Russian forces step up Donbas campaign, G-7 pledges new aid

KYIV • Russian forces bombarded areas of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region from land and air yesterday, destroying houses in residential districts and killing a number of civilians, Ukrainian officials said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the assaults had turned the Donbas into "hell".

In the southern port city of Mariupol, scene of the war's bloodiest siege, the last heavily wounded fighters from holdout Ukrainian units had been evacuated from their bastion, the Azovstal steelworks, their commander said.

It was not clear if the remaining defenders there had definitively laid down their arms.

As the war neared its three-month mark, the Ukrainian military said massive artillery barrages, including from multiple rocket launchers, had hit civilian infrastructure in the Donbas region bordering Russia. Russian aircraft had also struck targets, the general staff said in a statement.

"The Russian army has started very intensive destruction of the town of Sievierodonetsk, the intensity of shelling doubled, they are shelling residential quarters, destroying house by house," Luhansk governor Serhiy Gaidai said via his Telegram channel.

"We do not know how many people died, because it is simply impossible to go through and look at every apartment."

Earlier reports had put the civilian death toll in the Luhansk area of the Donbas at 13 in the past day, with 12 of them in Sievierodonetsk, which lies on a river about 110km north-west of the regional capital.

"The Donbas is completely destroyed," Mr Zelensky said on Thursday night. "It is hell there - and that is not an exaggeration."

The Kremlin, meanwhile, said it was bolstering its forces on Russia's western border, saying that moves by Finland and Sweden to join Nato were part of an increase in military threats, and it was taking "adequate countermeasures".

"By the end of the year, 12 military units and divisions will be established in the western military district," Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said at a meeting yesterday. The army expects to receive more than 2,000 units of military equipment and weapons, he added.

Finland and Sweden formally applied to join Western defence alliance Nato on Wednesday.

Mr Shoigu also said the "liberation of the Luhansk People's Republic" would be completed soon.

An industrial region, Donbas comprises Donetsk and Luhansk, parts of which were already controlled by Moscow-backed separatists before the war. Mr Shoigu said Russian troops and separatist militia were expanding their control there.

Russia's focus on the Donbas follows its failure to capture the capital Kyiv in the early stages of the invasion launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Feb 24.

Analysts say that while Russian forces have advanced in Luhansk, they have made less progress in Donetsk. They have also been pushed back from the city of Kharkiv, north of the Donbas and close to the Russian border.

British military intelligence said yesterday that Russia is likely to further reinforce its operations in the Donbas once it finally secures Mariupol - scene of a weeks-long siege and Moscow's biggest success in a campaign of mixed fortunes.

The past week has seen Russia all but secure victory in Mariupol, with the Kyiv government ordering the defenders of the Azovstal steelworks to stand down.

British military intelligence said as many as 1,700 soldiers were likely to have surrendered at the plant. Mr Shoigu put the number of those laying down their arms at about 2,000.

Ukrainian officials, who have tried to arrange a prisoner swop, have declined to comment on the number, saying it could endanger rescue efforts.

Western powers, who have strongly condemned Russia's actions and sought to isolate Moscow with an array of sanctions, were stepping up support for Ukraine.

The Group of Seven's (G-7) financial leaders agreed on billions in new aid to Ukraine yesterday and promised enough money to keep the country's devastated economy afloat for as long as it fights against Russia's invasion.

Finance ministers and central bank governors of the United States, Japan, Canada, Britain, Germany, France and Italy - the G-7 - said their support for Ukraine this year so far would be at least US$19.8 billion (S$27.3 billion). The German Finance Ministry clarified that the total included US$10.3 billion already promised or disbursed earlier.

REUTERS