Russian forces appeared to make progress from northeast Ukraine in their slow fight to reach the capital, Kyiv, while tanks and artillery pounded places already under siege with shelling so heavy it prevented residents of one city from burying the growing number of dead.
In past offensives in Syria and Chechnya, Russia’s strategy was to crush armed resistance with sustained airstrikes and shelling that levelled population centres. That kind of assault has cut off Ukraine’s southern port city of Mariupol, and a similar fate could await Kyiv and other parts of the country if the war continues.
In Mariupol, unceasing barrages have thwarted repeated attempts to bring in food and water and to evacuate trapped civilians. On Friday, an Associated Press photographer captured the moment when a tank appeared to fire directly on an apartment building, enveloping one side in a billowing orange fireball.
Mariupol’s death toll has passed 1,500 in 12 days of attack, the Mayor’s office said. Continued shelling forced crews to stop digging trenches for mass graves, so the “dead aren’t even being buried”, the Mayor said.
Hospitals hit
Russian forces have hit more than a dozen hospitals since they invaded Ukraine on February 24, according to the World Health Organization. Ukrainian officials reported Saturday that heavy artillery damaged a cancer hospital and several residential buildings in Mykolaiv, a city west of Mariupol.
The Russian forces have struggled far more than expected against determined Ukrainian fighters. But Russia’s stronger military threatens to grind down the defending forces, despite an ongoing flow of weapons and other assistance from the West for Ukraine’s westward-looking, democratically elected government.
The conflict has already sent 2.5 million people fleeing the country. Thousands of soldiers on both sides are believed to have been killed along with many Ukrainian civilians.
On the ground, the Kremlin’s forces appeared to be trying to regroup and regain momentum after encountering tough resistance and amassing heavy losses over the past two weeks. Russian forces were blockading Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, even as efforts have been made to create new humanitarian corridors around it and other urban centres so aid can get in and residents can get out. Ukraine’s emergency services reported Saturday that the bodies of five people — two women, a man and two children — were pulled from an apartment building that was struck by shelling in Kharkiv. The Russians’ also stepped up attacks on Mykolaiv, in an attempt to encircle the city.
Multi-front attack
As part of a multi-front attack on the capital, the Russians’ push from the northeast appeared to be advancing, a U.S. defence official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to give the U.S. assessment of the fight. Combat units were moved up from the rear as the forces advanced to within 30 km of Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeared on video to encourage his people to keep fighting.
“It’s impossible to say how many days we will still need to free our land, but it is possible to say that we will do it,” he said from Kyiv.
