KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukrainian forces have fought to thwart Russian attempts to advance south and east, where the Kremlin is seeking to take over the Donbass industrial region, and a senior US defense official says Moscow’s offensive is under way. much slower than planned.
As artillery fire, sirens and explosions were heard on Friday in some cities, the United Nations tried to mediate the evacuation of civilians from the increasingly infernal ruins of Mariupol, where the mayor said the situation at the steel plant, which has become the last port city in the southern part of the fortress is terrible.
Citizens are “begging to be saved,” said Mayor Vadim Boychenko. “There, it’s not a matter of days. It’s a matter of hours. “
In other developments:
“A former U.S. Marine was killed while fighting alongside Ukrainian forces,” his family said, in what would be the first known death of an American in a war. The United States did not confirm the report.
– The mayor of the town of Popasna in eastern Ukraine Mykola Hanatov said that two buses traveling to evacuate residents were shot at and that contact with drivers was lost.
– Ukrainian forces are repressing people accused of helping Russian troops. In the Kharkiv region alone, nearly 400 have been detained under anti-co-operation laws passed after Moscow’s February 24 invasion.
– International sanctions imposed on the Kremlin because of the war are putting pressure on the country. Russia’s central bank has said the Russian economy is expected to shrink by up to 10% this year and the outlook is “extremely uncertain.”
It was difficult to get a complete picture of the unfolding battle in the east, as air strikes and artillery shelling made the movement of reporters extremely dangerous. Both Ukraine and Moscow-backed rebels fighting in the east have also imposed strict restrictions on reporting from the war zone.
But so far, Russian troops and separatist forces appear to have made little profit.
Partly because of the strength of Ukrainian resistance, the United States believes the Russians are “at least a few days back where they wanted to be” as they try to encircle Ukrainian troops to the east, said a senior US defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity. to discuss the assessment of the US military.
As Russian troops try to move north of Mariupol to advance against Ukrainian forces from the south, their progress is “slow and uneven and certainly not decisive,” the official said.
The British Ministry of Defense proposed a similar assessment, saying it believed Russian forces in Ukraine were likely to suffer from “weakened morale”, along with a lack of unit-level skills and “inconsistent air support”.
Russian forces are “forced to merge and redeploy exhausted and disparate units from the failed attacks in northeastern Ukraine,” the ministry tweeted Saturday as part of a daily report on the war. She did not say on what basis she made the assessment.
In the bombed city of Mariupol, it was estimated that about 100,000 people were trapped with little food, water or medicine. About 2,000 Ukrainian defenders and 1,000 civilians were hidden at the Azovstal steel plant.
Soviet-era steelmaking has an extensive underground network of bunkers capable of withstanding air strikes. But the situation became even worse after the Russians dropped bunkers and other bombs.
“Locals who manage to leave Mariupol say it’s hell, but when they leave this fortress, they say it’s worse,” the mayor said.
UN spokesman Farhan Haq said the organization was in talks with authorities in Moscow and Kyiv to establish a safe passage.
This time, “we hope there is a slight hint of humanity in the enemy,” the mayor said. Ukraine has blamed the failure of numerous previous attempts to evacuate ongoing Russian shelling.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Saudi television Al-Arabiya that the real problem was that “humanitarian corridors are being ignored by Ukrainian ultranationals.” Moscow has repeatedly claimed that right-wing Ukrainians are obstructing evacuation efforts and using civilians as human shields.
In additional comments released Saturday by China’s official Xinhua news agency, Lavrov said Russia has evacuated more than 1 million people from Ukraine since the start of the war, including more than 300 Chinese civilians.
Ukraine has accused Moscow of forcibly sending Ukrainians out of the country.
Lavrov also said that Russian and Ukrainian negotiators spoke “almost every day”, but accused “militant rhetoric and incitement by Western supporters of the regime in Kyiv” of disrupting discussions.
Fighting is heard from Kramatorsk to Slavyansk, two cities about 18 kilometers (11 miles) apart in the Donbass. Pillars of smoke rose from the area of Slavyansk and neighboring cities. At least one person was reportedly injured in the shooting.
In his evening video address, Zelensky accused Russia of trying to destroy Donbass and all those who live there.
The constant attacks “show that Russia wants to empty this territory of all people,” he said.
“If the Russian invaders succeed in carrying out their plans, even in part, then they have enough artillery and planes to turn the whole of Donbass to stone, as they did with Mariupol.
Ukrainian troops in the Luhansk region of Donbass repulsed an attack by Russian airborne troops and killed most of them, the governor said.
“Only seven of the invaders survived,” Governor Sergei Haidai told the Telegram on Friday. The claim cannot be confirmed immediately.
He did not say where the attack took place, but said Russian forces were preparing to attack Severodonetsk.
In a neighborhood on the outskirts of Kharkov that is regularly shelled by Russian forces, some residents remain in their apartments, even though the buildings have charred gaping holes. There is no running water or electricity, so they gather outside to cook on an open fire.
Ukrainian reservists staying in a nearby cellar say the Russians hit the buildings with missiles, artillery and tank fire.
“A tank can come a short distance and fire all its ammunition in residential areas. It doesn’t matter where. And it is impossible to know where I will shoot, “said Vladislav, who, like the others in the unit, would only give his first name. “There is nothing here but residential buildings, schools and kindergartens.
Most of the reservists had civilian jobs before the war began and say they took up arms when the Russians invaded.
“When your city is destroyed, when people close to you are killed, there is no other option,” said a reservist named Igor.
Another reservist, nicknamed Malish, expressed disappointment that he was unable to do more to stop Russia’s offensive.
“I took up arms, but unfortunately I can’t catch flying rockets with my bare hands and throw them back,” he said.
Hundreds of people were evacuated in the nearby village of Ruska Lozava after Ukrainian forces recaptured the city from Russian occupiers, the regional governor said. Those who fled to Kharkov spoke of terrible conditions among the Russians, with little water or food and no electricity.
“We were hiding in the basement. It was horrible. The basement shook from the explosions. We shouted, cried and prayed to God, “said Lyudmila Bocharnikova.
Former US Marine Willie Joseph Cancel, 22, was killed Monday while working for a military company that sent him to Ukraine, his mother Rebecca Cabrera told CNN.
“He wanted to cross because he believed in what Ukraine was fighting for,” she said, “and he wanted to be a part of it to keep him there so he wouldn’t come here and maybe our American troops would.” “I shouldn’t be involved in this.”
The Marine Corps said Cancelle had served four years but had been fired for misconduct and sentenced to five months in prison for violating orders. Details of the crime are not reported.
At least two other foreigners fighting on the Ukrainian side, one from Britain and the other from Denmark, were also killed.
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Associated Press journalists John Gambrell and Juras Karmanau of Lviv, Mstislav Chernov of Kharkiv, Jesitsa Fish of Slavyansk, Lolita S. Baldor of Washington, and PA officials around the world contributed to the report.
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