Kyiv, Ukraine — Russian troops entered the city of Mariupol on Saturday in a strategic move for Moscow, which sees the southern port city as a gateway that will open a land corridor between Russia and the annexed region of Crimea.
For three weeks of bombing and attacking, they held off Russian forces on the outskirts of the city, the defenders say, but that has now changed.
“The battle is already underway in the city itself,” an employee of the mayor’s office said in a text message. “But Mariupol remains a Ukrainian city.”
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The capture of Mariupol would be a key victory for Russia, which has so far failed to take a single major Ukrainian city. He will release his forces to surround the Ukrainian army units in the eastern regions and move further towards the Ukrainian capital Kiev.
In the southern city of Nikolaev, Russian missile strikes hit the headquarters of the 79th brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, including neighborhoods where the families of officers live. Several buildings collapsed, and footage from the scene, broadcast on Ukrainian TV channels, shows a small child being dug out from under the rubble. Ukrainian officials say 40 people, possibly more, were killed.
A resident takes shelter in a basement in Mariupol, Ukraine.
Photo: ALEXANDER YERMOCHENKO/REUTERS
Nikolayev Governor Vitaliy Kim said in a video that a “cowardly” Russian strike had been carried out on sleeping soldiers and that rescue efforts were underway. He added that the Ukrainian military counteroffensive in the region continues.
When Russian forces bombarded Mariupol with airstrikes and artillery, the city became a symbol of fierce Ukrainian resistance as well as civilian suffering. Thousands of the city’s 400,000 residents fled, officials said, and thousands were killed, some of them thrown into mass graves.
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
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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. Oleksiy 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 the Russian border means that Moscow can easily launch massive air strikes from nearby military centers such as Crimea and the city of Rostov in southern Russia, he said.
Local residents carry water on the outskirts of Mariupol, Ukraine.
Photo: Alexey Alexandrov/Associated Press
The nearest Ukrainian units to Mariupol are more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) away, he said, and the terrain around the city provides little cover from Russian attacks.
“Unfortunately, not a single army in the world, even the American one, with the forces that we currently have there, will overcome this distance,” Mr. Arestovich said.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address that 9,000 people had been evacuated from the city. Rescuers in Mariupol evacuated 130 people from the rubble of a theater hit by an airstrike this week and searched for more survivors.
About 1,300 people remained trapped in the basement of the theater on Friday, where residents took shelter from Russian shelling, said Lyudmila Denisova, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, adding that it was difficult to accurately determine the number of survivors. She did not confirm the presence of victims.
Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to continue his invasion of Ukraine in a rare public address Friday before a crowd of tens of thousands of flag-waving fans at a Moscow stadium.
Ukrainian soldier in a trench in Nikolaev, Ukraine.
Photo: Bulent Kilic/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
A Ukrainian soldier was rescued from the rubble of a Russian military school in Nikolaev, Ukraine.
Photo: Bulent Kilic/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
While part of the Russian offensive stalled due to poor planning and logistics, Moscow has been showing off some of its high-tech weapons by launching long-range missile strikes. The Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday that it had fired an air-launched ballistic missile at Ukraine in what may have been the first use of the system Mr. Putin announced years ago.
The weapon hit a large underground warehouse of missiles and aviation ammunition near Delyatyn in western Ukraine, the ministry said in a statement. Russian state media, RIA Novosti, reported that this was the first use of the new weapon.
Ukrainian refugees line up to enter Poland through the Medyka border crossing in Shehyni, Ukraine.
Photo: Angel Garcia/Bloomberg News
The Ukrainian military confirmed the attack on the facility and the detonation of ammunition stored there. According to the military, there is no information yet on the number of victims and the type of weapons used.
Mr. Zelensky said Russian forces “continue to block humanitarian aid supplies to besieged cities in most areas,” with the exception of seven open humanitarian corridors. He added that more than 180,000 Ukrainians have been rescued and tons of essential items have been delivered. He also canceled all taxes and customs duties in order to speed up the delivery of goods to the country.
Mr. Zelensky urged Russia to negotiate and said he would turn to other countries such as Switzerland, Israel, Italy and Japan in the coming days, just as he did to the US, Canada and Germany. “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.”
Russian missiles targeted the region of Ukraine closest to the Polish border, hitting an airfield near Lvov; Kiev firefighters put out the flames as shelling left residential areas in ruins; President Biden and Xi Jinping held talks on Ukraine. Photo: Associated Press
President Biden held a nearly two-hour video conference on Friday with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in an effort to keep Beijing from deepening Moscow’s involvement in its war effort.
“President Biden has made clear the meaning and implications of China’s material support for Russia,” a senior US official said after the phone call.
Mr Xi sought to portray China as a peacemaker. “The Ukrainian crisis is something we don’t want to see,” he told Mr. Biden, according to China’s official Xinhua news agency. “Conflict and confrontation is not in anyone’s interest.”
— Yaroslav Trofimov and Brett Forrest contributed to this article.
Write to Alan Callison at [email protected] and Isabel Coles at [email protected]
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