(AP) :Russia shelled more than 40 towns in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, destroying nearly a dozen high-rise buildings, authorities said on Thursday, as Moscow’s forces sought to surround their Ukrainian foes, outnumbering them in some places.
After failing to seize Ukraine’s capital Kyiv or its second city Kharkiv in its three-month-old war, Russia is trying to wrest full control of the Donbas on behalf of separatists. The industrial region comprises the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces.
Russia has poured thousands of troops into the region, attacking from three sides in an attempt to encircle Ukrainian forces holding out in the city of Sievierodonetsk and its twin, Lysychansk. Their fall would leave the whole of Luhansk province under Russian control, a main Kremlin war aim.
“Everything now is focused on the Donbas,” Ukrainian interior ministry adviser Vadym Denisenko told a briefing. He said the situation was very tense as 25 Russian battalion tactical groups attempted to surround the Ukrainian forces.
The Joint Task Force of Ukraine’s armed forces said the Russians had shelled more than 40 towns in the region, destroying or damaging 47 civilian sites, including 38 homes and a school.
“As a result of this shelling five civilians died and 12 were wounded,” it said on Facebook, adding that 10 Russian attacks had been repelled, four of its tanks and four drones destroyed, and 62 “enemy soldiers” killed.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office said 11 high-rise buildings were destroyed in Sievierodonetsk and eight in Lysychansk.
Zelenskiy has said Russian troops heavily outnumber Ukrainian forces in some parts of the east and Kyiv has been trying unsuccessfully to arrange a prisoner swap with Moscow.
