Topline
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday Russian forces are beginning a “very important” new stage of its invasion in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, the highest-level acknowledgement of an offensive that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday was already underway.
Key Facts
“Another phase of this operation is beginning” in eastern Ukraine, Lavrov said in an interview Tuesday with India Today translated by Reuters, calling the new assault a “very important moment” in the war.
The aim of the stage is to “fully liberate” the Donetsk and Luhansk Russian-backed separatist states in the Donbas, according to a translation by the New York Times of Lavrov’s interview.
Late Monday, Zelensky said “the battle for Donbas” is already being fought and Russian troops began their attempts to break through Ukrainian frontlines in the region Monday, Ukrainian Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov said in a television address.
Key Background
The Donbas has been central since the early stages of the war: Russian President Vladimir Putin officially acknowledged the independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk rebel states February 21, ordering Russian troops into the Donbas region. The Donbas is of strong economic and strategic significance to Russia, as it is home to much of Ukraine’s coal industry and stands between Russia and the Crimean peninsula it illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Following stiffer than expected resistance in Kyiv and elsewhere in Ukraine, Russia began to shift its focus to eastern Ukraine last month. On March 25, Sergei Rudskoi, head of the Russian General Staff's Main Operational Directorate, said the “main goal” of Russia’s invasion is the “liberation of Donbas,” an assertion based on Russia’s baseless claims of Ukrainian forces committing genocide against ethnic Russians in the region. Department of Defense Press Secretary John Kirby said Monday Russia is “trying to set the conditions for more aggressive, more overt and larger ground maneuvers in the Donbas,” and U.S. intelligence suggests that Russia has recently added troops and artillery to the region.
Tangent
In the interview, Lavrov said Russia has no plans to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, claiming Russia plans to only use conventional weapons in the war, according to Russian news agency Interfax. Lavrov is the most senior Russian official to assure nuclear weapons won’t be used amid widespread fears Russian President Vladimir Putin will order a nuclear assault.
Further Reading
Russia Has Begun Its Assault On The Donbas Region, Ukraine Says (Forbes)
Battle for Donbas: 3 reasons why Russia is shifting its war machine to east Ukraine (CNBC)
