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Russia assaulted cities and towns along a boomerang-shaped front hundreds of miles long and poured more troops into Ukraine on Tuesday in a potentially pivotal battle for control of the country’s eastern industrial heartland of coal mines and factories, Associated Press reported.

If successful, the Russian offensive in what is known as the Donbas would essentially slice Ukraine in two and give President Vladimir Putin a badly needed victory following the failed attempt by Moscow’s forces to storm the capital, Kyiv, and heavier-than-expected casualties nearly two months into the war.

The eastern cities of Kharkiv and Kramatorsk came under deadly attack. Russia also said it struck areas around Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro west of the Donbas with missiles. Multiple explosions were heard early Wednesday in the southern city of Mykolaiv, the regional governor said. A hospital was reported shelled earlier in the nearby town of Bashtanka.

In Mariupol, the now-devastated port city in the Donbas, Ukrainian troops said the Russian military dropped heavy bombs to flatten what was left of a sprawling steel plant and hit a hospital where hundreds were staying.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Moscow’s forces bombarded numerous Ukrainian military sites, including troop concentrations and missile-warhead storage depots, in or near several cities or villages. Those claims could not be independently verified, according to the Associated Press.

In what both sides described as a new phase of the war, the Russian assault began Monday along a front stretching more than 300 miles (480 kilometers) from northeastern Ukraine to the country’s southeast. Ukraine’s military said Russian forces tried to “break through our defenses along nearly the entire front line.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Russian military was throwing everything it has into the battle, with most of its combat-ready forces now concentrated in Ukraine and just across the border in Russia.

“They have driven almost everyone and everything that is capable of fighting us against Ukraine,” he said in his nightly video address to the nation.

Despite Russian claims of hitting only military sites, they continue to target residential areas and kill civilians, he said.

“The Russian army in this war is writing itself into world history forever as the most barbaric and inhuman army in the world,” Zelenskyy said.

Weeks ago, after the abortive Russian push to take Kyiv, the Kremlin declared that its main goal was the capture of the mostly Russian-speaking Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces for eight years, Associated Press reported.

A Russian victory in the Donbas would deprive Ukraine of the industrial assets concentrated there, including mines, metals plants and heavy-equipment factories.

A senior US defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the Pentagon’s assessments of the war, said the Russians had added two more combat units, known as battalion tactical groups, in Ukraine over the preceding 24 hours. That brought the total number of units in the country to 78, all of them in the south and the east, up from 65 last week, the official said.

That would translate to about 55,000 to 62,000 troops, based on what the Pentagon said at the start of the war was the typical unit strength of 700 to 800 soldiers. But accurately determining Russia’s fighting capacity at this stage is difficult.

A European official, likewise speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss military assessments, said Russia also has 10,000 to 20,000 foreign fighters in the Donbas. They are a mix of mercenaries from Russia’s private Wagner Group and Russian proxy fighters from Syria and Libya, according to the official.

While Ukraine portrayed the attacks on Monday as the start of the long-feared offensive in the east, some observers noted that an escalation has been underway there for some time and questioned whether this was truly the start of a new offensive.

The US official said the offensive in the Donbas has begun in a limited way, mainly in an area southwest of the city of Donetsk and south of Izyum, Associated Press reported.

Justin Crump, a former British tank commander now with the strategic advisory company Sibylline, said the Ukrainian comments could, in part, be an attempt to persuade allies to send more weapons.

“What they’re trying to do by positioning this, I think, is ... focus people’s minds and effort by saying, ‘Look, the conflict has begun in the Donbas,’” Crump said. “That partly puts pressure on NATO and EU suppliers to say, ‘Guys, we’re starting to fight now. We need this now.’”

President Joe Biden is expected to announce a new weapons package in the coming days that will include additional artillery and ammunition, according to a US official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, according to the Associated Press.

Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla has said that Nepal and Bangladesh are among the top ten export destinations for India.

He said India’s total exports to these two countries amount to over 16 billion dollars.

Speaking at a program organized by the Bharat Chamber of Commerce on 'Post-Covid Economic Recovery', the Indian foreign secretary said Nepal is India’s ninth-largest export market and an important destination for Indian investments. Indian firms account for over 30% of the total FDI stock in Nepal, worth nearly USD 600 million.

There are about 150 Indian ventures operating in Nepal in the manufacturing, services, power sector and tourism industry, he said.

A number of reforms have been undertaken in recent years in Nepal which are expected to improve the ease of doing business in that country.

Some upcoming areas that may be attractive to Indian industry include vehicle assembly, hydropower, medicinal and aromatic plants, and pharmaceuticals, the top Indian diplomat said. He said, “Nepal is a close neighbor and economic partner of India. It is India’s ninth-largest export market and an important destination for Indian investments.” 

Foreign Secretary Bharat Raj Paudyal has said that economic partnership is the key area where Nepal and Bangladesh can work together to further expand and diversify the relationship.

Speaking at a program organized by the Institute of Foreign Affairs, a government think-tank, Paudyal identified trade, energy, tourism and travel, and connectivity as key areas where two countries can work together. 

“First and foremost is in the areas of trade. Even if we trade under the existing regional framework of SAFTA, the two countries do hold the potential to increase the current amount of trade many fold provided we rationalize our tariffs and limit the non-tariff barriers to a minimum," said the senior diplomat. 

Highlighting the need for cooperation in the energy sector, the foreign secretary said Nepal’s rivers have enormous potential to contribute to the clean and green energy security in our region.

This sector offers a new vista of sustainable and long-term beneficial collaboration between Nepal and Bangladesh, he said.

The Foreign Secretary further added that there also exists a promising potential in trilateral cooperation for cross-border energy trade between Nepal, Bangladesh, and India as we grow and prosper together. 

We are grateful to Bangladesh for providing an additional transit route via Rohanpur-Singabad railway transit that would facilitate Nepal’s access to Chittagong and Mongla Ports and help boost regional and sub-regional trade, he added.

Prime Minister and Nepali Congress (NC) President Sher Bahadur Deuba said that a conspiracy was being made to break the existing coalition in the government. 

Speaking at an event organised on Tuesday on the occasion of the 53rd anniversary of the Nepal Student Union (NSU), a student wing of the NC,  Deuba said that caution should be adopted to thwart the conspiracy. 

Deuba said, “The alliance has benefited the NC. We have got chief ministers and ministers in most provinces. I feel that I have done good work in the NC. The existing political alliance should not be broken at present. There is no situation wherein a single party gets the majority in the poll. So it should continue.” 

The NC President was of the view that the NSU should reach villages and school-level to increase its significance and meaning.

“NSU has its presence in colleges and campuses across the nation, but why it is losing the free student union elections,” he questioned adding that it required consolidating its foundations right from the school level.  

 Citing that he was also the NSU President in the past and students should dream of reaching the noted posts of Prime Minister and President in the future, he took time to urge students to explore excellence in academic careers as well.  

He further claimed that no force would defeat the party in the upcoming elections provided that it remained integrated and intact.   

On the occasion, the PM Deuba honoured NSU  founding President Bipin  Koirala, vice-president Sanad Regmi, general secretary Tika Pokhrel, and members Ramchandra Poudel, Surendra Bahadur Bist, Kedar Neupane, Damodar Gautam, Chakraraj Pant, Basant Gurung and Rajendra Bahadur Shah among others.