Kyiv, Ukraine — Russia appears to be preparing to redeploy its forces after more than three weeks of heavy fighting and limited land success in its advance into Ukraine, as the situation in the battled port city of Mariupol worsens.
The Ukrainian military said early Sunday morning that Russian forces were mostly busy replenishing losses in men and equipment, while the invading army was barely moving. According to the Ukrainian armed forces, Russia has also mobilized people in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region of Ukraine to strengthen its armed forces.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday it fired a range of long-range weapons at targets in Ukraine, including its new Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missile. For the second time in recent days, Russia has said it has used weapons presented by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2018. Western and Ukrainian experts questioned Russia’s initial claim to use the sophisticated missile.
The Russian ministry also said it struck a military base in Ukraine’s Zhytomyr region where it claimed foreign fighters were stationed.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky delivers a video message in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Photo: Handout/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday said his country’s armed forces were inflicting heavy losses on Russian troops, but added: “We are well aware that Russia simply has a bottomless human resource and a lot of equipment, missiles and bombs.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Zelenskiy on Sunday suspended 11 Russian-linked political parties that Ukrainian officials say serve as fronts for Kremlin interests. Moscow has sought to install pro-Russian leaders in areas it has conquered since the start of its invasion.
Some of them have long been seen by Ukrainian officials as fronts for the Kremlin. The leader of one of them, Viktor Medvedchuk, fled his home, where he was under house arrest in Kyiv, days after the start of the Russian invasion last month, according to Ukrainian officials.
In Mariupol, where fighting has taken to the streets, Ukrainian officials said an art school, where about 400 people were hiding, was bombed by Russia, leaving people under rubble. Their condition was uncertain.
People flee from Mariupol to Zaporozhye, Ukraine.
Photo: REUTERS
Damaged church after Russian shelling in Mariupol, Ukraine.
Photo: Yevgeny Maloletka/Associated Press
The incident took place a few days after an explosion at a theater in the city. As of Friday, rescuers have freed 130 people from the rubble, though 1,300 remained trapped in the theater’s basement, a local official said.
On Sunday, the Mariupol city council said about 4,000 civilians had been killed in the city since fighting began. He also accused Russian forces of forcibly evacuating residents of the Levoberezhny district of the city to Russia and the territory of Donetsk and Lugansk regions, which broke away from the pro-Russian regions in eastern Ukraine.
“People who are forcibly taken to Russian territory have their Ukrainian passports confiscated and are given documents that have no legal force and are not accepted in the civilized world,” the council said in a message posted on Telegram on Sunday.
Russia has not commented on reports of forced evacuations from Mariupol.
Mariupol is a strategic target for Moscow as it tries to open a land corridor to the annexed region of Crimea and change the course of its three-week-long invasion. The Ukrainians said they held back Russian forces on the outskirts of Mariupol for weeks of bombing and attacks, but that all changed on Saturday, Ukrainian officials said.
“Fierce battles between the defenders of Mariupol and the occupiers continue, including on the streets of the city,” the Azov Battalion volunteer detachment, whose members are fighting alongside regular government troops inside the city, says in a message on the Telegram channel.
The capture of Mariupol would be a victory for Russia, which has so far failed to take a single major Ukrainian city since the beginning of the invasion.
People evacuated from Irpen in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Photo: Roman Pilipey/Shutterstock
A residential building destroyed by a Russian strike in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Photo: Christopher Ochikone for The Wall Street Journal
Russia expected an early capture of Mariupol, a traditionally Russian-speaking city, which would free up its forces to encircle Ukrainian army units in the eastern regions and allow others to push further towards the Ukrainian capital Kiev. But the city was a difficult target, and its defenders withstood weeks of shelling and sieges.
Russian military leaders were desperate for a token victory to offer Putin, analysts said, and US officials saw signs of tension in Russian intelligence and defense apparatus over a lack of military progress.
“Commanders on the Russian side must be desperate to ‘win’—they want to show Putin results,” said Emily Harding, a former Central Intelligence Agency analyst and Senate Intelligence Committee staff member now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. think tank in Washington. “The conquest of Mariupol would have given them the opportunity to demonstrate the heavy losses they had suffered.”
Territories no longer controlled by Ukraine as of Friday
Direction of the invasion force
Controlled by or allied with Russia
Major border crossings with refugees
Chernobyl
Does not work
territory of Ukraine recognized by Putin as independent
Controlled
separatists
Territories no longer controlled by Ukraine as of Friday
Direction of the invasion force
Controlled by or allied with Russia
territory of Ukraine recognized by Putin as independent
Major border crossings with refugees
Chernobyl
Does not work
controlled
separatists
Territories no longer controlled by Ukraine as of Friday
Direction of the invasion force
Controlled by or allied with Russia
Major border crossings with refugees
territory of Ukraine recognized by Putin as independent
Chernobyl
Does not work
controlled
separatists
Territories no longer controlled by Ukraine as of Friday
Direction of the invasion force
Controlled by or allied with Russia
Major border crossings with refugees
territory of Ukraine recognized by Putin as independent
Territories no longer controlled by Ukraine as of Friday
Direction of the invasion force
Controlled by or allied with Russia
Major border crossings with refugees
territory of Ukraine recognized by Putin as independent
Kyiv tried to unload Mariupol, but so far without success. Aleksei Arestovich, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, said Ukrainian forces lacked the ability to break the Russian siege, responding to criticism that the government was not doing enough.
Mariupol’s proximity to Russia’s border means Moscow can easily send significant air power to it from nearby military centers such as Crimea and the city of Rostov in southern Russia, he said.
According to him, the nearest Ukrainian units to Mariupol are more than 100 kilometers away, and the vast treeless steppe around the city does not provide shelter from Russian attacks.
A humanitarian corridor has been agreed for the evacuation of residents of Mariupol and sending aid, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk said on Sunday. According to her, this is one of the seven humanitarian corridors agreed on Sunday. These corridors sometimes had to be abandoned after they came under fire.
Local residents carry water from a warehouse on the outskirts of Mariupol, Ukraine.
Photo: Alexey Alexandrov/Associated Press
Parts of the Russian offensive stalled due to poor planning and logistics, and the troops faced fierce counterattacks from Ukrainian forces. Some of Russia’s ground offensives have stalled this week as casualties mount. According to the Ukrainian government, four Russian generals were killed. Some U.S. government estimates put up to 7,000 Russian servicemen dead in combat, though officials warn that these are inaccurate estimates.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said on Saturday that with the Russian operation “stalled on several fronts,” it is understandable that Moscow is working to strengthen its capabilities going forward. However, he added that the US has not seen concrete evidence that this is happening.
Mr. Zelensky urged Russia to negotiate and said he would turn to other countries such as Israel, Italy and Japan in the coming days, just as he had turned to the US, Canada, Germany and Switzerland.
“It’s time to meet. Time to talk. The time has come to restore territorial integrity and justice for Ukraine,” he said. “Otherwise, Russia’s losses will be so great that several generations will not be enough to recover … Ukraine’s proposals are on the table.”
— Matthew Laxmoor contributed to this article.
Write to Alan Cullison at [email protected]
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