No sooner had Russian forces fully gained control of the Luhansk Oblast in eastern Ukraine than they began bombing those parts of the Donetsk region that the invaders have not yet controlled.

According to Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko, the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk were shelled on Tuesday night.

According to the governor, they are the main targets of the current offensive.

Nicholas Zimmerman

Editor in Politics.

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"Slovyansk!

Massive bombardment of the city.

In the center, in the north.

Everyone in the air-raid shelter,” wrote the mayor there, Vadym Lyakh, on Tuesday afternoon on Facebook.

With the statement to get as many people as possible out of the city, he called for evacuation.

According to police, a woman was killed in an attack on a market.

At least three people were injured.

In Kramatorsk, Mayor Oleksandr Gonsharenko reported night air raids.

People are not supposed to have died.

The Russian attacks in the Donetsk region do not only affect the two strategically important cities.

Rather, Russia is attacking over a large area.

"In the Donetsk region there is no safe place without shelling," Governor Kyrylenko said on Tuesday.

This statement may also be an appeal to the population to seek protection.

But in fact, from Monday to Tuesday, the bombings happened in various places that are directly on the border with the Russian-controlled areas or only a few kilometers away.

According to the governor, at least 563 people have been killed and 1,467 injured by Russian bombardments since February 24.

At the same time, Kyrylenko acknowledged that it is difficult to establish the actual number of victims, since cities like Mariupol and Volnovakha that were heavily shelled in the spring are currently under Russian control.

Bombing to prevent counterattacks

The Russian offensive has shifted from the Luhansk region to the Donetsk region, despite Russian President Vladimir Putin saying on Monday that soldiers involved in the "liberation" of the Luhansk region should rest.

At the same time, Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu had announced that the "military special operation" would be continued.

The Russian attacks carried out afterwards show that there can be no talk of rest.

From Monday to Tuesday, Russian bombardments were not only in Donbass.

The authorities in and around the major cities of Mykolaiv, Dnipro and Kharkiv also reported on aerial attacks on Tuesday.

"In the morning the occupiers fired rockets at Mykolayiv," Mayor Oleksandr Senkevich wrote on Telegram.

The city is only about 30 kilometers from the Russian-controlled area around the city of Kherson.

Even closer to invader-held areas is the large city of Kharkiv.

As was the case between Mykolaiv and Cherson, the recent bombings in the Kharkiv area have primarily targeted those towns that have been liberated by Ukrainian forces in the past two months.

In the inland city of Dnipro, the Ukrainian air force reported intercepting six Russian shells on Tuesday morning, while a seventh hit a residential building.

However, the Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych does not want to be impressed by the attacks on various fronts.

"This is the last victory for Russia on Ukrainian territory," he said Tuesday of the recent Russian capture of the cities of Lysychansk and Severodonetsk in the Luhansk region.

“These were medium-sized cities.

And it lasted from April 4 to July 4 - that's 90 days," Arestovych said in a video message.

"They paid a high price for Severodonetsk and Lysychansk," the presidential adviser said.

60 percent of the Russian armed forces are tied up in the east and there are no more forces that can be brought in from Russia.

The British Ministry of Defense also stated in its situation report on Tuesday that the Russian advances in Donbass had been slow so far.

It is "realistic" that the Ukrainian forces will retreat to a front line that is easier to defend.

The latest Russian airstrikes on areas that the Ukrainians have recently regained control of can be interpreted to the effect that Moscow wants to prevent further counterattacks.

The statement by a representative of the self-proclaimed People's Republic of Luhansk, distributed by the Russian news agency RIA, that the Ukrainian troops must be pushed back to the Kyiv region fits in with this.

According to information from Russia, Ukrainian forces managed to attack targets in the two Russian border regions of Bryansk and Kursk on Tuesday, despite the Russian offensive.

Ukrainian representatives did not comment on this.