Russia forces attacking along broad east front, Ukraine says

Firefighters work to extinguish a fire after an air strike hit a tyre shop in Lviv, Ukraine (Mykola Tys/AP)

Russian forces attacked along a broad front in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday as part of a full-scale ground offensive to take control of the country’s eastern industrial heartland in what Ukrainian officials called a “new phase of the war”.

Ukraine’s General Staff said Russian forces were focusing their efforts on taking full control of the Donbas region. “The occupiers made an attempt to break through our defences along nearly the entire frontline,” the General Staff said in a statement on Tuesday.