Ukraine: What happened today, Tuesday, April 19?
Russian military vehicles move on a highway in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces near Mariupol, Ukraine. Picture: AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov
Russia launched an all-out assault on the east of Ukraine on Tuesday, seizing its first town after unleashing thousands of troops in what Ukraine has described as the Battle of the Donbas, a campaign to take control of two provinces.
Ukrainian officials insist their troops can withstand the new assault, which they said began overnight.Â
In the first reported success of Russia's new offensive, Ukraine said the Russians had seized Kreminna, a town of 18,000 people in Luhansk, one of the two Donbas provinces in Russia's sights.
Russian forces were attacking "on all sides" while authorities were trying to evacuate civilians and it was impossible to tally the civilian dead, Luhansk's regional governor Serhiy Gaidai said this afternoon.
The Kremlin gave few details about its new campaign, but Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed that "another stage of this operation is beginning".Â
Ukrainian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russia was "methodically" carrying out its plan to "liberate" Donetsk and Luhansk, provinces which Moscow demands Kyiv cede fully to Russian-backed separatists.
In the ruins of Mariupol, the southeastern port city destroyed while withstanding nearly eight weeks of siege, Russia gave the last Ukrainian defenders holed up in a giant steel works an ultimatum to surrender by noon or die.
"All who lay down their arms are guaranteed to remain alive," the defence ministry said.Â
Russia has been trying to take control of the southeastern port city of Mariupol, which has been besieged since the war began on February 24. It is the site of the conflict's heaviest fighting so far and its worst humanitarian catastrophe.
Ukraine estimates that more than 20,000 civilians have died there, with tens of thousands more residents trapped in the city with no access to food or water. Capturing it would link pro-Russian separatist territory with the Crimea region that Moscow annexed in 2014
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Ukrainians in a video address overnight that Ukrainian forces would withstand Russia's new attacks.
"No matter how many Russian troops they send there, we will fight," he said.Â
Driven back by Ukrainian forces in March from an assault on Kyiv in the north, Russia has instead poured troops into the east to regroup for a ground offensive in the Donbas. It has also been launching long-distance strikes at other targets including the capital.Â
- Japan will send gas masks, hazmat suits and drones to Ukraine to help defend the country against Russia’s invasion amid growing concern of chemical weapons use by the Russian military.
- Humanitarian and housing costs of caring for 5.5m Ukrainian refugees will amount to €50bn to €60bn, necessitating more EU funds, a ratings firm has estimated.
- The deputy prime minister of Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk has said there will be no humanitarian corridors set up again today in Ukraine, the third day consecutive day without agreed escape routes.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine's main eastern city which is close to the supply lines for Russian troops advancing on the Donbas, shells hit the southeastern Nemyshlianskyi district in early afternoon, wrecking one apartment building and damaging others.
Three bodies of people apparently killed by shrapnel lay outside on the pavement. There was no immediate confirmation of overall casualty numbers.
In Russia, the governor of the border province of Belgorod said Ukrainian forces had struck a village wounding three residents.Â
Ukraine's top security official, Oleksiy Danilov, said Russian forces attempted to break through Ukrainian defences "along almost the entire front line of Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions".
The coal-and-steel-producing Donbas has been the focal point of Russia's campaign to destabilise Ukraine since 2014 when the Kremlin used proxies to set up separatist "people's republics" in Luhansk and Donetsk.
Moscow now aims to capture the full provinces on the separatists' behalf.Â
Ukraine has a large force defending northern parts of the Donbas, and military experts say Russia aims to cut them off or surround them.
But Russia still needs to keep its troops supplied across miles of hostile territory, with difficulty moving off road in muddy terrain.Â
For its part, Ukraine has launched counterattacks near Kharkiv in the rear of Russia's advance, apparently aimed at cutting off supply lines, an echo of the tactics that defeated Russia's advance on Kyiv last month.
Zelenskyy adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said the new Russian offensive was doomed to fail because Moscow simply did not have enough troops to overrun the defences.
Western countries and Ukraine accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin of unprovoked aggression.Â
The White House said US President Joe Biden, who has called Russia's actions "genocide", would hold a call with allies on Tuesday to discuss the crisis, including how to hold Russia accountable.Â
French President Emmanuel Macron said his dialogue with Putin had stalled after mass killings were discovered in Ukraine.Â
Russia denies targeting civilians in what it calls a special operation to demilitarise Ukraine.Â
It has bombed cities to rubble, and hundreds of civilian bodies have been found in towns where its forces withdrew. It says, without evidence, that signs of atrocities were staged.
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