Ukraine on Sunday warned that fighting around Mariupol, the southern port city in Ukraine may increase in coming days. The warning has come after Moscow said that it was focussing military resources to capture the Donbas region in the east.
“This means a potential or sharp deterioration around Mariupol,” an adviser to the head of the President’s office, Oleksiy Arestovich, said in a video statement.
He was referring to a surprise Russian statement on Friday that it was time for Moscow to set as its “main goal” controlling Donbas, an eastern region already partly held by Russian proxies.
“This gives us hope in the area of Kyiv, Chernigiv, Sumy and Kharkiv regions, that we will drive the enemy out of here,” Arestovich said, referring to north and eastern regions.
He also said that Ukrainian forces were counterattacking the Russian forces in these areas.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into Ukraine on February 24 with the aim of defending pro-Moscow separatists to and “demilitarise and de-nazify” the country.
The Russian announcement on Friday would amount to a sharp change of course with much limited goals that would not include an assault on the capital.
Moscow’s month-long invasion on its pro-democracy neighbour has largely stalled with no major recent advances and Ukrainian forces even able to counterattack in places.
(With inputs from agencies)
