Russia still looking to seize eastern breakaway regions: Ukrainian military

By Gozde Bayar

ANKARA (AA) - Russia has not abandoned its plan to completely seize the eastern Ukrainian breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, the Ukrainian military said on Monday.

“A Russian enemy does not abandon plans to fully capture the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk oblast,” the Ukrainian General Staff on Facebook.

Since 2014, a conflict with Russian-backed separatists in Donbas, home to Donetsk and Luhansk, has taken some 13,000 lives. On the eve of launching war on Ukraine this Feb. 24, Russia recognized the enclaves as “independent,” a move Ukraine and the West have rejected.

The General Staff said Russian authorities had announced another wave of mobilization of men under 65 in Luhansk to quickly replenish the losses of its troops.

"Soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation conduct raids on utilities and factories to identify conscripts and forcibly send them to military registration and enlistment offices," it said.

It added that Russia also continues to partially block the western city of Kharkiv, firing from multiple rocket launchers, artillery, and mortars.

Saying that Russian forces continue their full-scale armed aggression against Ukraine, it said the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people continues on day 47 of the war.

In the besieged port city of Mariupol, Russian forces are “carrying out assault operations in some areas of the city," it added.

“Russian occupying troops are trying to carry out measures of information and psychological influence on the people of Kherson city and the oblast,” it said, adding that they distribute information bulletins containing distorted information about the course of hostilities.

“Among the personnel of the occupation units in the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea there is information that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are planning a counteroffensive in the Kherson region with the possibility of success and entry into the Crimean Peninsula,” it added.

Crimea was also illegally invaded by Russian forces in 2014, in a move condemned by the UN General Assembly, the EU, and Turkiye.

Russia's war on Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24, met international outrage, with the European Union, US, and the UK, among others, implementing sanctions on Moscow.

At least 1,793 civilians have been killed in Ukraine and 2,439 injured, according to estimates by the UN, which noted that the true figure is likely far higher.

More than 4.5 million Ukrainians have also fled to several European countries, with millions more displaced inside the country, according to the UN refugee agency.