As Moscow’s invading forces continued their onslaught of cities, towns, and villages in eastern and southern Ukraine, dozens of Ukrainians were thought dead after a Russian bomb demolished a school housing about 90 people in the basement.
After Saturday’s explosion, the school in the village of Bilohorivka caught fire, according to the governor of the Luhansk region, one of two territories that make up the eastern industrial heartland known as the Donbas. He said emergency responders discovered two bodies and rescued 30 people.
Gov. Serhiy Haidai stated on the Telegram messaging app, “Most likely, all 60 persons who remain under the rubble are already dead.” According to him, Russian shelling killed two boys aged 11 and 14, in the nearby town of Pryvillia.
Since failing to take Kyiv, Russia has concentrated its effort in the Donbas, where Moscow-backed rebels have been fighting since 2014 and have taken control of some territory. Due to the Ukrainian military’s surprisingly effective defense, the largest European battle since World War II has devolved into a painful war of attrition.
To show their accomplishment, the Russian troops worked hard to finish the conquest of Mariupol, the beleaguered port city that has been under siege since the conflict began, in time for Victory Day festivities on Monday. The only area of the city not under Russian control is a huge seashore steel plant.
Women, children, and senior citizens who had been sheltering alongside Ukrainian fighters in the Azovstal plant were all evacuated on Saturday. The remaining forces have refused to surrender, and hundreds are said to have been injured.
After the final people were evacuated on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky indicated in his nighttime address that the priority will shift to rescuing the wounded and medical personnel. In his nightly address, Zelensky stated that efforts on securing humanitarian corridors for inhabitants of Mariupol and adjacent towns to flee will continue on Sunday.
The Ukrainian government has been contacting foreign groups in an attempt to ensure safe passage for the approximately 2,000 combatants still trapped in the plant’s underground tunnels and bunkers. “We are not losing hope, we are not stopping,” Zelensky added, acknowledging the hardship. Every day, we search for a diplomatic solution that could work.”
On Sunday, the Ukrainian president was set to undertake online talks with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, United States President Joe Biden, and other Group of Seven leaders. Part of the purpose of the gathering is to show solidarity among Western allies on Victory in Europe Day, which commemorates Nazi Germany’s capitulation in 1945.
Explosions rang throughout the key Black Sea port of Odesa, which Russia targeted with six cruise missiles on Saturday, further on Ukraine’s coast. There were no immediate damage reports from authorities.
According to the Odesa municipal council, four of the missiles launched Saturday hit a furniture manufacturer, causing high-rise residential complexes to be severely damaged by shock waves and debris. The other two targeted the Odesa airport, where the runway had been devastated by a previous Russian bombardment.
Ukrainian authorities have warned that attacks may intensify in the weeks leading up to Victory Day, the May 9 celebration in which Russia commemorates Nazi Germany’s defeat in 1945 with military parades. When Russian President Vladimir Putin meets the troops on Red Square on Monday, he is expected to declare some sort of victory in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian military warned that Russian and separatist troops were on “full alert” in Moldova. Concerns that the conflict could spread beyond Ukraine’s borders have increased in the region.
In 1992, pro-Russian rebels seceded from Moldova’s Transnistria region, and Russian troops have been stationed there ever since, ostensibly as peacekeepers. Ukraine stated that those forces are at “full battle readiness,” but did not elaborate on how it arrived at that conclusion.
Moscow has attempted to sweep over southern Ukraine in order to shut Ukraine off from the Black Sea while also establishing a corridor to Transnistria. However, it has struggled to meet those goals.
Ukraine’s military struck Russian forces on a Black Sea island that was captured in the war’s early days and has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance, a sign of the persistent resistance that has kept the combat going into its 11th week.
Reporters reviewed satellite photographs that showed Ukraine targeted Russian-controlled Snake Island in an attempt to thwart Russia’s maritime control measures.
Planet Labs PBC captured a satellite photograph of smoke billowing from two locations on the island early Sunday morning. A fire blazed adjacent to rubble on the island’s southern tip. A video provided by the Ukrainian military showed a hit on a Russian helicopter that had arrived on the island.
Most of the island’s buildings, as well as what seemed to be a Serna-class landing ship, were destroyed by Ukrainian drone attacks, according to a Planet Labs photograph from Saturday.
Eastern Ukraine has seen the most violent fighting in recent days. According to the Institute for the Study of War, a Ukrainian counteroffensive around Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city in the northeast, “is making significant headway and will likely advance to the Russian border in the coming days or weeks.”
“The Ukrainian counteroffensive displays promising Ukrainian capabilities,” the Washington-based think group noted.
The Ukrainian army, on the other hand, retreated from the besieged city of Popasna in Luhansk province, according to Haidai, the regional governor.
Haidai said Kyiv’s soldiers had “moved to stronger locations, which they had prepared ahead of time” in a video interview aired on his Telegram channel.
In Luhansk and nearby Donetsk, the Russian-backed separatists have established a breakaway entity known as the Donbas. Russia has targeted Ukrainian-controlled territory.
“In the Luhansk region, all free settlements are hot zones,” Haidai remarked. “Right now, there are shooting battles in Bilohorivka, Voivodivka, and in the direction of Popasna.”
