Russian forces continued to batter urban areas in Ukraine on Thursday, annihilating basic resources and enflaming a humanitarian crisis that has already forced one million Ukrainians to flee their homeland.
Vadym Boychenko, the mayor of Mariupol, said the city is under siege and cutoff from water, food, and power supplies.
“They impede the supply of food, create a blockade for us,” he wrote Thursday on Telegram. “We again have no light, water and heat. We are being destroyed as a nation.”
If Mariupol, a port city with a population approaching 500,000, is captured, that would put Russia in a dominant position in two key areas in southern Ukraine. Kherson was overrun yesterday.
CNN reports:
Kherson’s Mayor Ihor Kolykhaiev said Wednesday in a statement shared on his Facebook page that the Ukrainian military is no longer in the city and that its inhabitants must now carry out the instructions of “armed people who came to the city’s administration” – indicating that the city has now fallen under Russian control.
However, the Ukrainian defense ministry insists that the battle for Kherson is not over.
“I am sure of this,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said at a Thursday press conference, “if [the Russians] entered somewhere, it is only temporary. We’ll drive them out, with shame.”
Zelensky added, “Despite the fact that their quantity is ten times bigger, the morale of the enemy is deteriorating. More and more invaders are fleeing back to Russia.”
Describing the grim situation elsewhere in the country, The Wall Street Journal reports:
Russian forces Thursday continued pounding residential districts in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, and Chernihiv in the north. Moscow also conducted airstrikes on the capital, Kyiv, and several Russian warships appeared near the southern port city of Odessa in what Ukrainian officials said could be the opening stages of an amphibious assault.
Seizing Odessa and other coastal cities that remain under Kyiv’s control would deprive Ukraine of its Black Sea coast and the ports through which most of the country’s exports are shipped.
Russia’s goal of capturing Kyiv has been hampered by its inability to move a stalled miles-long military convoy into the city. Ukraine said it has successfully sabotaged the convoy which is also plagued by fuel shortages and logistics issues.
A U.S. official told reporters on Thursday that the majority of Ukraine’s air and missile defense systems remain intact, another source of frustration for Russian commanders, who have launched 480 missiles since the start of the invasion.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, on Thursday. Macron’s office said the tense call made him believe “the worst is yet to come” and that Putin plans to seize control of all of Ukraine.
The Washington Post reports:
The call, which the French presidency said was initiated by Putin, came as Ukrainian officials were set to hold talks with a Russian delegation, according to Russian and Ukrainian officials.
A senior French official, speaking on the condition of anonymity in keeping with French government practice, said Putin’s remarks reflected a “determination to continue the military operation, and to continue it to the end.”
The Post adds:
Russia’s conditions, spelled out by President Vladimir Putin last week, include demands that Ukraine give up territory and the right to defensive weapons. Under Putin’s terms, Kyiv must accept neutral status, end plans to join NATO and recognize Crimea as Russian territory and two separatist areas in the Donbas region as independent. Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and recognized the self-proclaimed separatist “republics” in eastern Ukraine as independent states last month.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Ukraine is demanding an immediate cease-fire, an armistice and the opening of humanitarian corridors to allow civilians to leave cities and towns that are under attack. Russia’s Defense Ministry insists that it does allow civilians to leave.
Zelensky urged Putin to engage him directly in talks.
“I don’t bite. What are you afraid of?” Zelenskyy said at Thursday’s news conference.
The Associated Press adds:
“Sit down with me to negotiate, just not at 30 meters,” he said Thursday, apparently referring to recent photos of Putin sitting at one end of an extremely long table when he met with [Macron].
The West continues to oppose Russian aggression by sending arms and monetary support to Ukraine’s military. On Thursday, the White House asked Congress to approve $10 billion in additional humanitarian, security and economic aide.
Russia has also been subject to crippling economic sanctions. NBC News reports:
The [Russian] currency is nosediving, the market is in panic, and frantic residents are trying to withdraw savings from increasingly barren ATMs. Meanwhile, anti-war protesters are joined by members of the billionaire elite who have broken rank against their embattled president. There are questions about the country’s capacity to survive the crisis — and what it may do next in desperation.
