Russian Forces Seize Kreminna In Battle For Ukraine’s Donbas Region

As Ukraine reports of greater fighting throughout the east of the besieged nation, Russia says it has begun a new phase of the invasion.

Russia’s defence ministry said that “high-precision air-based missiles” had hit 13 targets in the Donbas region, while other air raids “hit 60 military assets”, close to the eastern front line.

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The large-scale attacks on Tuesday saw Russian forces overran the city of Kreminna, home to more than 18,000 people, in eastern Ukraine, before making their way towards Ukraine's military hub of Kramatorsk, one of Russia's potential targets in Donbas.

The regional governor said the assault on Kreminna took place “from all sides”.

“Kreminna is under the control of the ‘Orcs’ [Russians]. They have entered the city,” Serhiy Haidai, governor of the Luhansk region, told a briefing. “Our defenders had to withdraw. They have entrenched themselves in new positions and continue to fight the Russian army.”

Meanwhile, Russian forces are pounding down upon the southern port city of Mariupol, in the bid to cement a ground link between Kremlin controlled territory in eastern Ukraine and the Crimea region which was seized by Moscow in 2014.

Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday, that forces continue to "methodically carrying out" plans to "liberate" the two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine.

"The plan to liberate the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics is being methodically carried out," Mr Shoigu was quoted by the RIA news agency.

While a Ukrainian marine commander fighting in the last stronghold of Mariupol said they were “maybe facing our last days, if not hours”.

Posted in a Facebook message on Wednesday morning, the commander, taking shelter at the besieged Azovstal factory appealed for extraction.

“The enemy is outnumbering us 10 to one,” Serhiy Volyna from the 36th Separate Marine Brigade said.

"We are probably facing our last days, if not hours. The enemy is outnumbering us 10 to one."

“We appeal and plead to all world leaders to help us,” Volyna said in the video. “We ask them to use the procedure of extraction and take us to the territory of a third-party state.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the situation in the besieged city of Mariupol is “as severe as possible”.

“The Russian army is blocking any efforts to organise humanitarian corridors and save our people,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address. “The fate of at least tens of thousands of Mariupol residents who were previously relocated to Russian-controlled territory is unknown.”

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