ZAPORIZH, Ukraine (AP) –
Russian forces fired cruise missiles at the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa on Saturday and bombed a steel plant in Mariupol home to Ukrainian civilians and fighters, hoping to complete the conquest of the port city in time for Victory Day celebrations. Ukraine has announced that all women, children and the elderly have been evacuated from the steel plant, a key Russian military target that has long been under siege.
In a sign of the unexpectedly effective defense that sustained the fighting in Week 11, the Ukrainian military compared Russian positions on a Black Sea island that was captured in the early days of the war and became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance.
Western military analysts say the Ukrainian counter-offensive is also advancing around the country’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, although it remains a major target of Russian shelling. The Ukrainian army says it has regained control of five villages and part of a sixth near the sharply disputed Kharkiv.
As Monday’s holiday, marking the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, approaches, cities in Ukraine are preparing for an expected increase in Russian attacks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on residents stunned by more than 10 weeks of war to heed warnings of air strikes.
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Saturday that Zelensky and his people “embody the spirit of those who prevailed during World War II.” He accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of “distorting history in order to justify his unprovoked and brutal war against Ukraine”.
“As war rages in Europe again, we must increase our determination to oppose those who are now seeking to manipulate historical memory to develop their own ambitions,” Blinken said in a statement issued when the United States and the United States Kingdom celebrated the victory of the Allies in Europe 77 years ago.
The most intense fighting in recent days has befallen eastern Ukraine, where the two countries are embroiled in a fierce race to seize or rebuild territory. Moscow’s offensive in eastern Ukraine has focused on claims to the Donbass industrial region, where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting since 2014 and occupying some areas.
Moscow has also tried to cross southern Ukraine to cut the country off from the sea and connect its territory with Moldova’s breakaway Transnistrian region, long home to Russian troops. But he is struggling to achieve these goals.
On Saturday, six Russian cruise missiles fired from planes hit the Odessa area, where authorities have a curfew until Tuesday morning. Videos posted on social media show thick black smoke rising over Odessa with howling sirens in the background.
Satellite images analyzed by the Associated Press show that Ukraine is targeting Russia-held Snake Island in an attempt to thwart Russia’s efforts to control the Black Sea. A satellite image taken early Saturday by Planet Labs PBC shows what appears to be a Serna-class ship landing off the island’s north beach.
The image corresponds to a Ukrainian military video showing a drone striking a Russian ship, engulfing it in flames. Snake Island, about 35 kilometers (20 miles) from the coast, was involved in a memorable incident at the start of the war, when Ukrainian border guards stationed there opposed Russian orders to surrender, ostensibly using colored language.
Against this background, the Ukrainian fighters took a final position to prevent the complete conquest of Mariupol. Securing the strategically important port of the Sea of Azov will give Moscow a land bridge to the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine during the 2014 invasion.
New satellite images analyzed by the AP show huge devastation in an extensive coastal steel plant, which is the last corner of Ukrainian resistance in the city. The buildings at the Azovstal plant, including one that may have housed hundreds of fighters and civilians, had large, gaping holes in the roof, according to photos taken Friday by Planet Labs PBC.
“The president’s order has been carried out: All women, children and the elderly have been evacuated from Azovstal (steel plant),” Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk said on Saturday, without elaborating. “This part of the humanitarian operation in Mariupol is over.
Russia’s Tass news agency reported that 50 civilians were evacuated from the plant on Saturday. A similar number remained on Friday. The latest evacuees were followed by about 500 others who were allowed to leave the plant and other parts of the city in recent days.
The evacuation of civilians from the plant has attracted worldwide attention, with the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross desperately trying to arrange departures.
In recent days, fighters at the plant have described the removal of small groups of civilians who have been in hiding for weeks. The militants issued a statement on social media saying that both they and the Russians used a white flag system to stop fighting to bring out civilians.
But Russian forces have stepped up fire at the steel plant in recent days with mortars, artillery, truck-mounted missile systems, aerial bombardment and shelling from the sea, making evacuation operations difficult.
It remains unclear what will happen to Ukrainian fighters there, both those still in battle and the hundreds believed to be wounded. In recent days, the Ukrainian government has turned to various international organizations to try to ensure their safe passage.
The flight of civilians is putting new pressure on Ukraine to find a way out for fighters who have vowed not to surrender. According to Ukrainian authorities, Russian forces have already explored the plant and even reached its maze of tunnels.
The Ukrainian government has also called on international organizations to help evacuate fighters defending the plant. According to Russia’s latest estimates, about 2,000 Ukrainian fighters remain at the Azovstal steel plant. They have repeatedly refused to surrender.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said “influential countries” had been involved in rescuing the troops, although he did not name any.
“We are also working on diplomatic options to rescue our troops who are still in Azovstal,” he said in an evening video address early Saturday.
The relief of those who were evacuated is mitigated by the memory of those still abandoned.
“They are in great need of our help,” said Sergei Kuzmenko, 31, who escaped with his wife, 8-year-old daughter and four others from their bunker, leaving 30 behind. “We need to get them out.”
As they raided the plant, Russian forces struggled to make significant profits elsewhere for nearly 2 1/2 months in a devastating war that killed thousands, forced millions to flee Ukraine and compared large parts of some cities.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s first Soviet capital with a pre-war population of about 1.4 million, remained a major target of Russian shelling in the northeast. However, Western military analysts say Ukrainian forces are making progress in securing positions around the city.
The Washington-based think tank, the Institute for War Research, said in its latest assessment that the Ukrainian military may be able to push Russian forces “out of Kharkov’s artillery reach in the coming days,” providing a break for the city. and the ability to build the momentum of defenders “in a successful, broader counter-offensive.”
In other events, a Russian rocket destroyed the Ukrainian National Museum on Saturday, dedicated to the life and work of an 18th-century philosopher, the local council said. He posted photos on Facebook showing Grigory Skovoroda’s museum engulfed in flames.
As an indication of its importance for Ukraine’s cultural heritage, Skovoroda’s resemblance adorns a Ukrainian banknote. The museum in Skovorodinovka is located near the Russian border in the Kharkiv region, where fighting has been fierce.
Zelensky said in his evening address that the “extraordinary strength of Ukraine’s position” lies in the fact that all countries in the free world understand what is at stake in the disastrous war.
“We are defending ourselves against an onslaught of tyranny that wants to destroy everything that freedom gives to people and states,” the Ukrainian leader said. “And such a struggle for freedom and against tyranny is completely understandable for every society, in every corner of the globe.
At the UN in New York on Friday, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted its first statement on Ukraine, expressing “strong support” for the Secretary-General’s efforts to find a peaceful solution to the 10-week “dispute”.
Negotiations to end the war are stalled. Zelensky said on Friday that he would be open to talks with Russia, but only if Moscow withdraws its forces to positions before the invasion.
“In this situation, we will be able to start discussing things normally,” Zelenski told a meeting at the London-based Chatham House think tank. Ukraine can then use “diplomatic channels” to regain territory, he said.
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Gambrell reported from Lviv, Ukraine. Jesitsa Fish in Zaporizhia, Inna Varenitsa and David Keaton in Kyiv, Juras Karmanau in Lviv, Mstislav Chernov in Kharkiv, Lolita S. Baldor in Washington and PA officials around the world contributed to this report.
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