Officials are raising concerns that Russia's relentless attacks on Ukraine's eastern Donbas region carry echoes of an earlier devastating assault on Mariupol. Here are the latest updates.
KRAMATORSK, Ukraine — Moscow-backed separatists pounded eastern Ukraine's industrial Donbas region Friday, claiming the capture of a railway hub as concerns grew that besieged cities in the region would undergo the same horrors experienced by the people of Mariupol in the weeks leading up to the port's capture.
"Massive artillery shelling does not stop, day and night," Sievierodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Striuk told The Associated Press."The city is being systematically destroyed — 90% of the buildings in the city are damaged." An assault was underway Friday in the city's northeastern quarter, where Russian reconnaissance and sabotage groups tried to capture the Mir Hotel and the area around it, Striuk said.
But the relentless assults in the Donbas also indicated Russia's desire to expand its dominion there. Ukrainian analysts said Russian forces have taken advantage of delays in Western arms shipments to step up their offensive there.
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