Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense on Thursday posted aerial video of what it said was Russian rockets hitting Ukrainian positions in the eastern part of the country as the 3-month-old war rages on.
The ministry said the video shows a series of rocket blasts hitting targets near Novomykhailivka, in the Donetsk region, triggering shockwaves and large plumes of smoke.
“This is what largest and most horrific war of the 21st century looks like,” the Ministry of Defense said.
The ministry added that “Ukraine is ready to strike back” — but can only do so it gets NATO-style multiple launch rocket systems “immediately.”
Russian forces continued to press their offensive in several parts of the eastern Donbas region, according to the General Staff of the Ukrainian military. That industrial heartland of coal mines and factories is now the focus of fighting after Russia suffered a series of setbacks and shifted to more limited goals.
Regional governors said at least four civilians were killed and seven others injured in shelling Thursday in Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv, while three were killed by attacks in and around the eastern city of Lysychansk, which is a key focus of fighting.
Military officials said Russian forces continued to try to gain a foothold in the area of Sievierodonetsk, which is the only part of the Luhansk region in the Donbas under Ukrainian government control.
In the ravaged port city of Mariupol, Russia began broadcasting state television news, even as a leader of the Russia-backed separatists suggested there might be more Ukrainian fighters hiding in its sprawling Azovstal steelworks that was the focus of weeks of bombardment.
The Russian military declared Azovstal and Mariupol on the whole “completely liberated” on May 20 and reported that 2,439 fighters who had been holed up at the plant had surrendered.
The leader, Denis Pushilin, said some of the fighters may have been hiding, lost or lagged behind those who came out, adding that “there are already those that have been found” and captured.
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