on how to coordinate on holding Russia accountable, the White House said.
* French President Emmanuel Macron said that his dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin stalled after mass killings were discovered in Ukraine.
* Zelenskiy formally submitted a completed questionnaire on European Union membership and said he believed it would lead to his country gaining candidate status within weeks.
* Humanitarian ceasefires between Ukrainian and Russian forces are not on the horizon but may be possible in a couple of weeks, U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths said.
ECONOMY
* Russia’s invasion has damaged or destroyed up to 30% of Ukraine’s infrastructure at a cost of $100 billion, a Ukrainian minister said, adding reconstruction could be achieved in two years using frozen Russian assets to help finance it.
* Russia flagged a likely further cut in interest rates and more budget spending to help the economy adapt to biting western sanctions as it heads for its deepest contraction since 1994.
QUOTES
“This is what hell looks like on earth … It’s time (for) help not just by prayers. Save our lives from satanic hands,” Major Serhiy Volyna, commander of Ukraine’s 36th marine brigade which is fighting in Mariupol, wrote in a letter to Pope Francis.
(Compiled by Robert Birsel, Alexandra Hudson, Keith Weir, Cynthia Osterman and Himani Sarkar)
