Two U.K. soldiers captured fighting for Ukraine appeal

Two British soldiers fighting with the Ukrainian army have appeared on Russian state television after being captured in the besieged port city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine.

Several propaganda clips aired on Rossia 1 and RT channels on Sunday and Monday, picturing U.K. citizens Shaun Pinner, 48, and Aiden Aslin, 28. They fought in Mariupol as part of Ukraine's 36th Marine Brigade.

On Sunday, Pinner, who appeared to be tired and bruised, spoke to Russian TV war reporter Andrey Rudenko and gave some details about the battle of Mariupol.

"I was fighting in Mariupol for five to six weeks and now I'm in Donetsk People's Republic," Pinner said in English, referring to the eastern region where Russia and pro-Russian separatists have been fighting Ukraine for years. It is not clear how exactly he was captured or when the video was filmed.

Rudenko can be heard telling Pinner in Russia that his unit "had no chance" in Mariupol.

"The servicemen of the 36th brigade say their command specially sent them to be killed to make heroes out of them later," Rudenko says, without evidence. "You didn't have a single chance to reach this settlement Zachatovka, since Russian and DPR [Donetsk People's Republic] troops were everywhere."

Earlier in the video, Pinner described how he and his unit attempted to evacuate from the area.

"We were in the industrial zone of Mariupol, it was decided to leave, but I can't say exactly where. At four o'clock on Tuesday morning, we started moving," Pinner said. "It was dark, we took the wounded with us. Mortar and artillery attacks began, military aviation worked, panic began."

"Another phase" of Russia's invasion of Ukraine "is starting now," Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said in a television interview seen in India on Tuesday, stressing that Russia's goal is the "full liberation of the Donetsk and Luhansk republics." His comments came hours after Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia's offensive in the east of the country had started.

"The Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas," Zelenskyy said in a video address late Monday. A "significant part of the entire Russian army is now concentrated on this offensive."

The eastern Donbas region of Ukraine is mostly Russian-speaking. Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces there for the past eight years and have declared two independent republics that have been recognized by Russia.

In recent weeks, after its attempt to storm Kyiv failed, the Kremlin declared that its main goal of the war was to capture the Donbas region. After withdrawing from the capital, Russia began regrouping and reinforcing its ground troops in the east for an all-out offensive.

"No matter how many Russian troops are driven there, we will fight," Zelenskyy said. "We will defend ourselves. We will do it every day."

Moscow said it struck 1,200 targets in Ukraine overnight and told the last Ukrainian forces defending Mariupol's giant Azovstal steel mill that if they surrendered before noon, they would "keep their lives."

Ukrainian troops who have defended the city for seven weeks have ignored previous, similar offers. The Azovstal plant, which covers the territory of about 4 square miles, is the last major Ukrainian pocket of resistance in Mariupol. Mariupol is a strategic port on the Sea of Azov. Its capture is important for Russia because it stands in the way of a land bridge to Crimea.

Russia launched its long-feared, full-scale ground offensive to take control of Ukraine's east on Monday, attacking along a broad front over 300 miles (480 kilometers) long, Ukrainian officials said in what marked the opening of a new and potentially climactic phase of the war.

"The Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced in a video address. He said a "significant part of the entire Russian army is now concentrated on this offensive."

The Donbas is Ukraine's mostly Russian-speaking industrial heartland in the east, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces for the past eight years and have declared two independent republics that have been recognized by Russia.

In recent weeks, the Kremlin declared the capture of the Donbas its main goal of the war after its attempts to storm Kyiv failed. After withdrawing from the capital, Russia began regrouping and reinforcing its ground troops in the east for an all-out offensive.

"No matter how many Russian troops are driven there, we will fight," Zelenskyy vowed. "We will defend ourselves. We will do it every day."

The offensive got underway after Russia bombarded the western city of Lviv and a multitude of other targets across Ukraine in what appeared to be an intensified bid to grind down the country's defenses.

The Ukraine military's general staff said Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces were increasing assaults in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions — both of which are part of the Donbas — as well as in the area of Zaporizhzhia.

"This morning, almost along the whole front line of the Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kharkiv regions, the occupiers attempted to break through our defenses," Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine's national security council, was quoted as telling Ukrainian media. "Fortunately, our military is holding out. They passed through only two cities. This is Kreminna and another small town."

He added: "We are not giving up any of our territories."

A Ukrainian military official said street battles had begun in Kreminna and that evacuation was impossible.

Luhansk regional military administrator Serhiy Haidai said heavy artillery fire set seven residential buildings on fire and targeted the sports complex where the nation's Olympic team trains.

Holiday later told Ukrainian television that Russians took control of the city after "leveling everything to the ground," so his forces retreated to regroup and keep on fighting.

Meanwhile, in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Denys Prokopenko, commander of the Azov Regiment of the Ukrainian National Guard that was holding out against Russian forces, said in a video message that Russia had begun dropping bunker-buster bombs on the Azovstal steel plant where the regiment was holed up.

The sprawling plant contains a warren of tunnels where both fighters and civilians are sheltering. It is believed to be the last major pocket of resistance in the shattered city.

At least seven people were reported killed in missile strikes on Lviv, a city close to the Polish border that has seen only sporadic attacks during almost two months of war and has become a haven for civilians fleeing the fighting elsewhere. To the Kremlin's increasing anger, Lviv has also become a major gateway for NATO-supplied weapons.

The attack on Lviv hit three military infrastructure facilities and an auto shop, according to the region's governor, Maksym Kozytskyy. He said the wounded included a child.

A Lviv hotel sheltering Ukrainians who had fled the fighting in other parts of the country was also badly damaged, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said. The city has seen its population swell with elderly people, mothers, and children trying to escape the war.

"The nightmare of war has caught up with us even in Lviv," said Lyudmila Turchak, who fled with two children from the eastern city of Kharkiv. "There is no longer anywhere in Ukraine where we can feel safe."

Lviv, the biggest city and a major transportation hub in western Ukraine, is about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Poland, a NATO member.

Russia has strongly complained about the increasing flow of Western weapons to Ukraine and warned that such aid could have consequences. On Russian state media, some anchors have charged that the supplies amount to direct Western engagement in the fight against Russia.

A powerful explosion also rocked Vasylkiv, a town south of the capital of Kyiv that is home to an airbase, according to residents. It was not immediately clear what was struck.

Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, was hit by shelling that killed at least three people, according to Associated Press journalists on the scene. One of the dead was a woman who appeared to be going out to collect water in the rain. She was found with a water canister and an umbrella by her side.