LEOPOLIS, Ukraine (AP) Ukrainian forces said early Tuesday they had retaken a strategic Kyiv suburb as Russian forces pushed into other areas near the capital and maintained their siege of Mariupol’s southern port.
Explosions and volleys of gunfire shook Kyiv, and black smoke billowed from a point to the north. Increasing artillery fire could be heard from the northwest, where Russia has attempted to encircle and capture several suburbs of the capital, a crucial target.
Neighbors fled to their homes or underground during a 35hour curfew imposed by city authorities until Wednesday morning.
Russian forces also continued their siege of Mariupol after the city’s defenders rebuffed demands for surrender. Civilians who managed to escape described how they fled through streettostreet fighting and past unburied bodies.
Meanwhile, in other parts of the country, the Kremlin’s ground offensive made slow or no progress, undermined by lethally rapid attacks by Ukrainians.
The Ukrainian army said early Tuesday that it drove Russian forces out of the strategic suburb of Makariv after an intense battle. The regained territory allowed the Ukrainian contingent to retake control of a key highway to the west and prevent the capital from being encircled from the northwest.
However, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry noted that Russian forces fighting for Kyiv were able to retake parts of other northwestern suburbs: Bucha, Hostomel and Irpin, some of which had been under attack almost since the beginning of the Russian invasion in the late 20th century. Last month.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops are increasingly concentrating their air power and artillery on Ukrainian cities and the civilian population living there, killing unknown numbers and forcing millions to flee.
The Russian invasion has displaced nearly 3.5 million people from Ukraine, according to the United Nations, with another 6.5 million displaced within the country. The UN has confirmed more than 900 civilian deaths, although it admits the true figure is likely much higher. Russian death estimates vary, but even conservative numbers are in the low thousands.
British and US officials said Kyiv remains Russia’s main target. The bulk of Moscow’s troops remain miles from the center, though rockets and artillery have destroyed homes and a large shopping mall that has left smoking ruins after a shelling attack Sunday night that killed eight people.
A US defense official, who declined to comment on the military’s analysis on condition of anonymity, said Russia has increased flights over the past two days to as many as 300 in the past 24 hours and has dropped more than 1,100 missiles on the ground since the beginning of the year Ukraine fired the invasion.
US President Joe Biden, who was due to travel to Europe this week to meet with allies, hinted Monday night that the worst could be yet to come.
“Putin has his back against the wall,” Biden said. “I didn’t expect the scale or strength of our unity. And the more you find yourself against the wall, the more serious strategies you can use.
Biden repeated his allegations that Putin was considering using chemical weapons.
While Russian forces tried to put pressure on Kyiv, talks on stopping the fighting continued via video conference, but failed to bring the positions closer together. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Ukrainian TV Monday night that he was ready to give up NATO membership, a key Russian demand, in exchange for a ceasefire, the withdrawal of Russian troops and guarantees for Ukraine’s security.
Zelenskyy also suggested that Kyiv would be open to future negotiations over the situation in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and over regions in eastern Donbass controlled by Russianbacked separatists. But he noted that this is a different topic. Zelensky was due to address Italian lawmakers on Tuesday as part of a series of messages to foreign parliaments asking for support, and Japanese parliamentarians on Wednesday.
In Mariupol, where communications were cut, movement restricted and many residents hidden, it remained unclear what had become of people at an art school destroyed on Sunday and a theater demolished four days earlier. More than 1,300 people were believed to be sheltering at the theater and about 400 at the art school.
Mariupol on the Sea of Azov is a major port for Ukraine and lies on the strip of land between Russia and Crimea. That has made it a key target, having been under siege for more than three weeks and suffering some of the worst scenes of the war.
But there hasn’t been a clear, independent picture of just how close his demise might be. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday its forces were still defending the city and had destroyed a Russian patrol boat and an electronic facility.
Over the weekend Moscow had offered a safe route out of Mariupol and established an eastward corridor to Russia and one to western Ukraine in exchange for the city’s surrender before dawn on Monday. Ukraine flatly rejected the offer well before the deadline.
Before the war, Mariupol had about 430,000 inhabitants. About a quarter are believed to have fled the city in the early days of the conflict and tens of thousands have fled through a humanitarian corridor over the past week. Continuing fighting hampered previous evacuation attempts.
Mariupol officials said on March 15 that at least 2,300 people had been killed in the siege, some buried in mass graves. An official estimate has not been released since, but it is feared the figure is much higher after six days of attacks.
For those still in town, conditions have become brutal. The siege has left Mariupol without electricity, water and food, and cut off communications with the outside world, plunging residents into a struggle for survival. Recent satellite images showed plumes of smoke billowing from buildings destroyed by Russian artillery.
Those who managed to leave Mariupol say the city is devastated.
“It has no more buildings,” said Maria Fiodorova, 77, after crossing the border into Poland on Monday after a fiveday journey.
A long line of vehicles waited on a highway in Bezimenne as Mariupol residents sought shelter in a makeshift camp set up by Russianbacked separatists in the Donetsk region. It is estimated that around 5,000 people have fled to the town from Mariupol. Many came in cars with signs that read “Children” in Russian.
A woman, who gave her name like Yulia, said she and her family took refuge in Bezimenne after shelling destroyed six houses behind hers.
“That’s why we got in the car at our own risk and drove away in 15 minutes because everything was destroyed there, there are bodies everywhere,” he said. “We got nowhere, there were shootings.”
In total, more than 8,000 people fled to safer areas through humanitarian corridors on Monday, including around 3,000 residents of Mariupol, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.