Russian forces launched offensives on towns in eastern Ukraine today, with constant mortar bombardment destroying several houses and killing civilians, Ukrainian officials said, as Russia focuses its attack on the industrial Donbas region.

After failing to seize Kyiv or Ukraine's second city Kharkiv, Russia is trying to take the rest of the separatist-claimed Donbas' two provinces, Donetsk and Luhansk, and trap Ukrainian forces in a pocket on the main eastern front.

In the easternmost part of the...