Russia starting new phase of its Ukraine operation, says Foreign Minister Lavrov

Moscow: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow's campaign in Ukraine is entering a new stage of what it calls its special military operation in Ukraine, which he predicted would be a significant development.

Sergey Lavrov said in an interview that "the operation is continuing, and another phase of this operation is starting now."

According to Lavrov, the current situation in Ukraine is a direct result of the US and West's desire to rule and dominate the world.

In the interview, he said: "The current events are rooted in the US and West's desire to rule the world. They wanted to show the world there would be no multipolarity, only unipolarity, and created a springboard [Ukraine] against us [Russia] at our borders. They pumped arms into Ukraine."

In response to a question about the possible use of nuclear arms in the war, the Foreign minister also said that Russia will use only conventional weapons in Ukraine.

Western intelligence officials have warned that the Kremlin might turn to tactical or other limited nuclear weapons from its arsenal if its invasion of its southern neighbour continues to struggle.

Lavrov's statement follows Ukrainian statements that Russia on Monday launched an offensive in the country's eastern industrial heartland, Donbas.

Meanwhile, Russia ratcheted up its battle for control of Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland, intensifying assaults on cities and towns along a front hundreds of miles long in what officials on both sides described as a new phase of the war.

After a Russian push to the capital failed to overrun the city, the Kremlin declared that its main goal was the capture of the eastern Donbas region.

If successful, that offensive would give President Vladimir Putin a vital piece of Ukraine and a badly needed victory that he could present to the Russian people amid the war's mounting casualties and the economic hardship caused by the West's sanctions.

In recent weeks, Russian forces that withdrew from Kyiv have regrouped in preparation for an all-out offensive in the Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces for the past eight years and have declared two independent republics that have been recognised by Russia.

While Ukraine's President and other

officials said the offensive had started, observers noted that it was just the beginning of a

new massive onslaught.

Ukraine's military said early on Tuesday that a new phase of war began a day earlier when the occupiers made an attempt to break through "our defenses along nearly the entire frontline". The Russian Foreign minister said in an interview that another phase of this operation is starting now.

In what appeared to be an intensification of attacks, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said air-launched missiles destroyed 13 Ukrainian troop and weapons locations while the air force struck 60 other Ukrainian military facilities, including missile warhead storage depots.

The assaults began that day along a boomerang-shaped front that stretches more than 300 miles (480 kilometres) from northeastern Ukraine to the country's southeast.

Russia said it struck several areas with missiles, including the northeastern city of Kharkiv as well as areas around Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro west of the Donbas. Five civilians were killed in a barrage on Kharkiv, Gov. Oleh Synyehubov said on Tuesday.

The capture of Kreminna also takes the Russians closer to the city of Slovyansk, whose loss by the Russia-backed separatists represented a humiliating setback for Moscow in the early stages of the separatist conflict in 2014.

Russian artillery hit 1,260 Ukrainian military facilities and 1,214 troops concentrations over the last 24 hours. However, the claims could not be verified.