The Latest Breaking News from Mariupol

Russia may have used chemical weapons in its invasion of Ukraine, according to unconfirmed reports from the besieged city of Mariupol last week.

KRAMATORSK, Ukraine — Ukrainian officials said Monday that Russia began its long-anticipated assault to seize control of their country’s eastern industrial heartland, launching a ground assault along a nearly 300-mile front while pounding the nation, including the western city of Lviv, with a deadly barrage of missile strikes.

After withdrawing its troops from the capital Kyiv, Russia is now focusing on the region of Ukraine close to its border.

KRAMATORSK, Ukraine — Ukraine officials said Monday that Russia began its long-anticipated assault to seize control of their country’s eastern industrial heartland, launching a ground assault along a nearly 300-mile front while pounding the nation, including the western city of Lviv, with a deadly barrage of missile strikes.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy says ‘battle for Donbas’ has begun as Russia mounts anticipated offensive in the eastern part of Ukraine

Russia was intensifying its attack on Ukraine's east on Tuesday as it seized a frontline city and sought a decisive victory in Mariupol, prompting Western governments to pledge more arms and sanctions.

KRAMATORSK, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that Russia has launched its long-anticipated assault to seize control of Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland.

Ukrainian president announces assault but declares: ‘We will fight. We will not give up anything Ukrainian’

No fewer than 1,000 civilians are hiding in underground shelters beneath the vast Azovstal steel plant in the southeastern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, the city council said on Monday, adding that Russia was dropping heavy bombs onto the Ukrianian-held factory in the besieged city.

The mayor of the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol on Monday said that about 40,000 civilians had been forcibly moved to Russia or Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine.

The port city of Mariupol in eastern Ukraine was still contested as Russian appeared to have sent reinforcements into Ukraine in recent days, a senior U.S. defense official said on Monday.