Ukraine’s capital Kyiv is preparing for a full-scale Russian attack as fighting intensifies on the outskirts of the city.
On Saturday, air raid sirens sounded in almost all regions of Ukraine. The cities of Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Mariupol remain surrounded and subjected to heavy Russian bombardment.
Meanwhile, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Moscow would view Western arms supplies to Ukraine as legitimate military targets.
A man walks with a bicycle down a shelled street in Mariupol, Ukraine Thursday. [Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]
Kyiv is preparing for a full-scale assault
Civilian militants and residents of the capital prepare for a major offensive as Russian forces surround the city with troops and artillery just a few kilometers away. Explosions were heard in Kyiv and its environs.
Russian forces continue to disperse throughout the capital and take up firing positions, despite the resistance of Ukrainian forces.
Satellite imagery shows burning houses in the town of Moshchun, less than 9km north of Kyiv.
The Russian army has also launched strikes in the Zhytomyr region west of Kyiv as part of Russian attempts to interrupt or completely cut off supply lines to the capital.
Russian attacks have destroyed an airport in the town of Vasilkov, south of Kyiv, ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
Mariupol under heavy shelling
While Ukrainian forces have said they have nearly annihilated a Russian battalion near Mariupol, the city continues to be subject to heavy Russian bombardment, including on civilian infrastructure.
According to Ukrainian military intelligence, Russian troops have captured areas on the eastern outskirts of the besieged city.
Ukraine said Russian forces fired on a mosque in the city where about 80 civilians were reportedly hiding, most of them Turkish citizens. The authorities said they had no information about their condition, communication with the city was interrupted.
The United Nations said the situation in Mariupol was desperate as “there were reports of looting and violent clashes between civilians over few essentials left in the city.”
Fighting in Donetsk intensifies
The eastern Ukrainian city of Volnovakha has been destroyed, but the city remains under Ukrainian control and fighting continues to prevent Russian encirclement, Donetsk Governor Pavel Kirilenko said.
According to Kirilenko, since Saturday morning, Russian troops have been attacking Avdiivka with Tochka-U short-range ballistic missiles. The city is of strategic importance, as it is on the front line with the separatist regions of Donetsk.
Western arms shipments to Ukraine are “legitimate targets”
Russia’s Ryabkov said Moscow could target Western arms supplies to Ukraine, raising fears of a potential clash between Russian forces and NATO member states that are currently beefing up the Ukrainian military, such as Poland and the Baltic states.
“We have warned the United States that the organized transfer of weapons from a number of countries is not just a dangerous move, it is a move that turns these convoys into legitimate targets,” Ryabkov told state television on Saturday.
Victims
On Friday, officials in Mariupol said Russian attacks had killed at least 1,582 civilians in the city.
The UN Human Rights Office has confirmed the deaths of 564 civilians, including 41 children, in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that about 1,300 Ukrainian soldiers have died since the start of the war.
US estimates put the number of Russian casualties between 2,000 and 4,000, while the only official Russian death toll released last week puts 498 Russian soldiers.