Ukraine war: Russian forces link up with separatist allies

Russian troops and pro-Moscow rebels have linked up in a key region along the Azov Sea coast in eastern Ukraine, a defence ministry spokesman said Tuesday, on the sixth day of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russian troops annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and have used the region to launch attacks since Thursday when Moscow began its invasion.

The rebels had “joined the military units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, which took control of the regions of Ukraine along the coast of the Sea of Azov,” Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.

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Pro-Kremlin separatist fighters in east Ukraine have been pushing west as part of the offensive. A defence official in the Donetsk breakaway region earlier Tuesday said forces intended to surround a key port city separating the annexed peninsula and rebel territory.

Electricity has been cut off in the key southeastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol on the Azov Sea following attacks from advancing Russian forces, the head of the region Pavlo Kyrylenko said earlier in the day.

Konashenkov said that on Tuesday, “the Russian army carried out strikes with long-range high-precision weapons from the sea,” without specifying the targeted area.

He said that “two airfields and three air defence radars were hit” in Ukraine, adding that no civilian infrastructure was targeted.