Fighting rages outside Kyiv, Ukraine says evacuations threatened again

LVIV, UKRAINE (REUTERS) - Conflict raged north-west of Kyiv on Saturday (March 12) and other cities were encircled and under heavy shelling, while Ukrainian officials said fighting and threats of Russian air attacks were endangering attempted evacuations.  

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk had said the government planned to use agreed humanitarian corridors out of the besieged southern port city of Mariupol as well as towns and villages in the regions of Kyiv, Sumy and some other areas.  

But the governor of the Kyiv region said fighting and threats of Russian air attacks were continuing during evacuation attempts and the Donetsk region’s governor said constant shelling was complicating bringing aid into Mariupol.

An adviser to the Ukrainian presidency said earlier that 79 evacuation buses and two trucks with humanitarian cargo had left for Sumy on Saturday.

Buses and trucks also left Zaporizhzhia for Mariupol, a video released by the deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential administration on social media showed.  

At least 1,582 civilians in Mariupol have been killed as a result of Russian shelling and a 12-day blockade, the city council said in an online statement on Friday. It was not possible to verify casualty figures.  

Air raid sirens blared across most Ukrainian cities on Saturday morning urging people to seek shelters, local media reported. 

Russian rocket attacks destroyed a Ukrainian airbase and hit an ammunition depot near the town of Vasylkiv in the Kyiv region on Saturday morning, Interfax Ukraine quoted Vasylkiv Mayor Natalia Balasynovych as saying.  

Ukraine’s foreign ministry said a mosque in Mariupol where more than 80 people had been sheltering had also been shelled, without saying whether anyone had been killed or wounded. 

Moscow has denied targeting civilians what it calls a special operation to demilitarise Ukraine and unseat leaders it refers to as neo-Nazis. It has not responded to Ukrainian challenges to provide evidence.

Ukraine said it expected a new wave of attacks on the regions around the capital Kyiv, the country’s second city Kharkiv and Donbass in the east, where Russian-backed separatists have expanded their control.

Britain’s defence ministry said on Friday that Russian forces could target the capital Kyiv in a few days.

In an update on Saturday, it said fighting north-west of the capital continued, with the bulk of Russian ground forces 25km (16 miles) from the centre.

 

Russian forces appeared to be regrouping, possibly for a fresh offensive which could target the capital Kyiv in a few days, Britain’s defence ministry said on Friday.

In a Saturday update, it said fighting northwest of the capital continued and the cities of Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Mariupol remained encircled under heavy Russian shelling.

The cities of Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Mariupol remained encircled under heavy Russian shelling, it said.  

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion on Feb 24 in an operation that has been near universally condemned around the world and that has drawn tough Western sanctions on Russia.  

The bombardment has trapped thousands of people in besieged cities and sent 2.5 million Ukrainians fleeing to neighbouring countries. 

As hundreds sheltered in Kharkiv metro stations, Nastya, a young girl lying on a makeshift bed on the floor of a train carriage, said she had been there for over a week, unable to move around much and ill with a virus.

“I’m scared for my home, for the homes of my friends, very scared for the whole country, and scared for myself of course,” she said.

Putin calls the invasion a “special operation” to disarm Ukraine and unseat leaders it calls neo-Nazis.

Ukraine and Western allies call this a baseless pretext for a war of choice that has raised fears of wider conflict in Europe.  

The governor of the Kharkiv region on the Russian border, said a psychiatric hospital had been hit, and the mayor of the city of Kharkiv said about 50 schools there had been destroyed.  

In the southern city of Mariupol, the city council said at least 1,582 civilians had been killed by Russian shelling and a 12-day blockade that has left hundreds of thousands trapped with no food, water, heat or power.  

Moscow denies targeting civilians.

Russia’s defence ministry said the Black Sea port was surrounded, while Vereshchuk said Russian shelling prevented people from leaving along a humanitarian corridor on Friday.  

“The situation is critical,” Ukrainian interior ministry adviser Vadym Denysenko said.  

Western countries meanwhile took more economic steps to try to force Putin to end his assault.  

President Joe Biden, who this week banned US imports of Russian oil, said the G-7 industrial powers would revoke Russia’s “most favoured nation” trade status.

He also banned US imports of Russian seafood, alcohol and diamonds.  

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU would on Saturday suspend Moscow’s privileged trade and economic treatment, crack down on its use of crypto-assets, and ban the import of iron and steel goods from Russia, as well as the export of luxury goods in the other direction

Russia’s main force had been stalled north of Kyiv, having failed in what Western analysts say was an initial plan for a lightning assault.  

But images taken on Friday and released by private US satellite firm Maxar showed Russian forces were continuing to deploy closer to Kyiv and firing artillery toward residential areas, according to the company’s analysis.  

Multiple homes and buildings were on fire and widespread damage was seen throughout the town of Moschun, north-west of Kyiv, Maxar said.

Reuters could not independently verify the images. 

Britain’s intelligence update said Russian ground forces were still making only limited progress, hampered by logistical problems and Ukrainian resistance.  

The Ukrainian general staff said Russian forces were regrouping after taking heavy losses. Ukrainian troops had pushed some back to “unfavourable positions” near the Belarus border, it said.  

Kyiv’s mayor, former heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, said the capital had enough essential supplies to last a couple of weeks. Supply lines remained open. 

At a meeting with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, Putin said there were “certain positive shifts” in talks with Kyiv, but did not elaborate.  

Ukraine has raised the prospect of Moscow’s ally Belarus entering the war, accusing Russia of staging “false flag” air attacks on Belarus from Ukraine to provide an excuse.

The Kremlin did not respond to a request for comment.  

Moscow might not have sufficient troops to achieve its goals, said Mathieu Boulegue, an expert at London’s Chatham House think tank.

“You can’t invade a country on a one-on-one ratio” of troops, Boulegue told Reuters. “Nobody has done it, which means that either something was wrong or they had very wrong assumptions.”