Russia 'clearly' preparing for next stage of offensive in Ukraine, Kyiv says
Russia is preparing for the next stage of its offensive in Ukraine, a Ukrainian military official said, after the Kremlin said its forces would step up its attacks in "all operational areas".
"It is not only missile strikes from the air and sea," Vadym Skibitskyi, a spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence, said on Saturday.
"We can see shelling along the entire line of contact, along the entire front line. There is active use of tactical aviation and attack helicopters."
"There is indeed a certain activation of the enemy along the entire front line... Clearly preparations are now underway for the next stage of the offensive,” Skibitskyi said.
The Ukrainian military said Russia appeared to be regrouping units for an offensive towards Sloviansk, a symbolically important city held by Ukraine in the eastern region of Donetsk.
The British defence ministry said on Sunday that Russia was reinforcing its defensive positions across the areas it occupies in southern Ukraine.
The reinforcements include movement of manpower and equipment, defensive stores between Mariupol and Zaporizhzhia, and in Kherson, while Russian forces in Melitopol are also increasing security measures, the ministry wrote on Twitter in a regular bulletin.
Ukrainian authorities said at least 40 people had been killed in the Russian shelling of urban areas in the last three days, as the war launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin on 24 February intensifies.
Rockets hit the northeastern town of Chuhuiv in Kharkiv region on Friday night, killing three people including a 70-year-old woman and wounding three others, said regional Governor Oleh Synehubov.
"Three people lost their lives, why? What for? Because Putin went mad?" said Raisa Shapoval, 83, a
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