Russia Begins 'Battle Of Donbas', All-Out Assault On East Ukraine

In First Success, Moscow Seizes Kreminna, A Frontline City; Pentagon Estimates That Russia Has Added Thousands of Troops In Recent Days

Thousands of Russian troops backed by artillery and rocket barrages began a long-anticipated offensive in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday. Ukrainian officials said their soldiers would withstand the assault, calling it the Battle of the Donbas. But the Russians pressed an advance across almost the entire stretch of the eastern front and, hours after its start, seized a frontline city.

Ukraine said the new assault had resulted in the capture of Kreminna, an administrative centre of 18,000 people in Luhansk, one of the two Donbas provinces. Russian forces were attacking on all sides, authorities were trying to evacuate civilians and it was impossible to tally the civilian dead, Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Gaidai said.