Russia intensifies its assault with fresh strikes on eastern Ukraine

KRAMATORSK, Ukraine — Determined to seize control of Ukraine’s industrial heartland, Russia on Tuesday intensified its assaults across the country’s east while keeping up the bombardment of Ukrainian forces in the besieged southern port of Mariupol.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that in 24 hours, Russian forces had launched strikes against more than 1,200 Ukrainian military facilities and targeted more than 1,200 troop concentrations, details that could not be independently verified.

Ukraine says Russia has begun its long-expected all-out assault on the east — and Moscow’s top diplomat confirmed Tuesday that the struggle had entered its next stage. Western military officials and analysts warned that the current Russian attacks may be setting the battlefield for a larger and potentially far more brutal offensive planned by Moscow.

“We think that these offensives are preludes to larger offensive operations that the Russians plan to conduct,” a Pentagon official said Tuesday. The official, who spoke