Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, March 12: As the Russian invasion of Ukraine entered the third week, its forces moved closer to Kyiv from the north, west and north-east with the Ukrainian authorities admitting on Saturday that its capital city was already “effectively under siege” and its army and volunteer forces preparing to defend the city “street by street.”
Ukrainian officials said Kyiv was “ready to fight” as Russian forces renewed their bombardment on the capital. Air raid sirens and shelling rang out over Kyiv and other major Ukrainian cities on Saturday morning amid warnings from western defence officials that the Russians were beginning to gain ground around the capital. Fighting raged on the outskirts of Kyiv as Russia’s expanding invasion bombarded cities into rubble.
Ukraine said the Russian troops also shelled a mosque in the southern port city of Mariupol, where more than 80 civilians have taken refuge, the country’s foreign ministry said. “The mosque of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and his wife Roxolana (Hurrem Sultan) in Mariupol was shelled by Russian invaders. More than 80 adults and children are hiding there from the shelling, including citizens of Turkey,” the Ukraine foreign ministry wrote on its Twitter account.
There was no immediate word of casualties from the shelling of Mariupol’s elegant, city-centre mosque. The encircled city of 446,000 people has suffered some of the greatest misery from Russia’s war in Ukraine, with unceasing barrages thwarting repeated attempts to bring in food and water, evacuate trapped civilians and to bury all of the dead.
Russian rocket attacks also destroyed a Ukrainian airbase near the town of Vasylkiv in the Kyiv region today. The rocket attacks also hit an ammunition depot, Vasylkiv Mayor Natalia Balasynovych said. Ukraine said it was apprehending that Russia would launch a new wave of attack on Kyiv, Kharkiv and Donbass regions after a slowdown in Russia’s offensive, Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, said on Saturday.
The Russian forces have made advancements in southern Ukraine’s Melitopol and it claimed that the forces have “captured” the city’s mayor. “A group of 10 occupiers kidnapped the mayor of Melitopol Ivan Fedorov,” Ukraine’s parliament said on Twitter. “He refused to cooperate with the enemy,” it added.
Three missiles hit civilian buildings in the central city of Dnipro on Friday, destroying a shoe factory and killing one security guard. Dnipro had been considered a safe haven, suffering few attacks since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. A home for the disabled near Kharkiv was also bombed, with 330 people there at the time, officials say.
Russia on Friday announced that the military airfields of Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk, in western Ukraine closer to the Polish border, have been “put out of action.” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has rallied his people with a series of addresses from Kyiv, said Ukraine had “already reached a strategic turning point. It is impossible to say how many days we still have (ahead of us) to free Ukrainian land. But we can say we will do it,” he said. “We are already moving towards our goal, our victory.”
Zelensky also claimed that Russia was sending new troops after incurring the biggest losses that it had seen in decades. Addressing the nation, Zelensky asked Russia to uphold the ceasefire so that evacuations from Mariupol could successfully be carried out. Zelensky also said he urged German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron to pressure Russia into “releasing” Melitopol mayor, who was reportedly kidnapped on Friday by Russian troops.
Russia, which has accused Ukraine of developing biological weapons with US help, said the Kyiv regime was now “destroying evidence of military biological programmes” it was implementing. Both Washington and Kyiv have denied the existence of laboratories intended to produce biological weapons in the country.
The Russian President Vladimir Putin slammed what he said was the “flagrant violation” of international humanitarian law by Ukraine’s forces as he held phone talks with the leaders of France and Germany, the Kremlin said.
Earlier, the U.S. President Joe Biden said he had moved 12,000 troops along the borders with Russia, such as Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Romania while asserting that Putin would not be victorious in the war he has waged against Ukraine.
Addressing members of the House Democratic Caucus on Friday, Biden stressed over “not fighting a third World War in Ukraine” but avowed sending an “unmistakable message that we will defend every inch of NATO territory.” Biden said the people of Ukraine have demonstrated remarkable bravery and courage in the face of a Russian military offensive but the security assistance that the U.S. provides has been critical in their defence.
“And as we provide support to Ukraine, we’re going to continue to stand together with our allies in Europe and send an unmistakable message that we will defend every inch of NATO territory with a united galvanized NATO,” the US president said. “That’s why I’ve moved 12,000 American forces along the borders with Russia — Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Romania, etc… Granted, if we respond, it is World War three. But we have a sacred obligation on NATO territory… although we will not fight a third World War in Ukraine.”
“The idea that we’re going to send in offensive equipment and have planes and tanks and trains going in with American pilots and American crews, just understand — and don’t kid yourself, no matter what you all say — that’s called World War Three,” he said.
But a senior Russian diplomat warned that Moscow could target Western shipments of military equipment to Ukraine. Speaking Saturday, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow had warned the US it would see the deliveries of Western weapons to Ukraine as targets.
Ryabkov said Russia “warned the US that pumping weapons from a number of countries it orchestrates isn’t just a dangerous move, it’s an action that makes those convoys legitimate targets”. He also denounced the US sanctions against Moscow as an “unprecedented attempt to deal a serious blow to various sectors of the Russian economy,” but noted that Moscow will act in a measured way to avoid hurting itself. Ryabkov said Russia has no intention to expel Western media and businesses amid the soaring tensions with the West, adding that “we aren’t going to escalate the situation.”
Macron and Scholz were holding new talks with the Russian President about the war in Ukraine on Saturday, the Elysee palace said. The three leaders had already had spoken by telephone on Thursday when both Macron and Scholz had “demanded an immediate ceasefire by Russia.” Since meeting Putin in the Kremlin on February 7, Macron has had nine phone calls with the Russian leader, his office said.
As Russia called for a Security Council meeting on the issue of biological laboratories in Ukraine, India said any matters relating to obligations under the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention should be addressed through consultation and cooperation between the parties concerned.