Evacuation plea as fighting nears Kyiv

Pavel Polityuk and Natalia Zinets | March 12, 2022

Fighting is raging northwest of Kyiv, with the bulk of Russian ground forces 25km from the centre of the Ukrainian capital, while several other cities are encircled and under heavy shelling, the UK defence ministry says.

Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said she hoped several humanitarian corridors would open on Saturday for thousands of residents in the bombarded cities, including from the besieged port city of Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia.

“I hope that the day will go well, all the planned routes will be open and Russia will fulfil its obligations to guarantee the ceasefire regime,” Vereshchuk said in a video address after repeated evacuation efforts this week failed.

At least 1582 civilians in the southeastern city of Mariupol have been killed as a result of Russian shelling and a 12-day blockade, the city council said in an online statement on Friday. It was not possible to verify casualty figures.

Air raid sirens blared across most Ukrainian cities on Saturday morning urging people to seek shelters, after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the war had reached a “strategic turning point”.

Russian forces appeared to be regrouping, possibly for a fresh offensive which could target the capital Kyiv in a few days, Britain’s defence ministry said on Friday. 

In a Saturday update, it said fighting northwest of the capital continued and the cities of Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Mariupol remained encircled under heavy Russian shelling.

Efforts to isolate Russia economically have stepped up, with the United States imposing new sanctions on senior Kremlin officials and Russian oligarchs and the European Union set to strip Russia of its privileged trade status on Saturday.

With the Russian assault in its third week, Zelenskiy, who has rallied his people with a series of addresses, said Ukraine had “already reached a strategic turning point”.

“It is impossible to say how many days we still have (ahead of us) to free Ukrainian land. But we can say we will do it,” he said. 

“We are already moving towards our goal, our victory.”

Russian forces kept up their bombardment of cities across the country on Friday. Satellite images appeared to show them firing artillery as they advanced on Kyiv.

The fighting has created more than two million refugees, with thousands of Ukrainians still trapped in besieged cities.

Russian President Vladimir Putin calls the invasion a “special operation” to disarm Ukraine and unseat leaders it calls neo-Nazis.

Ukraine and Western allies call this a baseless pretext for a war of choice that has raised fears of wider conflict in Europe.

The governor of the Kharkiv region on the Russian border, said a psychiatric hospital had been hit, while the city’s mayor said about 50 schools there had been destroyed.

Moscow denies targeting civilians.

Russia’s defence ministry said the Black Sea port was surrounded, while Deputy PM Vereshchuk said Russian shelling prevented people from leaving along a humanitarian corridor on Friday.

“The situation is critical,” Ukrainian interior ministry adviser Vadym Denysenko said.

Western countries meanwhile took more economic steps to try to force Putin to end his assault.

US President Joe Biden, who this week banned imports of Russian oil, seafood, alcohol and diamonds, said the G7 industrial powers would revoke Russia’s “most favoured nation” trade status.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU would on Saturday suspend Moscow’s privileged trade and economic treatment, crack down on its use of crypto-assets, and ban the import of iron and steel goods from Russia.

Russia’s main force had been stalled north of Kyiv, having failed in what Western analysts say was meant to be a lightning assault.

But images taken on Friday and released by US satellite firm Maxar appeared to show Russian forces continuing to deploy closer to Kyiv and firing artillery toward residential areas.

Multiple homes and buildings were on fire and widespread damage was seen throughout the town of Moschun, northwest of Kyiv, Maxar said. 

The images could not be independently verified.

Britain’s intelligence update said Russian ground forces were still making only limited progress, hampered by logistical problems and Ukrainian resistance.

The Ukrainian general staff said Russian forces were regrouping after taking heavy losses. 

Kyiv’s mayor, former heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, said the capital had enough essential supplies to last a couple of weeks. Supply lines remained open.

At a meeting with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, Putin said there were “certain positive shifts” in talks with Kyiv, but did not elaborate.

Ukraine has raised the prospect of Moscow’s ally Belarus entering the war, accusing Russia of staging “false flag” air attacks on Belarus from Ukraine to provide an excuse. 

The Kremlin did not respond to a request for comment.