- Russian troops held out at the gates of Kiev for weeks
- Biden to assess refugee response in Poland
- China’s Sinopec halts investment talks
BUCHA/LVIV, Ukraine, March 25 – Moscow signaled on Friday it would scale back its ambitions in Ukraine to focus on territory claimed by Russian-backed separatists as Ukrainian forces invaded the Went on the offensive and recaptured towns on the outskirts of the capital Kyiv.
In the first big sign Western sanctions against Russia are hampering investment from China, sources told Reuters that state-owned Sinopec Group, Asia’s largest oil refiner, has suspended talks on a petrochemical investment and a venture to commercialize Russian gas. Continue reading
In the month since they began their invasion of Ukraine, Russian troops have not taken a major city. Their attack met fierce resistance from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s forces and was stopped at the gates of Kyiv.
Instead, the Russians are bombing and encircling cities, ravaging residential areas and driving around a quarter of Ukraine’s 44 million people from their homes.
More than 3.7 million of them have fled abroad, half to Poland, which US President Joe Biden visited on Friday.
Battle lines near Kyiv have been frozen for weeks, with two main Russian tank columns stranded northwest and east of the capital. A British intelligence report described a Ukrainian counter-offensive that had pushed the Russians back east.
“Ukrainian counterattacks and Russian forces, drawing on stretched supply lines, have enabled Ukraine to reoccupy towns and defensive positions up to 35 km east of Kyiv,” the report said. Britain has provided Ukraine with weapons and military training.
In an announcement that seemed to hint at more limited targets, Russia’s Defense Ministry said a first phase of its operation had been completed and would now focus on two eastern regions claimed by Russian-backed separatists. Continue reading
“The main objectives of the first phase of the operation were generally achieved,” said Sergei Rudskoy, head of the Main Operations Directorate of the Russian General Staff.
“The combat potential of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has been significantly reduced, which makes it possible to focus our core efforts on achieving the main goal, the liberation of Donbass.”
FIGHT BACK
Volodymyr Borysenko, mayor of Boryspol, an eastern suburb where Kyiv’s main airport is located, said 20,000 civilians had evacuated the area, following a call to clear it so Ukrainian troops could counterattack. Ukrainian forces retook a nearby village the previous day and pushed further, but stopped to avoid endangering civilians, he said.
On the other main front, outside of Kyiv, in the north-west of the capital, Ukrainian forces have tried to encircle Russian troops in the suburbs of Irpin, Bucha and Hostomel, which have been reduced to rubble by heavy fighting in recent weeks.
In Bucha, 25 km (15 miles) northwest of Kyiv, a small group of Ukrainian troops armed with anti-tank missiles dug foxholes. Andriy told Reuters he volunteered to defend the city once the invasion began.
“I told my wife to get the kids and hide in the basement, and I went to the enlistment station and immediately joined my unit,” he said. “My wife and children were squatted for two weeks, but then managed to escape through a humanitarian corridor.”
A Ukrainian service member uses binoculars at a position on the front lines in North Kyiv region, Ukraine March 24, 2022. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
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Moscow calls its actions in Ukraine a “special military operation” to demilitarize and “denazify” Ukraine. Ukraine and the West say Putin launched an unprovoked war of aggression.
Russia is unable to capture cities, instead attacking them with artillery and airstrikes.
Hardest hit was the eastern port of Mariupol, a city of 400,000 that has been under siege since the beginning of the war. It is the largest Ukrainian-held city in the area Russia is demanding ceding to the separatists.
Tens of thousands of people are still believed to be trapped inside, with little access to food, electricity or heat, while the city around them has been reduced to rubble.
While waiting in line for food in a Russian-held neighborhood, Alexandra told Reuters her diabetic husband went into a coma and died.
He was buried in a flower bed. Continue reading
“We plan to go but it’s very difficult at the moment,” she said. “I can’t leave my husband in a flower bed.”
mass grave reports
Mariupol City Council gave an estimated death toll for the March 16 bombing of the main theater for the first time, saying witnesses said 300 people were killed among many hundreds who took refuge in the basement. Russia denies guilt.
The United Nations said it is reviewing reports of mass graves in Mariupol, including one containing at least 200 bodies.
The eastern cities of Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy have also suffered devastating bombardments. Chernihiv is effectively surrounded by Russian forces, its governor said.
In Kharkiv, officials said six people were killed by shelling at an aid distribution point in a supermarket. A video posted online showed an explosion hit a parking lot where dozens of people were queuing. People fled in horror after the explosion. Reuters was able to confirm that it was filmed outside a supermarket in Kharkiv.
Western sanctions have isolated Russia from world trade to a degree never before achieved in such a large economy. China is the largest power that has not condemned the Russian invasion.
The Reuters report that Sinopec suspended talks of potentially $500 million worth of investments was the first concrete sign sanctions are affecting trade between Moscow and Beijing.
Beijing has repeatedly spoken out against the sanctions and insisted on maintaining trade ties. But behind the scenes, the government is urging Chinese companies to tread carefully.
“Companies will strictly follow Beijing’s foreign policy in this crisis,” said an executive at a Chinese state oil company. “There is absolutely no scope for companies to take initiatives in terms of new investments.”
Reporting by a Reuters journalist in Mariupol, Natalia Zinets in Lviv and Reuters offices worldwide. Writing by Peter Graff, Editing by Angus MacSwan