KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s president on Saturday warned of a “new stage of terror” by Russian forces in Ukraine following what he said was the kidnapping of a mayor in the country’s south, as well as a new series of airstrikes on the outskirts of the capital.
Authorities said cruise missiles exploded at an airport south of Kyiv early Saturday morning, setting fire to an oil terminal and ammunition depot. Russian strikes have also targeted suburbs to the east and west, with a drone crashing downtown after being shot down, setting a bank on fire, officials said.
The escalation of rocket and bombing attacks came as Russia redeployed its ground forces in what was expected to be a fresh assault on the capital’s encirclement, Western officials said. For more than two weeks, Ukrainian forces managed to hold off Russian attempts to break into Kyiv, simultaneously attacking Russian supply lines and destroying tanks and other armored vehicles.
In other parts of the country, battle formations remained relatively static, with Russian troops attempting to take control of the cities and other territories they sought to occupy.
In a video message released early Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned what he called the kidnapping by Russian troops of the mayor of the southern city of Melitopol, who refused to cooperate with occupying forces and continued to fly the Ukrainian flag in his office. .
According to an adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, Mayor Ivan Fedorov was at work when the Russians took him away with a plastic bag over his head.
Territories no longer controlled by Ukraine as of Friday
Direction of the invasion force
Controlled by or allied with Russia
Major border crossings with refugees
Chernobyl
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territory of Ukraine recognized by Putin as independent
controlled
separatists
Territories no longer controlled by Ukraine as of Friday
Direction of the invasion force
Controlled by or allied with Russia
territory of Ukraine recognized by Putin as independent
Major border crossings with refugees
Chernobyl
Does not work
controlled
separatists
Territories no longer controlled by Ukraine as of Friday
Direction of the invasion force
Controlled by or allied with Russia
Major border crossings with refugees
territory of Ukraine recognized by Putin as independent
Chernobyl
Does not work
controlled
separatists
Territories no longer controlled by Ukraine as of Friday
Direction of the invasion force
Controlled by or allied with Russia
Major border crossings with refugees
territory of Ukraine recognized by Putin as independent
Territories no longer controlled by Ukraine as of Friday
Direction of the invasion force
Controlled by or allied with Russia
Major border crossings with refugees
territory of Ukraine recognized by Putin as independent
“They did not find collaborators who wanted to give the city and power to the invaders,” Zelensky said in the video. “Therefore, they had to move on to a new stage of terror, when they are trying to physically eliminate representatives of the legitimate local authorities.”
While Russian ground forces are regrouping, Russian airstrikes are hitting Ukrainian cities far from the front line. Rockets hit airports in the western Ukrainian cities of Ivano-Frankivsk and Lutsk on Friday, where attacks have been rare since the invasion began.
A plume of smoke rises from burning fuel tanks that locals say were brought down by five rockets at an air base near Kiev.
Photo: THOMAS PETER/REUTERS
In eastern Ukraine, three rockets landed in Dnipro, where city officials say a residential building and a kindergarten were destroyed.
As Russian forces fought their way to the outskirts of Kyiv in an attempt to overthrow the government, Ukrainian fighters ambushed convoys along the way with Turkish-made drones and Western anti-tank munitions.
Western officials say the high casualties among senior-level officers indicate that they are taking extraordinary risks by pushing stalled units forward.
On Friday, Ukrainian officials said the country’s armed forces had killed Russian Major General Andrei Kolesnikov of Russia’s 29th Army, the third in his rank (the equivalent of a US brigadier general), who had died in action since the invasion began.
Ukraine has not released any details about his death, which have not been confirmed by Moscow. Western officials said they had confirmed the deaths of all three people. The Russian Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
Firefighters put out a fire in a house after shelling in Kyiv.
Photo: Aris Messinis/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
A Ukrainian soldier goes to the front line in Irpen near Kiev.
Photo: Aris Messinis/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Earlier this week, Ukraine released drone footage of a convoy of Russian armored vehicles being destroyed as it passes through a suburb of Kyiv.
Western officials have suggested that the relative lull in the Russian offensive against the capital was due to hiding and redeploying forces for a new strike. The UK Ministry of Defense said it was concerned that Russia was trying to reboot for a new attack in the coming days, including an attack on Kyiv.
Nevertheless, Russian troops are advancing along the Black Sea coast of Ukraine, surrounding the city of Mariupol. Daily shelling of Mariupol, including a strike on a maternity hospital, has left the city of over 400,000 without food, clean water or electricity.
Civilians before the start of military exercises in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine.
Photo: Alexey Furman/Bloomberg News
The Russian invasion sparked the fastest growing refugee crisis since World War II. The UN Refugee Agency said on Friday that the number of people fleeing the war has reached 2.5 million. Another two million people have been displaced inside Ukraine, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said on Twitter.
In Moscow, the Kremlin has signaled plans to deploy additional forces to its western border and send volunteers from the Middle East, whom it has named, to fight in Ukraine. Russia is recruiting Syrians with urban combat skills as its incursion could deepen into Ukrainian cities.
Western officials are increasingly concerned that Moscow will resort to deploying chemical, biological or nuclear weapons after it struggles to make progress in the war.
On Friday, Russia sent to the UN its statements on US-funded chemical and biological weapons to the UN, convening a special meeting of the Security Council. Washington and Kyiv have repeatedly denied these claims and have warned that Moscow may be spreading disinformation to provide Moscow with a pretext to use such weapons.
“I’m not going to talk about intelligence, but Russia will pay dearly if they use chemical weapons,” President Biden said at the White House on Friday.
An explosion destroyed a school building in Zhytomyr, Ukraine.
Photo: Miguel a Lopez/EPA/Shutterstock
Write to Alan Cullison at [email protected]
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