According to satellite imagery, the word “children” was written on both sides of the theater before it was hit.
In the nearby Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, at least 10 people queuing for bread were killed in a shelling by Russian troops on Wednesday, local official Vyacheslav Chaus told Ukrainian television. He said the attack was indicative of Russia’s use of indirect fire against civilians.
Despite this, Russian forces are still “generally stalled” near Kiev and have not “made any significant progress” towards the city from the north, northwest or east of the city, a senior U.S. Defense Department official told reporters on Wednesday.
As the Russian offensive intensifies, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that Russia’s position in the talks between the two countries is becoming “more realistic.” compromise,” in a TV interview with the Russian edition of RBC.
But while the United States welcomes “feelings expressed that there is hope, that there is optimism for diplomatic progress,” it believes Russia must de-escalate if any such progress is to actually be made, U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said Wednesday. .
Deterioration of the situation in the “hell” of Mariupol
The Russian military continues to shell Mariupol, which has been besieged by Russian troops since early March.
Piotr Andruishchenko, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, described the bombed-out theater as the largest “in number and size” shelter in the city center. “According to preliminary data, more than a thousand people were hiding there,” he said. “The probability of getting there to remove the rubble is low due to the constant shelling and bombing of the city.”
The bombing exacerbates the humanitarian crisis in the city. Ukrainian authorities estimate that around 350,000 people were trapped in the city and up to 2,500 civilians died. Those who remained were left without electricity, water and heat.
Satellite imagery taken by Maxar Technologies on Monday showed the extent of damage in Mariupol, including houses smoldering from what appeared to be Russian strikes, a destroyed housing estate and rising plumes of thick smoke. managed to leave the city on Tuesday, officials say. And on Wednesday, more than 3,000 vehicles carrying evacuees from Mariupol arrived in the central Ukrainian city of Zaporizhia, regional state administration head Oleksandr Starukh said on his Telegram channel.
However, on Wednesday, Russian troops also attacked Zaporozhye for the first time, hitting the railway station and the area around the botanical garden, Starukh added.
In another southern coastal city, the Ukrainian government said it had orchestrated the rescue of the mayor of Russian-occupied Melitopol, who was detained by gunmen in the city on March 11.
The mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, was released as part of a prisoner exchange, the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security of Ukraine said in a statement.
According to the statement, Fedorov was exchanged for nine Russian soldiers, whom Ukrainians call “conscripts” born in 2002-2003. Russia denies sending conscripts to Ukraine.
After Fyodorov’s detention, newly appointed mayor Galina Danilchenko ordered the broadcasting of Russian TV channels and attempted to dissolve the city council and set up a People’s Committee instead.
Later Wednesday, Zelenskiy’s senior adviser said the Ukrainian army was beginning to launch counterstrikes against Russian forces in a number of areas.
“This fact radically changes the dispositions of the parties,” Mikhail Podolyak said in a statement posted on Telegram, adding that “the Russian leadership is trying to find allies whose soldiers would be ready to die on the battlefield.”
NATO ‘not that important’
Amid signs of potential progress in Ukrainian-Russian talks, the Kremlin said on Wednesday that President Vladimir Putin had not spoken to his American counterpart Joe Biden since the start of the war in Ukraine, but that contacts between the two leaders could be resumed if necessary. .
Vladimir Medinsky, head of the Russian negotiating delegation, said on Wednesday that the talks had been “difficult” and “slow” and that Moscow’s goals in talks with Ukraine had not changed.
State media RIA Novosti on Wednesday quoted Medinsky as saying that Moscow wants a “peaceful, free, independent and neutral” Ukraine. He added that the country should not be a member of NATO or any military bloc.
Putin sees NATO expansion as an existential threat, and the prospect of Ukraine joining a Western military alliance as a “hostile act.” This week, Zelenskiy appeared to have moved on from his previous demand for Ukraine’s membership in NATO. The Ukrainian president addressed members of Congress via video link on Wednesday, receiving bipartisan standing ovations both before and after his announcement. Showing a visual video of Russia’s attacks on Ukraine, Zelenskiy reiterated his calls for a no-fly zone in Ukraine and referred to Mount Rushmore, the Pearl Harbor attacks, and the September 11, 2001 attacks.
“In the darkest time for our country, for all of Europe, I urge you to do more,” Zelensky said. “We need new packages of sanctions, constantly, every week, until the Russian war machine stops. Restrictions are needed for all who support this unjust regime.”
Olha Stefanyshina, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, told CNN that the reason Zelenskiy didn’t mention NATO is because it’s “not as important” as a no-fly zone and weapons, and that political aspirations will have to linger.
“I think NATO is not as important as a no-fly zone, more weapons and basically the ability to defend yourself,” she told CNN from a safe location in Kyiv.
“But now it’s mostly not about politics, but about survival,” she added.
Stefanishina said that Putin is failing in the war because “the chain of command that misinforms him and the top leadership around shows that they know nothing about our country.”
“I am absolutely sure that he is uncomfortable every moment he sits in his bomb shelter,” she said, adding, “that he fails in every one of his assessments.”
While US officials say the White House does not support establishing a no-fly zone over Ukraine or supplying the Ukrainian Air Force with new fighter jets, Biden appears to have changed his stance on Putin.
“I think he’s a war criminal,” Biden told reporters after speaking at the White House on Wednesday. He and other government officials have previously refrained from making allegations of war crimes in Ukraine, citing an ongoing investigation into the use of the term.
Tim Lister of CNN, Alexandra Ochman, Vasco Kotovio, Sam Kiley, Kostan Nechiporenko and Gianluca Mezzofiore contributed to this report.