Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday defended the war in Ukraine as a “noble” mission that would achieve its goals as his troops massed for a new offensive amid allegations of rape, brutality against civilians and possible use of chemical weapons.
Ukrainian officials urged civilians to flee eastern areas ahead of the anticipated offensive, while the battle for the southern port city of Mariupol was reaching a decisive phase, with Ukrainian marines holed up in the Azovstal industrial district.
Should the Russians seize Azovstal, they would be in full control of Mariupol, the lynchpin between Russian-held areas to the west and east. The city has already been laid waste by weeks of Russian bombardments and officials say about 20,000 people or more may have been killed.
Putin, speaking in Russia’s Far East at a ceremony marking the 61st anniversary of the Soviet Union putting the first man into space, spoke defiantly despite western abhorrence at his actions and the imposition of wide-ranging international sanctions on his country.
Asked by space agency workers if the operation in Ukraine would achieve its goals, Putin said: “Absolutely. I don’t have any doubt at all.
“Its goals are absolutely clear and noble,” Putin said. “We didn’t have a choice. It was the right decision.”
Putin has cast what he calls a “special military operation” as a confrontation with the US which he says is threatening Russia by meddling in its backyard. The West says it is a brutal land grab of a sovereign country.
Since he sent his troops over the border on February 24, about a quarter of Ukraine’s 44 million population have been forced from their homes, cities turned into rubble, and thousands of people have been killed or injured — many of them civilians.
After their troops got bogged down in the face of Ukrainian resistance, the Russians abandoned their bid to capture the capital Kyiv. But they are redoubling their efforts in the east.
The governor of Luhansk region, Serhiy Gaidai, urged residents to evacuate using agreed humanitarian corridors. “It’s far more scary to remain and burn in your sleep from a Russian shell,” he wrote on social media. “Evacuate, with every day the situation is getting worse. Take your essential items and head to the pickup point.”
A humanitarian corridor had also been agreed from Mariupol, deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said. Zelensky pleaded overnight for more weapons from the West to help it end the siege of Mariupol and fend off the expected eastern offensive.
“Unfortunately we are not getting as much as we need to end this war faster,” he said. Zelensky urged the EU to impose sanctions on all Russian banks and oil and to set a deadline for ending imports of Russian gas.
