Western and Ukrainian sources renewed their expectations that Russian forces would launch a large-scale attack in eastern Ukraine with the aim of controlling the Lugansk and Donetsk regions, while Kyiv confirmed its readiness to repel any attack, and said it was investigating a possible Russian attack with chemical weapons in Mariupol.

Ukraine's Deputy Defense Minister Hana Maliar said on Tuesday that her country was checking information indicating that Russia may have used chemical weapons while besieging the southern port city of Mariupol.

"There is a theory that says that these may be phosphorous munitions, official information will come later," Maliar said in televised statements.

On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia may use chemical weapons in its war on his country.


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British military intelligence said that the fighting in eastern Ukraine would escalate over the next two to three weeks, and that Russian forces would continue to bring in their forces from Belarus to reinforce their positions in eastern Ukraine.

In the same context, the Associated Press quoted US officials as talking about new indications that the Russian army is ready to launch a major attack in the eastern Donbass.

Britain's Armed Forces Minister James Hebby said the West had all options to respond if chemical weapons were used in Ukraine.

In turn, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry confirmed that Russia has completed its military reinforcements in preparation for a new attack on the Donbass regions, and that it expects the actual battles to begin in these areas as soon as possible.

The ministry indicated that the Ukrainian forces are ready to repel this new attack, which is expected to be launched by the Russian forces on Donbass.

The spokesman for the Ukrainian General Staff also accused the Russian army of continuing to seek to control the areas bordering the Lugansk and Donetsk regions.

In the latest toll announced today, Tuesday, the Ukrainian Army Staff said that about 19,600 Russian soldiers have been killed since the start of the war on Ukraine.

Russian soldiers during previous operations in southern Ukraine (European - Archive)

Russian novel

On the other hand, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that the Russian Air Force destroyed a fortified command center of Ukrainian forces in Donetsk province.

Konashenkov added that Russian forces bombed 42 Ukrainian military installations, and destroyed a number of missile systems.

The spokesman said that his country's forces are continuing their operations in Ukraine, adding that the Russian army killed 40 people, whom he described as Ukrainian nationalists, and destroyed missile systems near Donetsk.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that Ukraine was preparing for what it called new provocations against Russia in the eastern province of Sumy, with the help of British special forces.

She added that French special forces accompanied by technicians arrived in Ukraine, and that their main goal was to conceal what they said were war crimes committed by Ukrainian forces, and to fabricate accusations against the Russian army.

The ministry revealed that it will open a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol to Crimea or Zaporozhye via Berdyansk, and also indicated that more than 17,000 people were evacuated from Lugansk, Donetsk, Mariupol and dangerous areas in Ukraine without the participation of the Kyiv authorities.

She said that the Kyiv authorities evaded resolving the issue of ensuring the safe exit of foreign ships from the ports of Ukraine.

In its latest data, the Russian Defense Ministry said today that its air force had targeted 32 Ukrainian military facilities in the last hours, and that its forces had destroyed 443 drones and 2,139 Ukrainian tanks and armored vehicles since the start of the military operation.

The ministry added that the Russian forces had thwarted an attempt to escape 100 Ukrainian soldiers from the Ilyich factory in Mariupol, and that the restrictions on air traffic and the closure of airports in south and southwest Russia had been extended until April 19.


Kharkiv and Mykolaiv

In Kharkiv, the largest city in the north-east, the city's regional administration announced the killing of 11 civilians - including a child - and the injury of 14 others as a result of the Russian bombing of the city.

Ukrainian accounts on Telegram published a clip documenting the sounds of shelling and shelling in Kharkiv this morning, Tuesday.

Al-Jazeera correspondent in Kharkiv also reported that several explosions rocked the city on Monday morning as a result of the Russian bombing that targeted sites in the city, including a warehouse of goods belonging to a commercial train station.

In Mykolaiv (southwest of the country), the Ukrainian army regained control of several villages in the vicinity of the city of Pashtenka, northeast of Mykolaiv, after battles with Russian forces.

The Russian forces had taken control of the city at the beginning of the war more than a month and a half ago, but withdrew under pressure from the Ukrainian forces and stationed in the adjacent villages.

For her part, Galina Daniilchenko, the mayor of Melitopol in Zaporozhye province, said that the Kyiv authorities have deliberately cut off electricity to the city since the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, leaving more than 250,000 people without electricity.

The neighborhoods of the Kerevsky region (west of Donetsk) witness the occasional fall of shells and missiles, in light of the continuing confrontations between separatist forces and Ukrainian forces in the city of Marinka on the western front of Donetsk.


The situation in Mariupol

The Associated Press quoted the mayor of Mariupol as saying that 6 weeks of what he called the brutal Russian siege of the city left 10,000 civilians dead.

The mayor of Mariupol added that Russian forces brought mobile crematoriums to cremate the bodies of the victims in the city, according to the Associated Press.

He revealed that the Russian forces transferred many of the corpses to a shopping center where refrigerators and cold stores are available.

The mayor of Mariupol accused the Russian army of obstructing humanitarian convoys heading to the city to hide the killings it committed there.