Ukrainians across the country were bracing on Saturday for a potentially fierce Russian assault over the weekend, as both sides ratcheted up fighting in the east in the lead-up to Russia’s Victory Day, an annual holiday marking the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany that is seen as a possible turning point in Moscow’s offensive.
In his evening address the night before, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine implored citizens to heed local curfews in the face of an increasing threat of Russian attacks. “I ask all our citizens — especially these days — not to ignore the air raid sirens,” he said. “Please, this is your life, the life of your children.”
Russian strikes have occurred with more frequency in the eastern Donbas region as Moscow moves to seize and destroy Ukrainian units in and around the cities of Kramatorsk and Severodonetsk, and even in places far from the battlefield like the small village of Malotaranivka, which was shelled overnight.
The Ukrainian military has also stepped up its offensive to defend Kharkiv, a northeastern city 25 miles from the Russian border, making advances to force Russian artillery units out of range “in the coming days”, according to analysts. The modest gains on both sides are emblematic of the conflict becoming a war of attrition, charted by grinding back-and-forth maneuvers that often focus on one village at a time.
On Friday, Zelensky said that negotiations for peace between Ukraine and Russia could not resume until Russian forces returned to the positions they had held before Moscow’s invasion. Even so, in a remote speech to the British think tank Chatham House, he left open the possibility of a settlement, saying, “Not all the bridges are destroyed.”
Mariupol evacuation
All women, children and elderly civilians have been evacuated from the Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol, Ukraine’s deputy Prime Minister said on Saturday, despite what military officers said was an ongoing Russian assault at the plant.
“This part of the Mariupol humanitarian operation is over,” deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk wrote on the Telegram, a messaging app.
The Soviet-era steel mill, the last holdout in Mariupol for Ukrainian forces, has emerged as a symbol of resistance to the wider Russian effort to capture swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine.
Under heavy bombardment, fighters and civilians have been trapped for weeks in deep bunkers and tunnels that criss-cross the site.
Russian forces backed by tanks and artillery tried again on Saturday to storm Azovstal, Ukraine’s military command said, part of a ferocious assault to dislodge the last Ukrainian defenders in the strategic port city on the Azov Sea.
Earlier on Saturday, Russia’s Interfax news agency cited Moscow-backed separatists in Ukraine’s Donetsk region as saying that 50 more people had been evacuated from the besieged steelworks.
However, by 1600 GMT, Reuters journalists had not seen any sign of their arrival at a reception centre in separatist-controlled territory near Mariupol.
The separatists said a total of 176 civilians had now been evacuated from the plant.
New York Times News Service and Reuters
