Ukraine’s Defense Ministry on Thursday released an aerial video of what it said were Russian rockets hitting Ukrainian positions in the eastern part of the country as the war progressed three months ago.
The ministry said the video shows a series of rocket blasts hitting targets near Novomykhailivka in the Donetsk region, causing shock waves and large plumes of smoke.
Russian TOS-1A bombing Ukrainian positions near Novomykhailivka, Donetsk region. This is the biggest and most horrible war of the 21st century. Ukraine are ready to attack. To do that, we need a NATO-style MLRS. Immediately. pic.twitter.com/XwdBfAfEq8
– Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) May 26, 2022
“This is what the biggest and most horrible war of the 21st century looks like,” the defense ministry said.
The ministry added that “Ukraine is ready to counterattack”, but can only do so and achieve NATO-style multiple rocket launch systems “immediately”.
Russian forces continued to press their offensive in various parts of the eastern Donbas region, according to the Ukrainian Army General Staff. That industrial core of coal mines and factories is now the focus of the struggle after Russia suffered a series of setbacks and moved to more limited targets.
Regional governors say at least four civilians were killed and seven others injured in bombings on Thursday in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, while three were killed in attacks on the eastern city of Lysychansk and around, which is a key focus of the fighting.
Military officials said Russian forces continued to try to settle in the Sievierodonetsk area, which is the only part of the Lugansk region in the Donbas under the control of the Ukrainian government.
In the devastated port city of Mariupol, Russia began broadcasting state television news, even when a Russian-backed separatist leader suggested that there could be more Ukrainian fighters hiding in its vast Azovstal steelmaker than it was the focus of weeks of bombing.
The Russian military declared Azovstal and Mariupol as a whole “completely liberated” on May 20 and reported that 2,439 fighters hiding in the plant had surrendered.
The leader, Denis Pushilin, said some of the fighters may have been hidden, lost or backed by those who came out, adding that “some have already been found” and captured.
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