Donbas ‘destroyed’ as Russian forces step up strikes

KYIV, May 20 (Reuters/AFP): Russian forces bombarded areas of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region from land and air on Friday, destroying houses in residential districts and killing a number of civilians, Ukrainian officials said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the assaults had turned the Donbas into "hell".

As the war neared its three-month mark, the Ukrainian general staff said massive artillery barrages, including multiple rocket-launchers, had hit civilian infrastructure.

Russian aircraft had also struck at targets, the general staff said in a statement.

"The Russian army has started very intensive destruction of the town of Sievierodonetsk, the intensity of shelling doubled, they are shelling residential quarters, destroying house by house," Luhansk governor Serhiy Gaidai said via his Telegram channel.

"We do not know how many people died, because it is simply impossible to go through and look at every apartment," he said.

Earlier reports had put the civilian death toll in the Luhansk area of the Donbas at 13 in the past day, with 12 of them in Sievierodonetsk, which lies on a river about 110 km (70 miles) northwest of the regional capital.

"The Donbas is completely destroyed," President Zelenskiy said in an address on Thursday night. "It is hell there - and that is not an exaggeration."

Reuters could not independently verify the reports and Russia denies targeting civilians.

In Moscow, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said the "liberation of the Luhansk People's Republic" would be completed soon.

The industrial region compromises the Donetsk and Luhansk areas, parts of which are controlled by Moscow-backed separatists.

Meanwhile, In a sign of Russia's urgent need to bolster its war effort in Ukraine, parliament said on Friday it would consider a bill to allow Russians over 40 and foreigners over 30 to sign up for the military.

The website of the State Duma, parliament's lower house, said the move would enable the military to utilise the skills of older professionals.

Earlier, top US General Mark Milley spoke by telephone on Thursday with his Russian counterpart General Valery Gerasimov, their first discussion since before Russian forces invaded Ukraine on February 24, the Pentagon said.

Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gerasimov, chief of the Russian General Staff, "discussed several security-related issues of concern," according to a spokesman for the US Joint Staff, offering no other details.

According to a report by TV Zvezda, which is controlled by the Russian Defence Ministry, the call took place at the request of Milley and the two spoke about the situation in Ukraine.

The last time the two spoke by telephone was on February 11, when Washington was warning publicly of Russian plans to invade Ukraine and was hoping its warnings would discourage Moscow from moving ahead.