Russia resumes combat in Donbass after operational pause

Russia renewed its offensive in the eastern Ukrainian Donbass region on Saturday after a short break to regroup its forces.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered a faster pace of attacks during an inspection of units involved in the invasion of Ukraine.
Moscow's Defence Ministry said Shoigu had given instructions "to expand the activities of the army groups in all directions of attack."
The ministry said the aim was to stop Kiev from conducting "massive artillery and missile attacks on infrastructure and civilians in the Donbass and other regions."
Ukraine's military reported it had repelled Russian assault attempts in the direction of Bakhmut and near Donetsk in the past 24 hours. The military's General Staff also said that after the regrouping Russia had resumed an assault on the Vuhlehirsk thermal power plant, and that fighting there is ongoing.
Military experts from the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) have also observed that Russian troops are ending the breather they took after capturing the twin cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk.
At the moment, the fighting is still small-scale. "If the operational pause is truly over, the Russians will likely continue and expand such assaults in the coming 72 hours," according to the ISW analysis.
Amid the latest scaling up of hostilities, Russia's Defence Ministry confirmed that it was responsible for a missile strike this week on the industrial city of Dnipro.
The Friday attack left three dead and 15 injured. Ukraine said the attack struck an occupied street in the industrial city, while Russia's Defence Ministry said it struck a factory producing replacement parts for ballistic missiles.
It was not initially possible to independently confirm either claim.
On Saturday, Ukraine's air force said Russia had launched six missiles from the Caspian Sea towards Dnipro and Zaporizhzhya, four of which were intercepted and two of which hit agricultural land. Moscow did not initially confirm the claims.
Russia invaded Ukraine nearly five months ago. After initial failures in the north of the country as it targeted the capital Kiev, Moscow made gains in the eastern Donbass area through massive artillery deployment.
However, Kiev has also managed to inflict some setbacks on Russia using rocket launchers sent from Western allies.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday his country had recaptured some areas occupied by Russian and would continue to fight to win back territory.
The United States believes Russia is attempting to acquire Iranian combat drones, with a senior US government official saying Washington has information that a Russian delegation visited an Iranian airport for a demonstration of attack-capable drones.
A British intelligence update meanwhile said the scope and scale of Russia's advances remain limited, and that Moscow has repeatedly made false claims about successes in its invasion of Ukraine.
Russia's claims a few days ago that they had advanced into the town of Siversk were not true, according to the Ministry of Defence update.
Amid a looming global food crisis brought on by the war, the pro-Moscow administration of the south-eastern Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhya, which is partially occupied by Russian troops, says it is exporting grain on a large scale.
Yevhen Balytskyi, the head of the military administration, said more than 100 wagons had already been shipped. He did not say where the shipments were headed, but by train they can only be transported to Crimea or Russia. Ukraine has accused Russia of stealing grain for months, which Moscow has denied.
Before the war, Ukraine was one of the largest exporters of grain worldwide. According to Kiev, over 20 million tons are stuck in the country due to the Russian invasion and blockades of its sea ports.