A tank proceeds along a road near Mariupol on April 17, 2022. (Photo by Victor/Xinhua)
BEIJING, April 19 (Xinhua) -- The Russia-Ukraine conflict continued as Russian forces have begun the battle for the Donbas region. The following are the latest developments:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address on Monday that "Russian troops have started the battle for Donbas, for which they have been preparing for a long time. A very large part of the entire Russian army is now focused on this offensive."
"No matter how many Russian troops are driven there, we will fight," Zelensky was quoted as saying by the state-run Ukrinform news agency.
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Zelensky on Monday handed over a questionnaire aimed at achieving his country's candidate status for the European Union (EU) membership to the EU Ambassador to Ukraine Matti Maasikas, the presidential press service said.
"Today is one of the stages for our country in joining the EU, the aspiration that our people are striving for and fighting for," Zelensky said at the handover ceremony in Kiev.
The people of Ukraine are united by the goal to become a part of the EU, Zelensky stressed, noting that the prompt work on providing a questionnaire to Ukraine is an important signal for Kiev.
Ukrainian people move towards a border crossing at the border area between Ukraine and Poland. (Xinhua/Ren Ke)
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Russian troops destroyed a depot of weapons supplied by Western countries near west Ukraine's Lviv on Monday morning, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
The Russian Aerospace Forces used high-precision airborne missiles to hit a logistics center of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near Lviv, destroying large consignments of weapons arrived from the United States and European countries over the past six days, Konashenkov told a briefing.
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Russia is expelling a number of Bulgarian diplomats in response to the expulsion of 10 Russian diplomats from Sofia last month, the country's foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday.
The ministry summoned the Bulgarian ambassador on Monday and declared some employees of the Bulgarian Embassy in Moscow "personae non gratae," it said, without disclosing how many are targeted.
A man walks near a residential building damaged in Mariupol on April 17, 2022. (Photo by Victor/Xinhua)
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Western countries' "economic blitzkrieg" strategy against Russia has failed, President Vladimir Putin said Monday at a government meeting on economic issues.
The main negative factor for the Russian economy in recent years has been Western sanctions, which were aimed at "quickly undermining the financial and economic situation in our country, provoking panic in the markets, destroying the banking system, and causing a large-scale shortage of goods in stores," Putin said. ■
