C T Online Desk: The capture of the city of Kreminna may have heralded the start of a widely anticipated major Russian offensive in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region as fierce fighting raged in neighbouring Rubizhne.
Moscow has decided to refocus its efforts on eastern Ukraine after withdrawing troops from the region around the capital Kyiv, creating a new epicentre in the conflict.
The Donets river skirts Kreminna and snakes through nearby Rubizhne, Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, which have withstood heavy shelling from both sides for several days on the frontline.
Rubizhne, which had more than 60,000 residents before the war began, came under intense Ukrainian artillery and mortar fire on Monday, AFP journalists saw.
Ukrainian positions bombarded the settlement, particularly from the nearby village of Novodruzhesk.
Powerful explosions giving off plumes of white and black smoke could be seen and heard hitting Rubizhne from a slag heap near the former mining city.
Sporadic heavy machine-gun fire was also audible.
“We can now confirm that Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas, which they have been preparing for a long time,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later said on Monday evening.
– Battle for Kreminna –
A small city with 18,000 inhabitants before the war, Kreminna was taken by Russian forces overnight from Sunday to Monday after three days of fighting.
Russia has now moved one step closer towards Kramatorsk, the capital of Ukrainian-controlled Donbas and a key target for Moscow.
Kreminna lies around 50 kilometres (30 miles) northeast of Kramatorsk in the Donbas, a region partly controlled by pro-Russia separatists since 2014.
“The fighting lasted three days and Russia used a large number of armoured vehicles to attack the city,” the head of Kreminna’s military administration, Oleksandr Dunets, told Radio Donbas.
“Fighting continues on the outskirts,” he added.
