Russian forces bombarded a mosque sheltering more than 80 people, including children, in the coastal city of Mariupol, the Ukrainian authorities said Saturday, as the battle continued on the outskirts of the capital, Kyiv.
There was no early information on how many people were killed or injured as a result of the mosque’s shelling. Unrelenting barrages have prevented numerous attempts to bring in food and water and to evacuate stranded citizens in Mariupol, resulting in some of the worst sufferings from Russia’s conflict in Ukraine.
According to the Ukrainian Embassy in Turkey, a group of 86 Turkish nationals, including 34 children, sought refuge in Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent’s and his wife Roksolana’s mosque.
Air raid sirens blared throughout the capital region, and artillery barrages sent civilians fleeing for cover. Fighting erupted in a number of locations around Kyiv.
Russia’s apparent attempt to encircle the city and the shelling of neighboring population areas with artillery and air attacks reflect tactics used by Russian forces in earlier battles to eliminate armed resistance, most notably in Syria and Chechnya.
Artillery shelled Kyiv’s outskirts in the northwest. After a strike on an ammo stockpile in Vaslkyiv, two columns of smoke – one black and one white – appeared toward the city’s southwest. Hundreds of minor explosions were created by detonating munitions during the strike on the storage.
According to the mayor’s office, the death toll in Mariupol had surpassed 1,500 after 12 days of attacks. Three people were murdered in an attack on a maternity facility in the metropolis of 446,000 people this week, which sparked international anger and accusations of war crimes.
Crews were forced to cease digging trenches for mass graves due to the continued bombardment, so the “dead aren’t even being buried,” according to the mayor. The moment a tank appeared to fire directly on an apartment building, covering one side in a billowing orange blaze, was captured by a reporter/photographer.
According to the World Health Organization, Russian soldiers have attacked at least two dozen hospitals and medical facilities since invading Ukraine on February 24. Heavy artillery struck a cancer hospital and many residential structures in Mykolaiv, a city 489 kilometers (304 miles) west of Mariupol, on Saturday, according to Ukrainian officials.
Several hundred patients were in the hospital during the incident, according to the hospital’s senior doctor, Maksim Beznosenko, however, no one was killed.
Against determined Ukrainian troops, the invading Russian soldiers have battled significantly more than planned. Despite a continued influx of weaponry and other help from the West for Ukraine’s westward-looking, democratically elected government, Russia’s stronger military threatens to grind down the defending forces.
2.5 million people have already fled the country as a result of the fighting. Thousands of soldiers on both sides, as well as many Ukrainian citizens, are estimated to have died.
On the ground, Kremlin forces appeared to be regrouping and regaining momentum after facing stiff resistance and suffering significant losses during the previous two weeks. Russia is attempting to reset and “re-position” its forces in preparation for operations against Kyiv, according to the British Ministry of Defense.
“It’s already bad, but it’ll get worse,” said Nick Reynolds, a combat expert at the Royal United Services Institute in the United Kingdom.
Even as efforts were made to build fresh humanitarian corridors around Kharkiv and other metropolitan areas so aid could get in and citizens could get out, Russian forces were blockading the city.
The bodies of five people – two women, a man, and two children – were removed from an apartment building in Kharkiv hit by shelling on Saturday, according to Ukraine’s rescue services.
In an attempt to encircle Kyiv, the Russians increased their attacks on Mykolaiv, which is located 470 kilometers (292 miles) south of Kyiv.
The Russians’ drive from the northeast appeared to be advancing as part of a multi-front offensive on the capital, according to a US defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to convey the US assessment of the war. As the army came to within 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) of Kyiv, combat units were moved forward from the rear.
Artillery shelling on civilian areas between the Russians and the capital appears to be captured in new commercial satellite photographs. Maxar Technologies said the photographs revealed muzzle flashes and smoke from large guns, as well as impact craters and burned residences in Moschun, which is 33 kilometers (20.5 miles) from Kyiv.
Residents in a ruined village east of the city walked over crumbled walls and flapping metal strips in the ruins of a pool hall, restaurant, and theater, all of which had been blown to bits by Russian bombs.
With temperatures plummeting below zero, people immediately covered blown-out windows with plastic wrap or fastened plywood.
Ivan Merzyk, 62, believes Russian President Vladimir Putin “made this problem thinking he would be in command here.” “We’re not going anywhere,” he added.
The US and its allies attempted to further isolate and penalize the Kremlin on the economic and political fronts. President Joe Biden declared that the United States will drastically reduce its trading relationship with Russia, prohibiting the purchase of Russian seafood, wine, and diamonds.
The decision to suspend Russia’s status as a “most favored nation” was made in consultation with the European Union and the Group of Seven countries.
Biden stated, “The free world is coming together to face Putin.”
With the invasion now in its 16th day, Putin stated Friday that ongoing discussions between Russian and Ukrainian officials had seen “some encouraging results.” He did not provide any other information.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, appeared on video to encourage his people to keep fighting.
“It’s impossible to say how many days we’ll need to free our nation,” he stated from Kyiv, “but we can say that we’ll do it.”
According to Zelensky, officials are striving to build 12 humanitarian corridors to ensure that food, medication, and other essentials reach people across the country.
He also accused Russia of kidnapping Melitopol’s mayor, describing the kidnapping as “a new stage of terror.” Russian plans to imprison and kill specific people in Ukraine were told off by the Biden administration before the attack. Zelensky is likely to be a priority target.
Russian pilots are flying 200 sorties per day on average, according to American defense sources, compared to five to ten for Ukrainian troops, who are relying more on surface-to-air missiles, rocket-propelled grenades, and drones to take out Russian planes.
Russia has also shot approximately 810 missiles into Ukraine, according to the US.
Until recently, Russia’s troops had concentrated their efforts in the east and south, while suffering in the north and around Kyiv. They’ve also begun focusing on locations in western Ukraine where a huge number of refugees have fled.
Russia announced on Friday that it has “taken out of service” military airfields in the western cities of Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk using high-precision long-range weaponry. According to the mayor, four Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the raid on Lutsk.
For the first time, Russian airstrikes attacked Dnipro, a key industrial hub in the east and Ukraine’s fourth-largest city, with a population of about 1 million people. According to Ukrainian officials, one person was killed.
Firefighters doused a smoldering structure, and ash rained on bloodied rubble, according to photographs supplied by Ukraine’s emergency agency. Smoke billowed from the fractured concrete where once stood buildings.
The political chief of the United Nations stated that the international agency had received convincing information that Russian forces were employing cluster bombs in inhabited areas. In cities and towns, international law restricts the use of bombs that disperse smaller explosives across a large area.
