Russia has launched what Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov hailed as a second phase of the war in Ukraine, and early indications are it could go better for Russia than the first.

After a ferocious night of artillery bombardment along a 480-kilometer front line in the east, Russian forces took a pocket of territory including the city of Kreminna on Tuesday, according to the Ukrainian regional governor.

As a result they threaten to encircle an area at the top of the eastern front that, according to one military analyst, holds as much as 40% of Ukrainian troops in the region.