(Kiev) The Ukrainian army faces a new offensive by Russian forces on Kiev, Kharkiv and several cities on Tuesday, the day after initial unsuccessful talks amid growing Western sanctions against Russia.
Posted at 6:10 a.m.
On the sixth day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the central square of Kharkiv, the country’s second city with 1.4 million inhabitants, close to the Russian border, was bombarded and the regional prefecture affected, indicated the regional governor Oleg Sinegubov, in a video on Telegram showing the explosion.
Fighting also took place on Monday in Okhtyrka, about 100 kilometers northwest of Kharkiv, which would have killed “about 70 Ukrainian fighters”, but also many Russians, according to local authorities. When questioned, the Ukrainian army did not confirm this assessment.
Russian forces “have regrouped, accumulating armored vehicles, missiles and artillery to encircle and capture Kiev, Kharkiv, Odessa, Kherson and Mariupol,” the Ukrainian presidency said in a statement.
Electricity was cut Tuesday morning in the large port of Mariupol (southeast) after a Russian offensive, said the governor of the Donetsk region of which it is a part. The leader of the pro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin said that the objective was to encircle this strategic city in the Sea of Azov during the day.
Its capture by the Russian army should allow the junction of Russian forces advancing along the coast of the Sea of Azov from Crimea annexed by Moscow, troops in the pro-Russian separatist territory of Donetsk and the border with Russia.
Satellite photos released overnight by the American satellite imagery company Maxar also show a Russian convoy stretching for tens of kilometers and heading towards the Ukrainian capital from the northwest.
The advanced part of the convoy was near Antonov airport, about 25 km from Kiev, a strategic target and at the heart of fierce clashes since the start of the Russian invasion on Thursday.
The defenders of Kiev, partly deserted after the flight of thousands of inhabitants, erected makeshift barricades and reprogrammed electronic signs on the main avenues to warn the Russians that they would be greeted “by bullets”.
The Ukrainian general staff also cited an assault he said was repelled near Chernihiv, northeast of Kiev, another direction from which the Russians would approach the capital.
The Russian army has also erected roadblocks at all entry points to the coastal city of Kherson (south, 290,000 inhabitants), further west, according to its mayor, Igor Kolikhaïev.
The latter called on residents to remain “calm and cautious” and not to “provoke” the adversary. “It’s not a battle, it’s a war. And war is won by reasonable actions and with cold blood,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
“Economically destroy” Russia
Faced with the threat, President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday morning called on the international community to consider “a total closure to Russia of all ports and airports in the world”, and called for “economic destruction” of Russia.
Westerners seem ready to adopt this objective. They announced Monday evening, after a new exchange between American President Joe Biden and his French, American, British, Canadian, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish and Romanian allies, that they intended to further toughen the sanctions on a scale already historic adopted against Russia since the start of the offensive.
Sanctions to which have rallied banking centers very popular with large Russian fortunes, such as Switzerland, yet attached to its neutrality, or Monaco.
“We are going to cause the collapse of the Russian economy,” French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire, whose country holds the presidency of the European Union until June, said on Tuesday.
The shipping giant Maersk will stop it serving Russian ports.
The international community multiplies the measures of reprisals against Russia, trying to strangle its means of financing and blocking the assets of Vladimir Putin and all his relatives. Russia has also already been excluded from a multitude of sporting and cultural events.
While the United States and several Western countries have invited their nationals to leave Russia, the United States has also announced the expulsion for “espionage” of 12 diplomats from the Russian mission to the UN in New York. A “hostile approach” according to Moscow.
But despite growing Western pressure, and demonstrations against the war in many countries, Vladimir Putin maintains his demands.
During an exchange Monday with Emmanuel Macron, he set as conditions the recognition of Crimea as Russian territory, and the demilitarization and “denazification” of Ukraine, when the first Russian-Ukrainian talks were held.
The Russian and Ukrainian delegations separated a few hours later for “consultations in their respective capitals”, without making any statements other than that they could meet again soon.
Mr. Zelensky underlined Tuesday that “the synchronization of the shootings with the process of negotiations was obvious”.
The conflict has thrown floods of Ukrainians onto the roads, more than 500,000 of whom have fled to neighboring countries, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said on Monday. The EU expects more than seven million displaced people.
The human toll remains uncertain. The UN spoke on Monday of 102 civilians killed and 304 injured, but the actual figures are “significantly” higher.
Ukraine on Monday reported 352 civilians killed and 2,040 injured since Thursday and said thousands of Russian soldiers had perished.
Russian forces have so far provided no accounts of what they call a special military operation, “but have acknowledged casualties in unspecified numbers.