Ukraine had hoped to evacuate more civilians from the besieged Mariupol steel plant on Saturday as Russian forces launched new bombings across the country ahead of Victory Day celebrations in Moscow.
The Azovstal steel plant is the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the devastated port city, and its fate has acquired symbolic value in the wider battle unleashed by Russia’s invasion.
Ukraine’s defense minister said Russian forces had resumed their attack on the site, despite earlier talks on a ceasefire that would allow trapped civilians to escape the complex.
Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk said rescuers would try to evacuate more civilians on Saturday.
Ukrainian forces have launched their own counter-offensive.
According to the Ministry of Defense, Russian forces were forced to demolish three road bridges near Tsirkuni and Ruski Tishki outside Kharkov to delay the Ukrainian offensive.
According to British intelligence, Ukrainian forces, equipped with high-quality weapons from Western allies, have managed to destroy at least one of Russia’s most modern tanks, the T-90M.
On Monday, Moscow and President Vladimir Putin will celebrate the Soviet victory in World War II over Nazi Germany with a traditional Victory Day parade.
Russia’s campaign in Ukraine has met with fierce resistance – and has provoked Kyiv’s Western allies to impose massive economic sanctions on Russia’s economy and Putin’s inner circle.
Aerial view shows Ukrainian Bayraktar UAVs hitting Russian landing ships with missiles, on the island of Zmiinyi (Snake), Ukraine, in this still image from a video published by the Press Service of the Ukrainian Land Forces on May 7, 2022. UKRAINIAN SULP
But with Victory Day fast approaching, Ukrainian authorities fear more intense missile and artillery bombardment and renewed attacks as Moscow fights for symbolic victories.
The Ukrainian rescue service said a rocket struck a technical college in Konstantinovka, in the eastern region of Donetsk, causing a fire and at least two deaths.
Donetsk Regional Governor Pavlo Kirilenko said there had been “massive bombings” along the front line. Strikes have also been reported in northern Ukraine near the city of Kharkiv and in the southern city of Mykolaiv, a key Russian target.
“war of attrition”
According to Margaret Brennan, senior CBS News correspondent and Face the Nation moderator, the “war of attrition” has begun in Ukraine as Russian forces carry out a dirty push using heavy artillery fire in the south and east of the country. together deep blows to the west in Ukraine in an attempt to disrupt the logistics supply lines used by the West. Predicting when the Russian offensive will end is very complicated, a European official in Washington told reporters.
In the long run, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s goal is to take over the wider Donbass region, where Ukrainians and Russians have been fighting since 2014, as well as the land bridge connecting mainland Ukraine with Russian-occupied Crimea. However, Russian forces – pushing from the east, south and north of Izyum, in eastern Ukraine, while using heavy artillery fire – have not yet made much progress on the ground, the European official said.
“The conflict in Ukraine is having a severe impact on some of Russia’s most combat-ready units and state-of-the-art capabilities,” said British Defense Intelligence.
“It will take considerable time and money for Russia to rebuild its armed forces after this conflict,” he said, warning that sanctions on advanced components would make it difficult to rearm Russia.
Meanwhile, the West is stepping up arms supplies to Ukraine’s defenders.
US President Joe Biden announced on Friday another $ 150 million package of military aid, including anti-artillery radars used to detect the source of enemy fire.
This brings the total value of American weapons sent to Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion to $ 3.8 billion.
Biden called on Congress to approve an additional $ 33 billion package, including $ 20 billion in military aid, “to strengthen Ukraine on the battlefield and at the negotiating table.”
G7 leaders, including Biden, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet by video conference Sunday to discuss Western support for Kyiv.
“There will be no return to the past”
On Friday, Zelensky said “diplomatic options” were under way to rescue Ukrainian soldiers from Mariupol’s steel production as the evacuation of civilians continued.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said 50 people had been evacuated, including 11 children.
It added that they had been handed over to the United Nations and the Red Cross, which were supporting the operation, and that the “humanitarian operation” would continue on Saturday.
It is estimated that about 200 civilians, including children, have been trapped in the tunnels and bunkers below Azovstal, along with Ukrainian soldiers who are making the final statement.
Russia announced a ceasefire during the day at the plant for three days, starting Thursday, but the Ukrainian military said Russian “assault operations” continued by land and air.
The Ukrainian Azov Battalion, in charge of Azovstal’s defense, said a Ukrainian fighter had been killed and six wounded when Russian forces opened fire while trying to evacuate people by car.
After failing to take Kyiv at the start of the war, Russia shifted its offensive to southern and eastern Ukraine.
Taking full control of Mariupol would allow Moscow to build a land bridge between the Crimean peninsula, which it annexed in 2014, and separatist, pro-Russian regions to the east.
In those regions, the separatists said they had removed road signs in Ukrainian and English for Mariupol and replaced them with Russian ones.
Locals want to see proof that “Russia is back here forever,” said Denis Pushilin, head of the breakaway Donetsk region.
In neighboring Luhansk, Ukrainian authorities said on Friday that Russian forces had almost surrounded Severodonetsk – the easternmost city still holding Kyiv – and were trying to storm it.
Kherson to the south remains the only significant city that Russia has managed to capture since the beginning of the war.
A senior Russian parliamentarian who visited the city on Friday also stressed that Russia will remain in southern Ukraine “forever”.
“There should be no doubt about that. There will be no return to the past,” Andrei Turchak said.
As European countries tried to impose restrictions on Russian assets abroad, Italian authorities detained the megayacht as speculation emerged that it might even belong to the Russian president.
Scheherazade is worth about $ 700 million. The financial police managed to “establish significant economic and business ties” between the owner and “prominent people in the Russian government.”
Researchers from the anti-corruption foundation of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny have linked the yacht to Putin.
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