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President Biden announced $1.3 billion in new investments military and economic aid to Ukraine on Thursday as a besieged group of Ukrainian militants holed up at a steel mill in the key southern port city of Mariupol and engaged in a last-ditch standoff with Russian forces who were holding them captive there.
Washington and Moscow have sought to welcome progress in the nearly two-month-old war by issuing dueling declarations and pouring new resources into a conflict that could drag on for months, if not years, without a diplomatic breakthrough.
Russian President Vladimir Putin declared victory at Mariupol, ominously insisting he had called off plans to storm the besieged steel mill and declaring his forces would block it instead “that not even a fly could get through”. Biden, meanwhile, said the war is entering a new phase as Russia directs its fire on southern and eastern Ukraine and pledged renewed US support for Ukraine.
“We are now in a critical window of time where — they will set the stage for the next phase of this war,” Biden said from the Roosevelt Room of the White House.
On April 21, President Biden announced a new round of American support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia. (Video: The Washington Post)
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The latest US military aid package, the eighth One such shipment includes 72 howitzers, 144,000 rounds of ammunition, dozens of tactical vehicles and more than 120 Phoenix Ghost tactical drones. Another $800 million will go to military aid, Biden said, while another $500 million will go to direct economic aid to the Ukrainian government.
Biden, who discussed the package with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal during his visit to the White House on Thursday, said the United States would continue to “support the people of Ukraine and hold Putin accountable for his brutal and bloody war.” He also announced that the United States would no longer allow ships linked to Russia to enter American ports, in the latest economic punitive measure taken against the Kremlin.
“This means that no ship, no ship flying the Russian flag or owned or operated by Russian interests may dock in the United States port or reach our shores,” Biden said.
Biden’s determination was matched by Putin’s enthusiasm. The Russian president congratulated his troops for their efforts in Mariupol during a rare televised meeting with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu – although the presence of Ukrainian forces at the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works seemed to suggest his claim was premature.
“The work of the armed forces to liberate Mariupol was a success. Congratulations,” Putin said.
Trying to achieve victory — though Shoigu estimated that “around 2,000” Ukrainian soldiers remain at the steelworks — appears to sidestep the difficulty and danger of capturing the complex, which occupies four square miles and has an extensive underground network. Ukrainians at the factory have rejected Russia’s demands for surrender for days.
Rejecting Putin’s claim, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that while Russia “captured most of Mariupol a long time ago,” Ukrainian troops remained in “a part of the city” where the situation “has practically not changed since yesterday “. For weeks, Russian forces have been bombing Mariupol, which had a pre-war population of about 440,000, leaving it largely destroyed. Shoigu estimated that it will now only take Russia a few days to complete military action at the facility. Mariupol has important practical and symbolic significance for Moscow, as each conquest allows for the completion of a land bridge from mainland Russia to the annexed Crimean peninsula.
“This situation is difficult,” Zelenskyy said during a press conference with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who arrived in the Ukrainian capital on Thursday.
Zelensky estimated that “a few thousand people” remained on the steel mill site and that about 120,000 civilians were still trapped in the city. He on Thursday accused Russia of “blocking” the process of establishing humanitarian corridors for the safe escape of civilians, though he noted some residents found their own escape routes. He also said Moscow had rejected Kiev’s offer to send senior officials to Mariupol for negotiations to end the standoff.
On April 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared the siege of Mariupol a “success.” Here’s a look back at key moments in the battle for Ukraine’s strategists (Video: Leila Barghouty/The Washington Post, Photo: Chingis Kondarov/Reuters/The Washington Post)
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For its part, Russia said it had created a safe path for civilians inside the steel mill, but no one used the path.
The brutality around Mariupol came into focus on Thursday with the release of new satellite imagery showing a mass burial site in the Russian-held village of Manhush, about 12 miles west of Mariupol, containing more than 200 new beds next to an existing village cemetery.
The images, provided to the Washington Post by Maxar Technologies, show multiple rows of graves in four different sections, each measuring nearly 280 feet. Maxar’s review of the images reveals that the new graves surfaced between March 23 and 26, and that more lots were added in the weeks thereafter.
Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the Mariupol mayor, wrote on his Facebook page that the photos reflect “the full extent of the Mariupol tragedy, the inhumanity of the Russians” and “direct evidence of war crimes and attempts to cover them up.” high.”
A group of people fleeing Mariupol arrived Thursday in the southeastern city of Zaporizhia in a convoy of buses and a dozen private cars. Volunteers stood by with hot food while the occupants of the vehicles looked exhausted, some too tired to speak.
They escaped “hell,” one person told a Post reporter. Others said bodies were strewn in the streets or buried in shallow graves on the sidewalk.
Ukraine’s presidential aide Oleksiy Arestovych said Thursday that even given the catastrophic casualties at Mariupol, Russian claims of a victory there are premature. “You cannot physically take Azovstal. … They suffered tremendous casualties there,” he said. “Our defenders continue to hold on to it.”
Traditionally, many in Mariupol have sympathies for nearby Russia and maintain close cultural and linguistic ties. But the city’s mayor, Vadym Boychenko, said Russian forces were “ruining” the city and “destroying our state.”
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Western officials suspect that Putin’s declaration of victory may be part of an effort to speed up Russia’s campaign ahead of the annual May 9 Victory Day celebrations. Officials had said Putin was determined to take Mariupol and advance in Donbass, the Russia-bordering region in eastern Ukraine, by that date.
The Russian leader’s apparent decision to turn to a Ukrainian blockade at the factory would allow the Kremlin to declare a quick victory in Mariupol and free up resources for campaigns it is launching elsewhere, even though the city has not fallen entirely.
For example, in the past 24 hours, Russian forces have captured several small towns and advanced on Rubizhne and Popasna in eastern Ukraine, according to an analysis by the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank.
“Russian forces have continued major attacks with heavy air and artillery support, but continue to build the logistics and command and control capabilities needed for a major offensive,” the group said.
fights intensified in eastern Ukraine after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow will seek the “complete liberation” of Donetsk and Luhansk as part of the “next phase” of its war in Ukraine. Russia has been supporting separatists in the two regions for years. Governor of Ukraine’s Luhansk region Serhiy Haidai said Russian forces now control 80 percent of the territory that is part of the contested Donbass.
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Elsewhere, Russian forces were advancing towards the eastern city of Kramatorsk. according to to the UK Ministry of Defense, which said the city was facing “continued” missile attacks. In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, the governor said Thursday the area was being bombarded by Russian rockets and shelling.
Without water, gas and electricity, residents of Kharkiv, Ukraine, on April 20 collected rainwater and cooked with wood waste from destroyed buildings. (Video: AP)
The fighting has had a devastating impact on Ukraine’s humanitarian situation, a reason Biden cited for including $500 million in direct economic aid to Kyiv in the aid package announced Thursday.
“This is money the government can use … to stabilize its economy, to support communities devastated by the Russian onslaught, and to pay the brave workers who continue to provide essential services to the people of Ukraine ‘ Biden said.
More than 5 million Ukrainians, over 10 percent of the country’s population, have fled to Poland, Romania and other neighboring countries. The mass exodus and strain on these nations have fueled calls for the Biden administration to let more into the United States.
On Thursday, the Biden administration unveiled plans to speed up the arrival of Ukrainian refugees and create a new system that would allow ordinary citizens and organizations like churches to sponsor them.
Biden pledged to take in up to 100,000 Ukrainians a month ago, but the government had previously given no clear guidance on the process. About 15,000 Ukrainians have arrived without permits in the past three months, mostly at the US-Mexico border, senior administration officials said in a conference call with reporters on Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the new program.
Suliman reported from London. Pietsch reported from Seoul. David L. Stern in Mukachevo, Ukraine; Louisa Loveluck in Zaporizhia, Ukraine; and Karoun Demirjian, Paulina Firozi, Felicia Sonmez, Maria Sacchetti, and Paulina Villegas in Washington contributed to this report.