- Rockets have hit the eastern city of Lviv near the Polish border
- Biden addresses Europe; meets with Ukrainian refugees
- Zelenskyj calls on the West to provide military aid
- Russian troops take a town near Chernobyl in the second attempt
WARSAW/LVIV, Ukraine, March 27 – US President Joe Biden called Russian leader Vladimir Putin a butcher who “cannot remain in power” after meeting Ukrainian refugees in Poland as Kremlin forces launched the attacks throughout Ukraine, including the western city, reinforced from Lviv.
Biden’s impromptu remark, an escalation of US rhetoric towards Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, was not a call for regime change in Russia, a White House official said, but was meant to prepare the world’s democracies for a broader conflict. Continue reading
Just before he addressed Warsaw’s Royal Castle on Saturday, four rockets hit the outskirts of Lviv, just 60 km (40 miles) from the Polish border, local officials said. Continue reading
Another strike caused extensive damage to Lviv’s infrastructure, but no fatalities were reported in either attack.
As the fighting drags on since Russia’s invasion of its neighbor on February 24, a visibly irritated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy again called on Western nations to send military equipment.
He asked if they were intimidated by Moscow and said: “We’ve been waiting for 31 days.” Continue reading
In a fiery speech that ended a tour of Europe aimed at bolstering Western resolve, Biden portrayed the war as part of a historic struggle for democratic freedoms.
“For God’s sake, this man can’t stay in power,” Biden said at the end of his speech. The Kremlin dismissed the comment, saying, “This is not Biden’s business. The President of Russia is elected by the Russians.”
Biden called Putin a “butcher” after meeting refugees in Poland.
“We have to have a clear view. This fight will not be won in days or months,” he said. “We have to prepare ourselves for a long fight.”
Moscow says the goals for what Putin calls a “military special operation” include demilitarizing and “denazifying” its neighbor. Ukraine and its Western allies call this a pretext for an unprovoked invasion.
Russia has failed to capture a major Ukrainian city and the conflict has killed thousands, sent nearly 3.8 million abroad and displaced more than half of Ukraine’s children from their homes, according to the United Nations.
FIGHTS, BOMBING AROUND THE COUNTRY
According to Western intelligence officials, Russian forces now rely on indiscriminate bombing rather than risking large-scale ground operations, a tactic that could limit Russian military casualties but would harm more civilians.
Olha Moliboha, 90, fled the northern city of Chernihiv just before Russia destroyed a bridge connecting her to Kyiv, preventing further evacuations or humanitarian aid shipments. Continue reading
People watch as smoke billows from an airstrike as Russia’s assault on Ukraine continues March 26, 2022 in Lviv, Ukraine. REUTERS/Pavlo Palamarchuk
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“They attacked and bombed us. They destroyed everything in our city. So many children have died, so many women,” said Moliboha, who is now in Poland, tearfully sitting in a wheelchair with her dog on her knees. “All our houses are destroyed, they are no longer there. There is no place to live.”
Russian forces seized Slavutych, a town home to workers at the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and the mayor said three people were killed, Ukraine’s Interfax news agency reported. Continue reading
Ukrainian workers have continued to work at Chernobyl after the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident was seized by Russian forces.
Russian forces have fired on a nuclear research facility in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s parliament said.
The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said Sunday Russia continued its “full-scale armed aggression” while Ukrainian forces repelled seven attacks in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and destroyed several tanks and armored vehicles.
Reuters has not been able to independently verify reports of fighting across Ukraine.
In the encircled southern port of Mariupol, Mayor Vadym Boichenko said the situation remains critical, with street fighting at its core. Mariupol was devastated by weeks of Russian fire.
Russia said last week it had evacuated several hundred thousand people from the war zone, but Ukraine says thousands of its residents, including those from Mariupol, were illegally deported.
Ukrainian officials urged the International Committee of the Red Cross not to open a planned office in Russia’s Rostov-on-Don because doing so would legitimize Moscow’s “humanitarian corridors” and the kidnapping and forced deportation of Ukrainians. Continue reading
UKRAINE WAITS
The United States, which has pledged billions in aid, pledged another $100 million for field equipment and civilian security assistance for Ukraine’s border guards and police. Continue reading
Zelenskyy compared the devastation of Mariupol to the destruction of the Syrian city of Aleppo by Syrian and Russian forces in the Syrian civil war.
He warned of dire consequences if Ukraine — one of the world’s largest grain producers — could not export its food, and urged energy-producing countries to ramp up production so Russia can’t use its oil and gas wealth to help other nations “blackmail”. Continue reading
The United Nations has confirmed 1,104 civilian deaths and 1,754 injured in Ukraine and says the real number is likely higher. According to Ukraine, 136 children were killed.
The Russian Defense Ministry said 1,351 Russian soldiers were killed and 3,825 injured, the Interfax news agency reported on Friday. Ukraine speaks of 15,000 Russian soldiers killed. Reuters could not independently verify the claims.
Reporting by Reuters journalists in Mariupol, Natalia Zinets and Maria Starkova in Lviv, Jarrett Renshaw in Warsaw and Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Writing Lincoln Feast; Adaptation by William Mallard