Russia struck eastern and southern Ukraine on Tuesday as the United States vowed to “keep moving heaven and earth” to get the weapons it needs to repel the new offensive, despite Moscow’s warnings that such support could provoke wider war.
Russian missile fire also knocked down a strategic railway bridge along the route connecting the southern Ukrainian port region with neighboring NATO member Romania, Ukrainian authorities said.
The attack on the bridge – along with a series of strikes on key railway stations the day before – seems to mark a major change in Russia’s approach. So far, Moscow has spared strategic bridges, perhaps hoping to keep them for its own use in the conquest of Ukraine.
But now it seems to be trying to thwart Ukraine’s efforts to relocate troops and supplies.
In the south, Ukrainian forces retaliated in the Kherson region, while Alexander Kamishin, head of Ukraine’s state railways, said no one was injured in Russia’s attack on a railway bridge in the Odessa region.
Battle of Donbass
After unexpectedly fierce resistance from Ukrainian forces thwarted Russia’s attempt to seize Ukraine’s capital at the start of the war, Moscow now says its focus is on capturing Donbass, a predominantly Russian-speaking industrial region in eastern Ukraine, partly held by Moscow-backed separatists.
In its latest assessment of the fighting, the British Ministry of Defense reported on Russia’s progress and heavy fighting in the Donbass, with one city, Kremina, apparently falling after days of street-to-street fighting.
WATCH Lavrov warns of World War III:
Russia’s foreign minister warns that NATO risks World War III with arms supplies to Ukraine
Russia’s top diplomat warned Ukraine not to provoke a third world war and said the threat of nuclear conflict “should not be underestimated.” 4:16
In the devastated southern port city of Mariupol, authorities said Russian forces had carried out 35 airstrikes on the Azovstal steel plant in the past 24 hours. The factory is the last known fortress of Ukrainian fighters in the city. It is said that about 1,000 civilians are sheltered there with about 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers.
“Russia has drastically increased its strikes in the last 24 hours and is using heavy bunker bombs,” said Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the Mariupol mayor. “The number of wounded will be clear once the ruins are cleared.”
He also accused Russian forces of shelling a route they had proposed as a corridor to escape the steel plant.
Beyond Mariupol, local authorities said at least nine people had been killed and several others injured in Russian attacks on cities in eastern and southern Ukraine. Pavlo Kirilenko, governor of the Donetsk region of Donbass, told the Telegram news release that Russian forces “continue to deliberately fire on civilians and destroy critical infrastructure.”
The Ukrainian military also said Russian forces had shelled Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city in the northeast, outside Donbass, but was seen as key to Russia’s apparent bid to surround Ukrainian troops in Donbass from the north, east and south. .
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the UN has said it agrees in principle with the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross to participate in the evacuation of civilians detained at the Mariupol steel plant.
UN spokesman Stefan Dujarric said talks would be held with the UN humanitarian service and the Russian Defense Ministry on the evacuation.
Putin accused Ukrainian troops of using civilians at the plant as shields and preventing them from leaving.
The Kremlin warns the West
Earlier on Tuesday, Guterres met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and again called for a ceasefire.
But Lavrov warned that if the Western arms flow continues, talks aimed at ending the fighting will not yield any results.
A day earlier, Lavrov accused the North Atlantic Treaty Organization of “adding fuel to the fire” by supporting Ukraine. He also warned against provoking World War III and said the threat of nuclear conflict “should not be underestimated”.
WATCH The former Ukrainian prime minister waved to the Russian “rattling the sword”:
Russia “rattles the sword” over Western allies arming Ukraine, says former prime minister
Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has joined Power & Politics to discuss Russia, accusing the West of waging a proxy war by providing military assistance to Ukraine. 6:16
On Tuesday, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin convened a meeting of officials from about 40 countries – including Canada – at US Air Force Base in Rammstein, Germany, and pressured allies to move “heaven and earth” to keep Ukraine well-armed. .
Entering Rammstein’s meeting, Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand stopped talking to reporters and discussed arms supplies from Canada to Ukraine and last week’s announcement that her government plans to send modern artillery and ammunition to Ukrainians.
CBC News reported that four M-777 howitzers were recently taken from the inventory of the 1st Regiment, the Royal Canadian Cavalry Artillery, based in Shiloh, Man., And taken off by C-17 heavy transport.
The Ministry of National Defense confirmed the shipment in a statement at the time, but did not confirm the number of weapons sent. When asked about Tuesday’s issue at Ramstein, Anand hinted that more howitzers could be part of the package.
Together, the Allies have sent approximately $ 5 billion worth of military equipment to Ukraine since the invasion began on February 24. The United States accounts for the lion’s share of that amount: $ 3.7 billion.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, attends a meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Moscow on Tuesday. (Vladimir Astapkovich / Sputnik / Reuters)
Explosions in a separatist region of Moldova
For the second day in a row, explosions shook the separatist region of Transnistria in neighboring Moldova, killing two powerful radio antennas near the Ukrainian border and further heightening fears of a wider conflict erupting across Europe. No one claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Ukraine almost blamed Russia.
The incident took place in the town of Mayak, about 12km west of the Ukrainian border, according to the region’s interior ministry. This comes just a day after reports that several explosions believed to have been caused by grenade launchers hit the Ministry of State Security in the city of Tiraspol, the region’s capital.
No one was injured in the blasts, officials said.
It was unclear who was behind the Transnistrian bombings, but the United States has repeatedly warned that Russian forces could launch operations under a false flag to create a pretext for invading other countries. About 1,500 Russian troops are based in Transnistria, a long, narrow strip of land with about 470,000 people along the Ukrainian border. It has been controlled by separatist authorities since the 1992 war with Moldova.
Southern Ukraine and Moldova have been on the brink since a senior Russian military officer said last week that the Kremlin’s goal is to secure not only eastern Ukraine but the entire south so as to pave the way for Transnistria.
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