Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, March 19: Russia for the first time is claimed to have used advanced hypersonic missiles against Ukraine on Saturday to “destroy” an underground warehouse of arms and ammunition and is also alleged to have killed over 100 Ukrainian soldiers in a pre-dawn attack on an army camp in the southern city of Mykolaiv.
Even as the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky called for “comprehensive peace talks” with Moscow, the Russian defence ministry said Russia used its newest Kinzhal (Dagger) hypersonic missiles, which can elude most defence systems, for the first time in Ukraine on Friday to destroy a weapons storage site in the country’s west. “The Kinzhal aviation missile system with hypersonic aero-ballistic missiles destroyed a large underground warehouse containing missiles and aviation ammunition” in the village of Deliatyn in the Ivano-Frankivsk region near the border with Romania,” the Russian defence ministry said.
Moscow has never admitted using the state-of-the-art missile in combat before. “The enemy targeted our depots” but “we have no information of the type of missile,” Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuri Ignat said. “There has been damage, destruction and the detonation of munitions,” he said. “They are using all the missiles in their arsenal against us.”
A Russian mortar attack on Ukrainian town of Makariv in the Kyiv region killed seven people and hospitalised five on Friday, local police said in a statement on Saturday. “As a result of enemy shelling of Makariv, seven civilians were killed,” the statement said.
Moscow also claimed its troop had broken Ukairian defence and entered the strategic southern port city of Mariupol and destroyed radio and intelligence sites just outside Odessa. Ukrainian authorities said they had “temporarily” lost access to the Sea of Azov although Russia has effectively controlled the coastline for weeks after ringing Mariupol. “The occupiers have partially succeeded in the Donetsk operational district, temporarily depriving Ukraine of access to the Sea of Azov,” Ukraine’s defence ministry said in a statement. The Ukrainian military also imposed a 38-hour curfew in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia
Eye-witnesses said at least 100 soldiers were killed after Russian troops struck a Ukrainian military barracks in the southern city of Mykolaiv. “No fewer than 200 soldiers were sleeping in the barracks” when Russian troops struck early Friday, a Ukrainian serviceman on the ground said. “At least 50 bodies have been recovered, but we do not know how many others are in the rubble,” he said. Another soldier estimated that the bombing could have killed around 100 people. Authorities have not yet released an official death count.
Zelensky called for comprehensive peace talks with Moscow, saying Russia would otherwise require generations to recover from losses suffered during the war. “The time has come to restore territorial integrity and justice for Ukraine. Otherwise, Russia’s losses will be such that it will take you several generations to recover,” Zelensky said.
While the US President Joe Biden laid out to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping the “consequences” of any backing for Russia in its war against Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Kyiv of “war crimes” in a call with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, saying that Moscow was doing “everything possible” to avoid civilian deaths in Ukraine. Macron reportedly expressed “extreme concern” over the fate of Mariupol and had urged Putin to “lift the siege and allow humanitarian access to the city.” But Zelensky accused Russian forces of blocking aid around hotspot areas.
The International Monetary Fund, World Bank and other top world lenders warned of “extensive” economic fallout from the Ukraine war and expressed “horror” at the “devastating human catastrophe.” The three Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania announced the expulsion of a total of 10 Russian diplomats over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Once again appealing for peace on Saturday, Zelensky said, “This is the time to meet, to talk, time for renewing territorial integrity and fairness for Ukraine.” “Otherwise, Russia’s losses will be such that several generations will not recover.”
Ukraine claimed on Saturday that a Russian general had been killed by strikes on an airfield outside Kherson, just north of Crimea, saying he was the fifth top-ranking officer killed since the invasion began on February 24. A US official said Russia’s offensive remains largely stalled overall, with troops about 30 kilometres east of the capital Kyiv and facing heavy resistance.
Britain’s defence ministry said Russia was struggling to provide its forward troops “with even basic essentials such as food and fuel” because of Ukrainian attacks on their supply lines. But as in previous negotiations there appeared to be little progress in reaching a ceasefire, with Russian President accusing Ukraine of “numerous war crimes” during a call late Friday with Macron. The British foreign secretary Liz Truss accused Moscow of using the talks as a “smokescreen” as it carried out “appalling atrocities,” saying she was “very skeptical” they would produce a breakthrough.
As Putin’s ground offensive has met with fierce resistance, Moscow has increasingly turned to indiscriminate air and long-range strikes. Friday’s attack on the arms depot was the latest strike in western Ukraine, which until a few days ago had remained relatively unscathed by Russia’s push toward key cities from the north and east.
On Friday, Russian forces destroyed an aircraft repair plant near the airport of Lviv, where millions of people have fled as rockets and shelling continue to rain down on Kyiv. In Mariupol, rescuers were still searching for hundreds of people trapped under the wreckage of a bombed theatre where over 1,000 people had been seeking shelter. There was still no information about potential fatalities, Zelensky said, but 130 people had been saved so far — some “heavily injured.” “This is no longer Mariupol, it’s hell,” a local resident said. “The streets are full with the bodies of civilians.”
Russia’s ally China told Biden that the war “in no one’s interest,” but showed no sign of giving in to US pressure to join Western condemnation of Russia. Biden warned his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping of “consequences” for any financial or military aid for Russia, a move that could turn the standoff into a global confrontation.
Putin appears undeterred by further threats or sanctions, holding a triumphalist rally in Moscow mark eight years since Russia’s seizure of Ukraine’s Crimea region, saying his goal in Ukraine was “to rid these people from their suffering and genocide.” In a call to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Putin accused Ukrainian authorities of stalling talks by “putting forward more and more unrealistic proposals”.
Russia wants Ukraine to disarm and disavow all Western alliances, in particular by joining NATO or seeking closer integration with the European Union — steps that Kyiv says would turn it into a vassal state of Moscow. Russia’s top negotiator said Friday that Moscow and Kyiv had brought their positions “as close as possible” on a proposal for Ukraine to become a neutral state. But Mikhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Zelensky taking part in the negotiations, said his country’s position had not budged.
On Friday, Putin appeared at a flag-waving rally in the packed Moscow stadium and lavished praise on his troops fighting in Ukraine, three weeks into the invasion.