Russia launches assaults on eastern cities and towns as it vies for control of Donbas

CBC NEWS - Russia assaulted cities and towns along a boomerang-shaped front hundreds of kilometres long and poured more troops into the country Tuesday in a potentially pivotal battle for control of Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland of coal mines and factories.

After a Russian push to the capital failed to overrun the city, the Kremlin declared that its main goal was the capture of the eastern Donbas region, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces for eight years.

If successful, that offensive would give President Vladimir Putin a vital piece of Ukraine and a badly needed victory that he could present to the Russian people amid the war's mounting casualties and the economic hardship caused by the West's sanctions that followed Russia's invasion on Feb. 24.

It would also effectively slice Ukraine in two and deprive it of the main industrial assets concentrated in the east, including coal mines, metals plants and machine-building factories.

The eastern cities of Kharkiv and Kramatorsk came under deadly attack Tuesday, and Russia also said it struck areas around Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro west of the Donbas with missiles.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview that "another phase of this operation is starting now."

Ukraine's president said that massive numbers of Russian troops were committed to the offensive, although some observers noted that an escalation has been underway there for some time.

Justin Crump, a former British tank commander, said the Ukrainian comments could, in part, be an attempt to persuade allies to send more weapons.

"What they're trying to do by positioning this, I think, is ... focus people's minds and effort by saying, 'Look, the conflict has begun in the Donbas,'" said Crump, of strategic advisory company Sibylline. "That partly puts pressure on NATO and EU suppliers to say, 'Guys, we're starting to fight now. We need this now.'"

European and American arms have been key to bolstering Ukraine's defence, helping the under-gunned country to hold off the Russian force. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday by phone that the Netherlands would send "heavier material" to Ukraine, including armoured vehicles.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says Germany will continue to enable weapons deliveries to Ukraine, with one possibility being systems from eastern European nations that would be easily and quickly usable.

Scholz has faced increasing pressure from within his own governing coalition and the main opposition party to deliver heavy weapons such as German Leopard tanks.