New News Update About Russia And Ukraine

ukraine says the battle for the donbassregion regarded as the second phase of the war has begun after russia launched a major offensive in the east of the country according to president zelinskia large proportion of the russian army is now focusing on the east and the governor of the lehansk region has now confirmed that russian troops have taken control of the city of cremina now moscow's forces already occupy large parts of the donbas last month moscow claimed it controlled over 90 percent of luhansk and half of donetsk and its forces are expected to try and encircle the romanian ukrainian troops in the region we understand that ukraine has around 40 000 soldiers in the donbass many of whom have spent years fighting against russian-backed separatist forces in the region our defence correspondent jonathan beale reports now from eastern ukraine this is now the sight and sound of the donbass zebra donetsk another city and another target for russia's unrelenting bombardment we can assess now that the russian troops have begun the battle for donbass for which they have been preparing for a long time a very large part of the russian army is now concentrated on this offensive no matter how many of the russian troops are driven there we will be fighting we will defend ourselves we tried to speak to families taking shelter but the thump of artillery was steadily coming closer let's go we just came here to go to a shelter but there's shelling a bit close to us and so we've had to move out a lot of crump of artillery going on at the moment nothing appears to be sacred when russia wages war this one of the holiest sites in the donbass but that didn't save svitagorsk's historic monastery from being scarred by a russian airstrike the few who've stayed behind have to queue for food they're not just hungry though they're scared i cry every day what kind of god would allow this to happen i cry every day all this there is now a strong military presence in this town just a few miles down the road russian forces are advancing from the north a ukrainian soldier shared this drone footage of how they were trying to slow down the russian columns blowing up a bridge but they know more will be coming we know that russian forces are bringing reinforcements into this region but we're doing everything possible we are ready to repel the russian occupiers and prevent the capture of our cities we will stand to the last and defend our homeland we headed south  the roads eerily empty we soon found out why plumes of smoke once again we were within range of russian artillery the constant bombardment is also taking its toll on the city of abdika here they're praying for divine intervention nowhere here is safe within range of russian artillery and as we've seen russia is pushing forward from the north from the east and from the south and there's a real danger that ukraine's forces here could be surrounded for now they're holding out so too are the remaining citizens of avedika hiding in bunkers jonathan beal bbc news eastern ukraine we are getting lots of different reports coming to us from the east with the very latest is our correspondent dan johnson he is in the western city of lev we're hearing that this major new offensive is underway that russian forces are pushing forward from the areas that they've controlled in the east breaking through their front line making some advances in a number of areas right through the don yet luhansk and hakeev regions it's about a 300 mile front line around the eastern flank ukraine these are the parts of the country that have been essentially under russian control at least in part for the last eight years strongholds of the russian forces and where we've seen them refocus their efforts since the russian military was forced to withdraw from around kiev a couple of weeks ago we're also hearing that the azov style steel plant in mariopol one of the last sites of ukrainian resistance in that city is being stormed this morning by ukrainian special forces by russian special forces i should say we don't have confirmation of that from the ukrainians yet there's been a fiercely intense battle there for days now with repeated attempts to overrun the ukrainians there to complete the russian takeover of that city but we know that there were a huge number of airstrikes across ukraine last night around 1200 targets the russian defense ministry claims were hit but focusing on the east in anticipation of this new wave of ground warfare renewed artillery shelling as well so civilians in that risk the ukrainian governor of luhansk has been telling his people that they need to evacuate that they need to get to safety we are likely to see more refugees fleeing the east now but the question for those people will be where do they go where is safe because even here in the west in la viv we saw how dangerous things can be yesterday with russian airstrikes hitting this city and taking civilian lives so it does look like the ukrainian forces are digging in in the east president zielinski said that those forces are prepared to defend every inch of the country but it looks like the fight is coming to them now he says they are equipped and ready to defend the ukrainian front lines but with a renewed russian assault the pressure really is on now we saw the military build up in the east with more russian soldiers and more russian heavy artillery tanks and armored vehicles coming into those eastern regions and they are now surging forward trying to take more ukrainian territory heading further west russians foreign minister sergey lavrov has been giving an interview in the past few hours or so he has said this is a significant turning point in russia's campaign with more on what the kremlin is saying from moscow here's jenny hil well the moscow acknowledges that this new phase has begun we heard um just now from the foreign minister here saying that the new phase of the so-called special military operation remember of course that moscow does not acknowledge that this is a war or an invasion and sergey lavrov said that this will be a very important phase and as you probably know russia's stated aim currently is to try to take the entire don bass region and this morning officials have issued an ultimatum to the fighters still defending the azov style steelworks plant in mariupol telling them that if they are prepared to lay down their weapons at around midday they will be able to leave the steel works within a couple of hours and they will be given safe passage out of the area they will be safe and that is the ultimatum from moscow and we've had quite a lot of fairly bullish updates all morning here from the ministry of defence talking about having struck well over 1200 military targets in ukraine overnight and that really remains the mood here and as you know vladimir putin wants russians to believe that his special military operation is going well so we very rarely hear bad news here that said a few reports are surfacing on social media and so on following the sinking of the moskva warship that great flagship of the black sea fleet it's sinking was a huge and humiliating loss for vladimir putin defense officials have continued to insist that all the crew were safely removed but some reports are surfacing on social media channels we haven't been able to confirm them but there are a number of them from relatives who say their sons and husbands have either been killed or were lost when the warship went down