Recent footage obtained by journalist Andriy Tsaplienko shows dozens of Grad rockets being launched by Russian forces from a contested area of Donbass into territory held by the Ukrainian military.

This significant escalation of the conflict comes as Russian President Putin has recognized his puppet governments in Luhansk and Donetsk as sovereign republics and has now sent conventional troops into Ukraine to finalize their annexation. These massive rocket attacks, some of which are directed at civilian residential areas, haven't been seen in three or four years. Most of the recent conflict has been relegated to sustained artillery and mortar attacks on frontline trench fighting positions.

Western officials are predicting that Russia will not be satisfied with the contested areas of Donbass and will actually go ahead with a full scale invasion of Ukraine. UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told BBC that "We're seeing the precursors to a serious invasion."

Further speculation by Rob Lee, an expert on Russian military strategy, suggests that Russia will not want to fight a prolonged and costly war against Ukrainian troops and will rapidly attempt to distort Ukraine's political orientation through regime change, demilitarization, and forced alterations to the Ukrainian constitution.

Disclaimer: Due to Russia's misinformation campaign as part of their hybrid warfare strategy, it is difficult to verify and validate all media coming out of the conflict. We are doing our best to balance timeliness with accuracy to bring you the freshest footage. We may not get it all correct at all times, but we are doing our best, and we certainly appreciate constructive feedback and additional information from our community.