Kyiv, Ukraine (AP) – Ukraine said it retook a strategically important suburb of Kyiv early Tuesday as Russian troops pressured other areas near the capital and its assault on Mariupol’s embattled southern port raged unabated.
Explosions and gunfire shook Kyiv, and black smoke billowed from a spot in the north. Increased artillery fire was heard from the northwest, where Russia has been trying to encircle and capture several suburbs of the capital, a key target.
Residents sheltered at home or underground under a 35-hour curfew imposed by city authorities, which runs until Wednesday morning.
Russian forces also stepped up their siege of Mariupol after the southern port city’s defenders refused calls for surrender, with fleeing civilians reporting relentless bombardment and dead bodies in the streets. But the Kremlin’s ground offensive in other parts of the country made slow or no progress, repelled by deadly hit-and-run attacks by Ukrainians.
Ukrainian troops drove Russian forces out of the Kiev suburb of Makariv early Tuesday after a fierce battle, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said. The regained territory allowed Ukrainian forces to regain control of a key highway and prevent Russian troops from encircling Kyiv from the north-west.
Still, the Defense Ministry said Russian forces have been able to partially take other northwestern suburbs, Bucha, Hostomel and Irpin, some of which have been almost under attack since the Russian military invaded nearly a month ago.
The Russian invasion has displaced more than 10 million people from their homes, according to the United Nations, a number equal to the population of Portugal and almost a quarter of Ukraine’s pre-war population. The United Nations has confirmed over 900 civilian deaths, while saying the real number is likely much higher. Estimates of Russian military deaths vary, but even conservative numbers are in the low thousands.
Aside from the horrific casualties, the war shook the post-Cold War global security consensus and raised repeated fears that it might trigger a nuclear accident. Ukraine’s natural resources minister said forest fires near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine had been extinguished and radiation levels in the region were within norms. Fires are not uncommon in the area, but raise concerns about the potential release of radiation from the aftermath of the 1986 explosion and fire at the facility.
Concerns have been raised about the safety of the decommissioned facility since it was seized by Russian forces last month. Power was momentarily cut during fighting earlier this month, and Ukraine’s nuclear regulatory agency said Monday that radiation monitors around the facility had stopped working.
Faced with unexpectedly fierce resistance, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops are increasingly concentrating their air force and artillery on Ukrainian cities and the civilian population living there.
US and British officials say Kyiv remains Russia’s top target. The bulk of Moscow’s forces remain miles from the center, but rockets and artillery have destroyed homes and a large shopping center hit by strikes late Sunday, emergency officials said, killing eight people.
A senior US defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the military’s assessment, said Russia has stepped up airstrikes over the past two days, conducting up to 300 in a 24-hour period and launching more than 1,100 missiles Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion.
US President Joe Biden, who is traveling to Europe later in the week to meet with allies, hinted Monday night that worse could be to come.
“Putin has his back against the wall,” Biden said. “He did not foresee the extent or strength of our unity. And the more his back is against the wall, the harder he can apply his tactics.”
Biden repeated allegations that Putin was considering using chemical or biological weapons, although Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday the United States had seen no evidence that the use of such weapons was “imminent.”
As Russian forces try to pressure Kyiv, talks to end the fighting continued via video but failed to bridge the rift between the two sides. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Ukrainian TV late Monday that he was ready to accept an offer from Ukraine to join NATO — a key Russian one — in exchange for a ceasefire, the withdrawal of Russian troops and a guarantee of Ukraine’s security Demand – to waive.
Zelenskyy also suggested Kyiv is open to future discussions on the status of Crimea, which Russia seized in 2014, and areas of the eastern Donbass region held by Russian-backed separatists. But he said that was a different topic.
As part of a series of addresses to foreign lawmakers to mobilize support for Ukraine, Zelenskyy spoke to Italian lawmakers on Tuesday, telling them that the besieged port of Mariupol had been completely destroyed by the Russian attack. He also spoke to Pope Francis.
“Imagine Genoa completely burned down,” he told ecstatic lawmakers, citing an Italian port city of a similar size. Mariupol officials said on March 15 that at least 2,300 people died in the siege, and they have not given an update since. Zelenskyi said that 117 children have been killed in the war so far.
Some managed to flee Mariupol, where weeks of Russian bombardment have cut off electricity, water and food supplies and severed communications with the outside world. The city council said on Tuesday that more than 1,100 people who fled the besieged city were headed in a bus convoy to another city in northwest Mariupol.
But the Red Cross said a humanitarian aid convoy trying to reach the embattled city with much-needed supplies was still unable to enter.
Located on the Sea of Azov, Mariupol is a major port for Ukraine and occupies a stretch of territory between Russia and Crimea. As such, it is a key target that has been under siege for more than three weeks and has seen some of the worst suffering of the war.
It’s not clear how close its capture might be. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that its forces were still defending the city and destroyed a Russian patrol boat and an electronic warfare complex. Britain’s Defense Ministry said its intelligence showed that “Ukrainian forces continue to repel Russian attempts to occupy the city.”
Those who made it out of Mariupol told about a devastated city.
“There are no more buildings there,” said 77-year-old Maria Fiodorova, who crossed the border into Poland on Monday after a five-day journey.
A long line of vehicles was parked on a road in Bezimenne, east of Mariupol, as residents sought shelter in a makeshift camp set up by Russian-backed separatists in the Donetsk region.
A woman, who gave her name as Yulia, said she and her family took refuge in Bezimenne after a bomb attack destroyed six houses behind her home.
“So we got in the car at our own risk and drove off in 15 minutes because everything is destroyed there, there are bodies lying around,” she said.
In all, more than 8,000 people fled to safer areas through humanitarian corridors on Monday, including about 3,000 from Mariupol, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
In all, more than 3.5 million people have fled Ukraine, while another 6.5 million have been displaced within the country.
Matthew Saltmarsh, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency, called the speed and scale of people fleeing the danger in Ukraine “unprecedented in recent memory”.
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Anna reported from Lemberg, Ukraine. Associated Press writer Yuras Karmanau in Lviv and other AP journalists around the world contributed to this report.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine