Ukraine says Russia taking ‘colossal losses’ in eastern battle
Residents of Mariupol have recounted the horrors of the battle for their now devastated city this week.
They were speaking while many sifted through the rubble for belongings, cooked meals by the roadside or just stared at the charred shells of buildings all around them.
“It was terrible… like films that show the last days of the planet – the same thing happened here,” said Viktoria, 54, who stayed with her family in a basement, as Russian and Ukrainian forces battled overhead.
“We were hungry, the child was crying when the Grad (multiple rocket launcher) shells were striking near the house.
“We were thinking, this is it, the end. It can’t be described … I can’t put it into words,” she said.
Emergency services were seen on the streets collecting the bodies of those who did not survive the weeks of fighting.
Mayor Vadym Boichenko has said tens of thousands of civilians were killed in Mariupol. Organisations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations say they believe thousands have died.
“It was a massacre. It was the scariest thing when the shells were flying overhead. Shells, rounds and all such, you couldn’t survive it. And yet we did,” said Vitaliy, 71.
Mariupol in southeast Ukraine saw some of the heaviest fighting of the war so far and much of the port city now lies in ruins.
Russia declared victory there last week, but hundreds of Ukrainian forces and civilians remain trapped in the vast industrial complex of the city’s Azovstal steel works.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenski’s office said an operation was planned for today to get civilians out of the plant, but gave no details. Previous evacuation efforts have failed.
Russia has denied targetting civilians in what it calls a “special operation” to disarm Ukraine and protect it from fascists.
Ukraine and the West say the fascist allegation is baseless and that the war is an unprovoked act of aggression.
Journalist dies in strike
A journalist from the US-backed broadcaster Radio Liberty was killed in a missile attack on Kyiv during a visit to the Ukrainian capital by the secretary-general of the United Nations, the broadcaster said this morning.
Prague-based Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said the body of producer Vira Hyrych had been found this morning in rubble after yesterday’s attack destroyed the bottom two floors of a residential building. It said Ms Hyrych had worked for Radio Liberty since 2018.
“She was going to bed when a Russian ballistic missile hit her apartment in central Kyiv. Russia’s barbarism is incomprehensible,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko said.
“We call on media organisations to condemn the murder of Vira and all other innocent Ukrainians.”
Mr Zelensky said the blasts “prove that we must not drop our vigilance. We must not think that the war is over.”
The rockets shook the central Shevchenko district of the city and one struck the lower floors of a 25-storey residential building, wounding at least ten people, Ukrainian officials said.
Reuters witnesses heard two explosions, but their cause could not be independently verified. There was no Russian comment on the blasts.
Russian forces are now entrenched in the east, where Russian-backed separatists have held territory since 2014, and are holding onto a swathe of the south that they seized in March.
Ukraine’s general staff said Russia was stepping up its military assault in the Donbas.
“The enemy is increasing the pace of the offensive operation. The Russian occupiers are exerting intense fire in almost all directions,” it said.
US-funded RFE/RL, which has covered the former Soviet Union since the Cold War, is one of the main remaining Russian-language sources for news outside Kremlin control, since Moscow effectively shut all independent media within Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.
“The editorial board of Radio Liberty expresses its condolences to the family of Vira Hyrych and will remember her as a bright and kind person, a true professional,” the broadcaster said in a statement.
In Kyiv, workers were cleaning up rubble in the residential area hit by the missiles.
“Kyiv is still a dangerous place and Kyiv is still the target of Russians, of course. The capital of Ukraine is the goal and they want to occupy it,” Mayor Vitali Klitschko said, supervising the clean-up before the body of Ms Hyrych was found.
The missiles hit the capital during a visit by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov called it “an attack on the security of the Secretary-General and on world security”.
Ukraine acknowledged today that it was taking heavy losses in Russia’s assault in the east, but said Russia’s losses were even worse, as US President Joe Biden called on Congress to send as much as $33 billion to help Kyiv withstand the attack.
Mr Zelensky praised Mr Biden’s offer of massive help, which amounts to nearly 10 times the aid Washington has sent so far since the war began.
Having failed in an assault on Kyiv in the north of Ukraine last month, Russia is now trying to fully capture two eastern provinces known as the Donbas.
‘Colossal losses’
Ukraine has acknowledged losing control of some towns and villages there since the offensive began, but says Moscow’s gains have come at a massive cost to a Russian force already worn down from its earlier defeat near the capital.
“We have serious losses but the Russians’ losses are much much bigger…They have colossal losses,” presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said.
By pledging tens of billions of dollars in aid for Ukraine, Biden has dramatically increased US involvement in the conflict.
The US and its allies are now sending heavy weapons including artillery, with what Washington says is an aim not just to repel Russia’s attack but to weaken its armed forces so it cannot menace its neighbours again.
“We need this bill to support Ukraine in its fight for freedom,” Mr Biden said.
“The cost of this fight – it’s not cheap – but caving to aggression is going to be more costly.”
Mr Zelensky tweeted: “Thank you @POTUS and the American people for their leadership in supporting Ukraine in our fight against Russian aggression. We defend common values – democracy and freedom. We appreciate the help. Today it is needed more than ever!”
Russia has said the arrival of Western arms in Ukraine means it is now fighting a “proxy war” against NATO. President Vladimir Putin threatened unspecified retaliation this week, while his foreign minister warned of a threat of nuclear war.
Although the US aid is mainly grants, rather than loans, Russian parliament speaker Vyacheslav Volodin accused Mr Zelensky today of driving Ukraine “into a debt pit” by taking it.
Mr Zelensky’s office said Russia was pounding the entire front line in the eastern Donetsk region with rockets, artillery, mortar bombs and aircraft.
The Ukrainian general staff said Russia was shelling positions along the line of contact to prevent the Ukrainians from regrouping.
Britain said fighting had been particularly heavy around the cities of Lysychansk and Severodonetsk, the main part of the Donbas that Russia is still trying to capture, with an attempted advance south from Russian-held Izium towards Sloviansk.
“Due to strong Ukrainian resistance, Russian territorial gains have been limited and achieved at significant cost to Russian forces,” the British defence ministry said in an update.
