Gun Shooting Spreading Wide, Ukrainian Troops Prepare For New Russian Military Offensive

President Zelensky together with members of his military. (Source: President.gov.ua)

JAKARTA - Ukraine is bracing for a new offensive by Russian ground forces, following widespread shelling that killed more than 30 people across the region over the weekend to Monday.

Ukraine's general staff said shelling across the country was a preparation for an intensification of hostilities as Russia sought to seize Donetsk province, as well as control the entire heart of Ukraine's Donbas industry.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had carried out 34 air strikes since Saturday, one hitting a five-story apartment killing 31 people and trapping dozens more.

Meanwhile, military experts say Russia is using attacks like the one at Chasiv Yar in Donetsk province, to pave the way for new attacks on territory by ground forces, after claiming victory in Lugansk Province on July 4. Both have been partly controlled by Russian-backed separatists since 2014.

"(Russia) unfortunately has a huge advantage in artillery," President Zelenskiy told reporters in Kyiv on Monday alongside Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

"With all partners ready to provide support, I'm talking about artillery. It's not enough," he said.

Meanwhile, Moscow denies targeting civilians but many cities, towns, and villages in Ukraine have fallen into ruins. And the human toll from the Russian invasion, Europe's biggest conflict since World War Two and now in its fifth month, is rising.

Russia's state news agency TASS reported that a Ukrainian attack on the Russian-held town of Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine killed six people and left many injured.

"There are six people confirmed (dead). And dozens more injured, (with) shrapnel wounds, injuries," the report said, citing Vladimir Leontyev, head of the civil-military administration of the Kakhovka District that Russia is stationed in the Kherson region.

"There are still many people under the rubble. The injured were taken to hospital, but many people were blocked in their apartments and houses," Leontyev added. Reuters was unable to independently verify battlefield accounts.

President Putin invaded Ukraine on February 24 claiming it was a 'special military operation' to demilitarize his neighbor and rid him of dangerous nationalists. Meanwhile, Kyiv and the West say it is an imperialist land grab by Putin.

After Putin failed to capture the capital Kyiv quickly, his troops turned to Donbas, where its two provinces, Donetsk and Luhansk, have been partly controlled by Russian-backed separatists since 2014.

President Putin himself wants to hand over control of Donbas to the separatists and on Monday relaxed rules for Ukrainians to acquire Russian citizenship.