Ukraine Armed Forces (UAF) units turned back a series of Russian Federation (RF) attacks in the eastern Donbas sector, as Kremlin forces continued a campaign of pounding civilian homes and businesses, according to Wednesday, March 30, official statements.
A 06:00 sitrep from Ukraine’s Army General Staff (AGS) said UAF units operating in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions on Tuesday turned back four separate RF attacks, destroying seven RF tanks, seven RF infantry fighting vehicles, and accompanying trucks.
A Tuesday statement from the Azov National Guard Regiment from inside the besieged city Mariupol said defenders fought all day at close range against RF attackers, destroying three tanks and one infantry fighting vehicle. One of the RF tanks was burned by Azov fighters throwing Molotov Cocktails, the statement said.
Serhiy Haidai, head of the Luhansk defense command, said that RF heavy artillery pounded a residential district of the city Lysychansk on Monday morning, badly damaging multiple-story apartment buildings. Rescue workers were on the scene attempting to save an unknown number of civilians trapped in the debris, Haidai said.
Oleksy Arestovych, a Presidential Administration advisor, during an appearance on a television marathon aired by the national channel UT1 said that UAF intelligence believes the Kremlin’s top priority in the war, now that it has abandoned plans to conquer all of Ukraine or take major cities like Kyiv or Kharkiv, is to carve out an enclave in the Donbas region, and hold it indefinitely.
UAF forces are shifting to the region and “there is a giant fistfight” in progress at battlefields across the Donbas region, Arestovych said.
