Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned of a ramped-up Russian offensive in his country’s east, with civilians rushing to flee the region ahead of what many fear could be a brutal new phase in the war.
Russia has deployed tens of thousands of troops to “prepare new attacks,” Zelenskyy warned Monday, a day after he vowed his country’s troops were prepared to “respond” to the new assault Moscow’s forces appeared poised to launch in eastern Ukraine.
Satellite images captured by Maxar, a commercial company that works with the U.S. government, appeared to show an 8-mile convoy of Russian military vehicles moving south toward the Donbas area, which seems likely to be the focus of a major new offensive.
Russia has appointed a general with a record of brutality in Syria to take over its operations in Ukraine, a U.S. official and a Western official confirmed. Zelenskyy said that in Mariupol, the besieged southeastern port city, tens of thousands of people were likely to have been killed. NBC News has not verified the numbers of deaths.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the first European leader to do so since the Feb. 24 invasion, and said he had “no optimistic impression” to report.
Nehammer said he told Putin that sanctions would continue and would mean long-lasting damage for Russia for decades. “I clearly told him that his attitude toward war is in no way even remotely shared,” Nehammer said at a news conference, adding that it is an invasion, according to Reuters.
