Air strikes sounded throughout Ukraine’s major cities in the early hours of Sunday morning, but there were no reports of a resumption of Russian military offensive.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zalansky said last night that the Russian siege of the southern port city of Mariupol is “Russian terror that will be remembered for centuries,” while local authorities reported that thousands of city residents were forcibly displaced across the border.
“Over the past week, several thousand Mariupol residents have been deported to Russian territory,” the city council said in an official statement posted on the Telegram. Russian news agencies, for their part, have reported that buses have in recent days carried several hundred people whom Moscow defines as “refugees” from the strategic port on the Moss Sea to Russia.
About 400,000 people trapped in Mariupol for more than two weeks, taking shelter from heavy bombs that cut off a major supply of electricity, heating and water. Rescuers in the city continue to search for survivors at the Mariupol Theater, which served as a shelter for residents and the Ukrainians claim were destroyed by Russian airstrikes on Wednesday. Russia denies harming the theater or seeking to harm civilians.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that its forces were “tightening the rope” around Mariupol and that the fighting had reached the city center.
In a nightly broadcast yesterday, Zalansky said the siege of Mariupol “would be recorded in the history of war crimes committed”: “To do such a thing to a peaceful city… it is terrorism that will be remembered for centuries”. Still, he said, peace talks with Russia were required even though they were “not easy and pleasant.”
Russian forces have suffered heavy casualties since Feb. 24, when President Vladimir Putin launched what he calls a “special operation” aimed at dismantling Ukraine and purging it of what it sees as dangerous “Nazi” nationalists. Long lines of soldiers rushing toward Kyiv were stopped in the suburbs.
According to senior British intelligence officials, Russia has been shocked by Ukrainian opposition to its invasion and is now “pursuing a strategy of attrition.” Zlansky said the Ukrainian front line was “strewn with the bodies of Russian soldiers.”
Over the course of Saturday, Russia said routine supersonic missiles had destroyed a large underground missile and ammunition depot in western Ukraine. A spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force Command confirmed the attack, but said there was no information on the Ukrainian side about the type of missiles used.
Negotiations continue
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday that Moscow expects its activities in Ukraine to end with the signing of a comprehensive agreement on security issues, including Ukraine’s neutral status, the Russian agency Interfax reported.
Kyiv and Moscow reported some progress in talks last week towards a political formula that would ensure Ukraine’s security, making sure it did not join NATO, although each side blamed the other for delaying negotiations.
The president of Ukraine, who is careful to address foreign public representatives for help, said on Saturday a recording broadcast in a demonstration against the war in Bern that the Swiss banks are where “the money of the people responsible for this war” is located, and their accounts should be frozen.
“Ukrainian cities are being destroyed by the teaching of people living in Europe, in beautiful Swiss towns, who enjoy properties in your cities. It would be really good to deprive them of this privilege,” he told the audience.
Neutral Switzerland, which is not a member of the European Union, has fully adopted the EU sanctions against Russian individuals and entities, including orders to freeze their capital in Swiss banks.
Also at the diplomatic level, US President Joe Biden on Tuesday warned his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, of the “consequences” if Beijing gives substantial support to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said yesterday that China was “on the right side of history” in the wake of the crisis in Ukraine and that its position was in line with the wishes of most countries: “China’s position is objective and fair,” Wang told reporters.