CHASIV YAR, Ukraine — Russia’s offensive in eastern Ukraine is intensifying in Donetsk province, with a string of towns and villages coming under bombardment in the last week as Russian troops turn their firepower farther west after seizing control of the last city under Ukrainian control in Luhansk province.
The attacks have mostly seemed random and without purpose, but taken as a whole they make clear that Russia is preparing to capture another slice of Donetsk, the other province in the Donbas region.
Even as the Russia military command announced an operational pause to allow its main troop force to regroup, its forces have increased bombardment of the five main towns and cities in the area — Bakhmut, Kramatorsk, Sloviansk, Druzhkivka and Kostiantynivka — as well as surrounding villages.
The deadliest attack came late Saturday, when rockets struck an apartment complex in the village of Chasiv Yar, a dozen miles from the front. At least 15 people were reported dead.
All through Sunday, soldiers and emergency crews worked to rescue people from the bombed complex, pulling a sixth survivor from the rubble nearly 24 hours after the Russian rockets hit. Still, officials said late Saturday that a number of people might still lay beneath the debris.
In the nearby town of Druzhkivka, four rockets struck just after dawn Saturday, shaking the city, smashing windows and damaging a shopping center and other public buildings, but causing no casualties. The neighboring town of Kostiantynivka came under two cluster-bomb attacks Saturday afternoon.
The fighting in Ukraine was picking up intensity on other fronts as well. In the south, it was Ukrainian forces using artillery to hit Russian troops in the area around the city of Kherson, in what officials suggested would become an effort to retake territory that has been held by Russia since nearly the beginning of the war.
And in northeastern Ukraine on Saturday, Russia sent both military and political signals that its forces might make a new push near Kharkiv, a crucial city that has been bitterly fought over and is still held by Ukraine. Rocket attacks struck there early in the day, including hitting a school.
View original article on nytimes.com
© 2022 THE NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY
