Russia assaulted cities and towns along a boomerang-shaped front hundreds of miles long and poured more troops into Ukraine on Tuesday.
If successful, the Russian offensive in what is known as the Donbas would essentially slice Ukraine in two and give President Vladimir Putin a badly needed victory after the failed attempt by Moscow's forces to storm the capital, Kyiv, and heavier-than-expected casualties nearly two months into the war.
In what both sides described as a new phase of the war, the Russian assault began Monday along a front stretching more than 300 miles from northeastern Ukraine to the country's southeast. Ukraine's military said Russian forces tried to"break through our defenses along nearly the entire front line." That would translate to about 55,000 to 62,000 troops, based on what the Pentagon said at the start of the war was the typical unit strength of 700 to 800 soldiers. But accurately determining Russia's fighting capacity at this stage is difficult.
Justin Crump, a former British tank commander now with the strategic advisory company Sibylline, said the Ukrainian comments could, in part, be an attempt to persuade allies to send more weapons. An explosion also rocked Kramatorsk, killing at least one person and wounding three, according to AP journalists at the scene.
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