JRL NEWSWATCH: “Russian Offensive Bears Down on Donbas as West Races to Supply Ukraine With More Weapons; Ukraine is reinforcing units as it also counterattacks southeast of Kharkiv” – WSJ
“Russian forces Wednesday made incremental gains … in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas … as Western nations rushed more weapons to … Ukrain[e]…. In … Mariupol … Russia … insisted on … unconditional surrender and kept pounding … Ukrainian forces — … mostly holed up in the sprawling Azovstal steel plant — with artillery and airstrikes. Ukraine[] … said … that Russian forces … tried to attack the Ukrainian-controlled part of Donbas from the north and northwest, with artillery barrages followed by probes of weak points … all along the front line. … Ukraine is reinforcing its units … while also trying to counterattack southeast of … Kharkiv [seeking] to disrupt Russian supply lines and cut off … [Russian] forces … mass[ing] … [against] Izyum. Ukrainian forces have also destroyed [an Oskol River] dam … flooding … the area and making roads and fields impassable to Russian armor — a tactic … Ukrainian defenders [previously and] successfully deployed northwest of … Kyiv ….”
Prior to launching Russia’s wholesale invasion in late February, Putin recognized the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics as independent entities, about a third of Ukraine’s Donbas region, having provided Russian assistance since 2014 seeking to carve out the separatist areas. Following the Kremlin’s recent failure to take Kyiv, or make greater strides elsewhere, the Kremlin has now declared the so-called “liberation” of the Donbas to be Putin’s current main goal for his attacks on Ukraine.
Click here for: Russian Offensive Bears Down on Donbas as West Races to Supply Ukraine With More Weapons; Ukraine is reinforcing units as it also counterattacks southeast of Kharkiv” – Wall Street Journal/ Yaroslav Trofimov