Russia aims to capture 4 regions in new eastern offensive: Ukraine

By Bahtiyar Abdulkerimov

KYIV, Ukraine (AA) - Russia aims to capture four regions in its new offensive in eastern Ukraine, Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the Ukrainian President's Office, said Monday.

In an interview aired on the Feygin Live YouTube channel, Arestovych said Russia has four objectives in the new offensive launched in Donbas, adding Russia’s new attack to achieve these objectives began Sunday.

Since 2014, the eastern Donbas region has been wracked by Russian-backed separatists. Just before starting the war in late February, Russia recognized Donetsk and Luhansk as "independent."

Noting that the Russian army is mainly trying to break the defense line in the east of the country, Arestovych claimed that its first task is to capture land on the Rubizhne, Popasna and Sievierodonetsk route in the Luhansk region.

In this way, he added, Russians will try to cut off this region from other parts of the country.

Arestovych went on to say that the second objective of the Russians is to seize these lands by attacking the region from Izium to Sloviansk and Kramatorsk in the northeast Kharkiv region.

He added that Russia's other targets are the city of Huliaipole in the Zaporizhzhia region and Mariupol.

Earlier Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a video address to the nation, said: "Russian troops have begun the battle for Donbas, for which they have been preparing for a long time."