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Moscow has shifted its focus in its war against Kyiv after nearly 50 days of fighting with a senior U.S. defense official reporting Wednesday that all of Russia’s ground forces have now entered Ukraine’s eastern flank.
Security officials have been sounding the alarm that the Kremlin’s inability to take the capital city of Kyiv meant it would launch a major offensive in eastern Ukraine.
Fighting in Ukraine has shifted to the eastern part of the country. (Photo by ANATOLII STEPANOV/AFP via Getty Images)
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Russia launched its second convoy this week and ground forces are flooding across Ukraine’s northern border into the Lunhask region, the official said.
“I think you’d go so far as to say all their ground forces are either in the Donbas – Luhank Oblast or the Donetsk Oblast – and then in the south arrayed all the way from Mariupol down to Mykolaiv,” the official added.
Defense officials have warned that Russia’s determination to continue with its “special military operation” in a concentrated location like the Donbas, will mean an even more brutal fight ahead.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mocked Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion Wednesday, questioning how many will need to die before he gives up.
“Do you remember how Russia bragged that they would seize Kyiv in 48 hours? Instead, Ukraine has been repelling the enemy for 48 days,” he said in an address to the nation.
Ukrainian servicemen climb on a fighting vehicle outside Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 2, 2022. (AP)
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“They say they do everything for the sake of the people, for the sake of Donbas, but even during World War II, Donbas did not see such cruelty in such a short time,” he continued. “In Donbas, the story of the siege of Leningrad was repeated. What would the people who died or almost died in Leningrad during the Nazi blockade say about this? What would they say about the blockade of Mariupol?”
Zelenskyy said this week that Ukrainian forces were not getting what they needed from allies to quickly end the war before it escalates even more in eastern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian president again urged the U.S. and NATO to send warplanes so that his troops could remove the weeks-long blockade on Mariupol and help repel more invading Russian forces from taking a greater hold in the region.
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy listens during his meeting with President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, April 1, 2022. ((Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP))
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The U.S. has provided more than 1.7 billion in security assistance since the invasion began but has refused to provide jets over fears it could direct Russian aggression toward NATO nations across Ukraine’s borders.
The Biden administration is expected to announce another round of security aid this week.