Kyiv, Ukraine (AP) – Russian forces have resumed scattered attacks on Kyiv, western Ukraine and beyond Saturday as an explosive reminder to Ukrainians and their Western supporters that the country remains under threat despite Russia’s bid to launch a new offensive in the east.
Horrified by the loss of its flagship in the Black Sea and outraged by the alleged Ukrainian aggression on Russian territory, the Russian military command warned a day earlier of renewed missile strikes on the Ukrainian capital. Authorities in Moscow said they were targeting military sites.
But the victims of the war are much deeper. Every day brings new discoveries of civilian victims of a war that shattered European security and plunged East-West relations to new lows. In the Kyiv region alone, Ukrainian authorities said they had found the bodies of more than 900 civilians, most of them shot dead after Russian troops withdrew two weeks ago.
Russia’s preparations for the expected eastern offensive have resulted in more casualties. Nine civilians were killed and more than 50 were injured Friday, the president’s office said.
An explosion believed to have been caused by a rocket struck near an open market in Kharkov, Ukraine’s second-largest city, on Saturday, according to firefighters and AP journalists at the scene. One person was killed and at least 18 were injured, according to rescuers.
Smoke rose in the capital early Saturday in eastern Kyiv, when Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced a strike in the Darnytskyi district. One person was killed and several others were injured, he said. The mayor advised residents who had fled the city earlier in the war not to return for safety.
“Our air defense forces are doing everything possible to protect us, but the enemy is insidious and ruthless,” Klitschko said.
It was not immediately clear from the ground what had been hit in the attack. Darnytskyi is a sprawling district at the southeastern end of the capital, containing a mix of Soviet-style apartment blocks, newer shopping malls and large shopping malls, industrial areas and railway stations.
Earlier this week, the Russian military said it would strike in Kyiv, and Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Saturday against an armored vehicle plant in the Ukrainian capital. He did not specify the location of the plant, but there is one in the Darnytskyi region.
He said he was among many Ukrainian military sites affected by “high-precision, long-range weapons.” As the United States and Europe send new weapons to Ukraine, the strategy could focus on cracking Ukraine’s defenses before what is expected to be a full-scale Russian attack in the east.
This was the second strike in the Kyiv region in two days. Another hit a missile plant on Friday as signs of pre-war life began to emerge in the capital after Russian troops failed to capture the city and withdrew to focus on carrying out a full-scale attack in eastern Ukraine.
Kyiv was not the only target away from the Eastern Front on Saturday. The governor of Lviv region in western Ukraine, an area long considered a safe haven, has announced air strikes on the region from a Russian Su-35 plane taking off from neighboring Belarus. Governor Maxim Kozitsky did not provide details of possible casualties or damage.
Fighting continued in the shattered southern port city of Mariupol, where Russian forces maintained a blockade from the first days of the invasion, and a dwindling number of Ukrainian defenders opposed the siege.
The capture of Mariupol will allow Russian forces to the south, rising through the annexed Crimean peninsula, to fully connect with troops in the Donbass region, Ukraine’s eastern industrial core.
The battle for control of the city is terribly costly for trapped and starving civilians. Locals say they have seen Russian soldiers dig up bodies from backyards and ban new burials.
“Why the exhumation is taking place and where the bodies will be taken is unknown,” the city council said in a statement on Friday.
This week, the mayor said the death toll in the city could exceed 20,000. Other Ukrainian officials said they expected to find evidence in Mariupol of atrocities such as those found in Bucha and other cities outside Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has accused Russian troops occupying parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions in the south of terrorizing civilians and persecuting anyone who has served in Ukraine’s army or government.
“The occupiers think it will be easier for them to control this territory. But they are very wrong. They are deluding themselves, “Zelenski said in his evening video address. “Russia’s problem is that it has not been accepted – and will never be accepted – by the entire Ukrainian people. Russia lost Ukraine forever.
He also warned in an interview with CNN that “all countries in the world” must be prepared for the possibility of Russian President Vladimir Putin using tactical nuclear weapons in the war, a major fear since Putin launched it on February 24.
Zelensky estimated that between 2,500 and 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers died during the war and about 10,000 were wounded.
The Russians are holding about 700 Ukrainian soldiers and more than 1,000 civilians, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk said in a televised address Saturday. Vereshchuk said Ukraine holds about the same number of Russian troops as prisoners and intends to negotiate an exchange with Moscow, but insists on the release of civilians “without any conditions.”
Russia’s warning of intensified attacks on the capital came after Russian authorities accused Ukraine on Thursday of injuring seven people and damaging about 100 residential buildings by air strikes in Bryansk, a region bordering Ukraine.
Ukrainian authorities have not confirmed that any targets have been struck in Russia, and the reports cannot be independently verified.
However, Ukrainian authorities struck a key Russian warship with missiles earlier this week, an important victory for Ukraine and a symbolic defeat for Russia.
Moscow, named after the Russian capital, sank while being towed to the port on Thursday after severe damage. Moscow did not admit to the attack, saying only that the fire detonated ammunition on board.
The sinking reduced Russia’s firepower in the Black Sea and appears to symbolize Moscow’s wealth in an eight-week invasion widely seen as a historic mistake following Russia’s withdrawal from the Kyiv region and much of northern Ukraine.
After the withdrawal, the bodies were abandoned on the streets of cities around Kyiv or temporarily buried. Andriy Nebitov, who heads the region’s police, quoted police as saying that 95% had died from gunshot wounds.
“Therefore, we understand that during the (Russian) occupation, people were simply executed in the streets,” Nebitov said.
More and more bodies are being found every day under rubble and in mass graves, he added, with the largest number found in Bucha, more than 350. According to Nebitov, utility workers have collected and buried bodies in the Kyiv suburbs while it remains below. Russian control. Russian troops, he added, have “tracked” people who express strong pro-Ukrainian views.
It is uncertain when Russia will launch a full-scale campaign.
The diplomatic rift between Russia and the West widened further on Saturday after Moscow banned British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and a dozen other senior British officials from entering the country in response to British sanctions.
___
Chernov reported from Kharkov. Yeshitsa Fish from Kramatorsk, Ukraine, Robert Burns in Washington and Associated Press journalists from around the world contributed to this report.
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war
Add Comment