Russia’s progress in eastern and southern Ukraine is being closely monitored as its forces appear to have escalated assaults on those regions.
Having re-focused its attacks away from northern Ukraine and the capital Kyiv, Russian forces are now looking to take full control of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine in order to create a land bridge from Russia to Crimea, territory it annexed in 2014.
In the latest update from the Ukrainian military, its spokesman said Russian forces “are focusing their efforts on blocking and trying to destroy Ukrainians units in the Azovstal” steelworks where soldiers and civilians have been holed up for up to two months.
“With the support of aircraft, the enemy resumed the offensive in order to take control of the plant,” Ukraine said in its update Thursday morning.
Another 344 civilians were evacuated from the city and suburbs of the southern port city of Mariupol and are on the way to the Ukraine-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the Russians have made uneven progress in the Donbas region, following weeks of resupply and repositioning efforts. Nonetheless, the U.S. and its allies are rushing to send additional security assistance amid an intensified Russian assault in eastern and southern Ukraine.
Former U.S. President George W. Bush and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met via an online video conference, where Zelenskyy invited Bush to visit Ukraine.
Bush in turn conveyed his support for the president and the people of Ukraine.
“Your courage is very important for further success. If you continue to do what you do, you will always have our support if you continue to fight as you do now,” he said, according to the Ukrainian president’s office.
Bush also called Zelenskyy “the Winston Churchill of our time,” according to a statement from the George W. Bush Presidential Center.
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