Two days after the sinking of the Moskva (Moscow), the Russian Navy’s flagship in the Black Sea, Russian troops have again bombarded Kyiv and Lviv and are fighting in the port and at a steel factory for ultimate control of the strategic city of Moscow Mariupol, in the south-east of the country. It is the Kremlin’s response to its biggest military setback since it launched its offensive against Ukraine on February 24.
In the capital Kyiv, the noise of anti-aircraft defenses has returned after days in which more neighbors took to the streets and warnings of possible bombings became anecdotes. They were heard multiple times between Thursday evening and Saturday morning, when Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed on his Telegram channel a dawn attack in the Darnitskii district on the outskirts of the city. The bombardment destroyed several buildings of a production plant for armored vehicles, the Russian agency Interfax reported, citing the Russian Ministry of Defense, which states the use of long-range and precision weapons. The mayor of Kyiv has reported that the attack has left one person dead and several injured, and has urged the population not to ignore anti-aircraft warnings. “Kyiv was and still is a target of the aggressor,” Klitschko stressed, while urging citizens who fled at the beginning of the war not to return. “I ask that you refrain from returning and stay in safer places,” he said.
Explosions were heard this Saturday in quieter Lviv – in the west of the country and home to many displaced people from Ukraine’s hardest-hit areas. The head of the Lviv regional military administration, Maksym Kozytskyi, later noted on his Telegram account that the Ukrainian Air Force intercepted four cruise missiles fired by Russian fighters over the area.
The offensive also continues in the south and east. In Kharkiv, the country’s second largest city, seven people, including a child, were killed and 34 wounded in a shelling on a residential building on Friday, according to city authorities. According to the Russian agency Interfax, a military workshop was bombed in nearby Mikolajiv.
In addition, besieged Mariupol on the Black Sea coast, which was fundamental to President Vladimir Putin’s military campaign, is suffering from attacks by Russian forces. In the port area, Russian units have launched offensive operations and used long-range Tu-22H3 bombers for the first time, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzianik said on Friday. The spokesman then pointed out that there was still “active fighting” over Ilich, which Russia says it already controls, one of the city’s two smelting works and the scene of the heaviest fighting in recent weeks. The Ukrainian government has denied Russian information about their capture.
More information
Subscribe to EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without limits.
Subscribe to
“The situation in Mariupol is difficult and tough. The fights are happening right now. The Russian army is constantly sending new units to destroy the city. But at the moment the Russians have not yet managed to fully capture the city,” Motuzianik said. The spokesman explained that the port and the Illich Steelworks were the two points where fighting would continue, accompanied by air strikes on the city The Russian government has already announced in recent weeks that it will confiscate the airport, municipal buildings and the theatre.
In the capital, the most important explosions since the withdrawal of Russian troops from the area 15 days ago were recorded in the early morning hours of Friday on the outskirts of the city. After tough weeks, its residents continued to take to the streets on Friday and the few shops that had reopened due to the relative calm did not close again. Although life has not stopped, some activities have been moved to underground shelters.
Russian cruise missile bombardment on Friday destroyed a factory on the outskirts of Kyiv that manufactured and repaired missiles, including some anti-ship missiles, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. The missile cruiser Moskva sank on the same day. It was towed after an explosion that Ukraine attributes to an attack by its troops and Russia to an unspecified fire that blew up the ammunition it was carrying.
While not acknowledging that the ship was attacked, the Russian Defense Ministry has threatened a response. “The number and scale of rocket attacks on targets in Kyiv will increase in response to any terrorist attack or act of sabotage on Russian territory by the nationalist regime in Kyiv,” the statement said.
That is also the forecast of the spokeswoman for the armed forces in southern Ukraine, Natalia Humeniuk. “We understand that the enemy will step up attacks and try to retaliate, including rocket attacks and artillery shelling, and we do not rule out a ground operation. We understand all the threats we face. It was a great loss for the enemy. We are aware of the economic and weapon technology consequences, but also of the image. It’s a hybrid war and the image has a psychological impact that’s also important. they will not forgive him […]. Our troops did something quite symbolic,” he said in a video conference with journalists this Friday.
Large-scale attack in the Donbass
Washington believes the military ship’s explosion was caused by two Ukrainian-made Neptune missiles, according to a senior US Defense Department official quoted by Reuters on Friday. The source claims there have been casualties but the numbers “are not clear”. The Russian agency TASS noted that after being rescued, the Moskva crew landed in Sevastopol in Moscow-annexed Crimea. The official note does not state whether there are dead or injured. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashenko said the cruiser’s captain, Anton Kuprin, was killed in the attack. Kyiv also says that most of the crew, about 500 people, could not be evacuated in time.
Moscow, which says its main goal is full takeover of the Donbass region, has sent a new column of thousands of troops east in a bid to launch a full-scale attack that Ukraine is anticipating. Its launch “will be a matter of days, not weeks,” Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kirilenko said on Friday. Local authorities have urged the population to leave their towns as soon as possible. “We have seen that troops in the eastern zone have regrouped and that attacks are taking place,” he said. The spokesman for Ukraine’s Defense Ministry also noted that Russian forces are concentrating their efforts on capturing two more cities in the east of the country: Popásnaya and Rubázhnoye in the pro-Russian separatist Lugansk province.
Follow all international information on Facebook and Twitteror in our weekly newsletter.