LVIV: Air strikes killed at least seven people in Ukraine’s western megacity of Lviv on Monday, as Russia pounded targets across the country and concentrated forces for an anticipated each- out assault in the east.
The air strikes in Lviv came just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky indicted Moscow of wanting to “ destroy” the entire eastern region of Donbas skirting Russia.
Russia’s defence ministry said it had hit 16 military targets at colorful locales across Ukraine. Following the attack on Lviv, black bank bagged from the eviscerated roof of a auto form shop in the northwest of the megacity as air raid enchantresses wailed.
“ Fires were set off as a result of the strikes. They’re still being put out. The installations were oppressively damaged,” Lviv indigenous governor Maksym Kozytsky said on social media.
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In the south, Russia continued its drive to capture the besieged harborage megacity of Mariupol where the last remaining Ukrainian forces prepared for a final stage.
Ukraine has pledged to fight on and defend the strategic megacity, defying a Russian claim for remaining fighters inside the encircled Azovstal sword factory to lay down their arms and rendition.
Internee exchange
Russian state Television on Monday broadcast a videotape of what it described as “ Britons” captured fighting for Ukraine and demanding that Prime Minister Boris Johnson negotiate their release.
The two gaunt- looking men asked to be changed for Viktor Medvedchuk, a Ukrainian mogul close to President Vladimir Putin, who was lately arrested in the pro-Western country. Ukraine also vented its own videotape featuring Medvedchuk calling for his exchange in return for an evacuation of civilians and colors from Mariupol.
“ I want to ask Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to change me for Ukrainian protectors and residers of Mariupol,” he said in the videotape published by Kyiv’s security services, wearing black clothes and looking directly into the camera.
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Mariupol has come a symbol of Ukraine’s suddenly fierce resistance since Russian colors raided the former Soviet state on Feb 24.
While several large metropolises were under siege, according to Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, not one — with the exception of Kherson in the south — had fallen, and further than 900 municipalities and metropolises had been re-captured.
Landing Mariupol would allow Russia to have a land ground between the Crimea promontory, which it adjoined in 2014, and the two Moscow- backed separatist statelets in Ukraine’s east.
‘ Last chance to save you’
In the east, Ukrainian authorities prompted people in Donbas to move west to escape a large-scale Russian descent to capture its compound regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.
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“ Russian colors are preparing for an obnoxious operation in the east of our country in the near future. They want to literally finish off and destroy Donbas,” Zelensky said.
