The continuing siege of the port city of Mariupol, which has come at a horrific cost to trapped and starvingꦐ civilians, could scuttle attempts to negotiate an end to the war, Ukr♚ainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told his country’s journalists in an interview.
“The destruction of all our guys in Mariupol — what they are doing now — can put an end to any format of negotiations,” he said on Sa♚turday.
Later, in his nightly video address to the nation, Zelenskyy said Ukraine needs more support from tꦑhe West to have a chance at saving Mariupol.
“Either our partners give Ukraine all of the necessary heavy weapons, the planes, and without exaggeration immediately, so we can reduce the pressure of the occupiers on Mariupol and break the♏ blockade,” he said, “or we do so through negotiations, in which the role of our partners should be decisive.”
Zelenskyy said the situation in Mariupol remains “inhuman” and Russia “is deliberately🍷 trying to destroy everyone who is there.”
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Ukrainian forces h🔯ad been driven out of most of the city and remained only in the huge Azovstal steel m꧅ill.
Earlier, he estimated that 2,500 to 3,000 Ukrainian troops had died in the war, a𒐪nd about 10,000 had been wounded. The office of Uk💮raine's prosecutor general said Saturday that at least 200 children have been killed, and more than 360 wounded.
Meanwhile, Russian forces accelerated scattered attacks on Kyiv, western Ukraine and beyond in an explosive reminder to 🍬Ukrainians and their Western supporters that t🐼he whole country remains under threat.
Stung by the loss of its Black Sea f꧒lagship and indignant over alleged Ukrainian aggression on Russian te🌄rritory, Russia's military command had warned of renewed missile strikes on Ukraine's capital.
As Russia prepared for the anticipated offensive, a mother wept over her 15-year-old son's body after rockets hit a residential area of Kharkiv, a city in northeast Ukraine. An infant and at least eight other people died, officials sa💮id.
In the town𒉰s and villages just outside Kyiv, authorities have reported finding the bodies of more than 900 civilians, most shot dead, since Russian troops retreated two weeks ago. Smoke rose from the capital again early Saturday as Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported a strike that killed one person and wounded ♕several.
The mayor advised residents who f🐭led the city ea🍨rlier in the war not to return.
“We're not ruling out further str𒉰ikes on the cap💛ital,” Klitschko said. “If you have the opportunity to stay a little bit longer in the cities where it's safer, do it.”
It was not immediately clear from the ground what was hit in the strike on Kyiv's Darnytskyi district. The sprawling area on the southeastern edge of the capital contains a mixture of Soviet-style apartment blocks, new🙈er shopping centers and big-box retail outlets, industrial areas and railyards.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashen🌞kov said an armored vehicle plant was targeted. He didn't specify where the factory was located, but there is one in the Darnytskyi district.
He said the plant was among multiple Ukrainian military sites hit with “air-launched high-precision long-r♛ange weapons.” As the U.S. and Europe send new arms ꦬto Ukraine, the strategy could be aimed at hobbling Ukraine's defenses ahead of what's expected to be a full-scale Russian assault in the east.
It was the second strike in the Kyiv area since the Russian military vowed this week to step up missile strikes on the capitaꦿl. Another hit a missile plant Friday.
The Russian missiles hit the city just as residents were emerging for walks, foreign embassies planned to reopen and other tentative 🥃signs of the ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚcity's prewar life started resurfacing, following the failure of Russian troops to capture Kyiv and their withdrawal.
Kyiv was one of many targets Saturday. The Ukrainian president's office rꦜeported missile strikes and shelling over the past 24 hours in eight 🅰regions across the country.
The governor of the Lviv region in western Ukraine, which has been only sporadically toucheꦰd by the war's violence, reported airstrikes on the region by Russian Su-35 air🍎craft that took off from neighboring Belarus.
In apparent preparations for its assault on the east, the Russian military has intensified shelling of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, in recent days. Friday's attack killed civiliansꩵ and wounded more than 50 people, the Ukrain🐓ian president's office reported.
On Saturday an explosion believed to be caused by a missile sent emergency workers scramblingꦆ near an outdoor market in Kharkiv, according to AP journalists at the scene. One person was killed, and at least 18 people were wounded, according to rescue workers.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Te🃏rekhov said Satur🌳day's toll was three dead and 34 wounded.
Nate Mook, a member of the World Central Kitchen NGO run by celebrity chef José Andrés, said in a tweet that four workers in Kharkiv were wounded by a strike. Andrés tweete🔴d that staff me൲mbers were unnerved but safe.
Russian forces also have taken captive some 700 Ukrainian troops and more than 1,000 civilians, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Saturday. Ukraine holds about the same number of Russian troops as prisoners and intends to arra🌃𒁃nge a swap but is demanding the release of civilians “without any conditions,” she said.
