On the ground, the Kremlin’s forces appeared to be trying to regroup and regain momentum after encountering heavier losses and stiffer resistance than anticipated over the past two weeks. Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Russia is trying to “re-set and re-posture” its troops, gearing up for operations against Kyiv.
“It’s ugly already, but it’s going to get worse,” said Nick Reynolds, a warfare analyst at Royal United Services Institute, a British think tank.
With the invasion in its 16th day, Russian President Vladimir Putin said there had been “certain positive developments” in Russia-Ukraine talks, but gave no details.
For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces had “reached a strategic turning point,” though he did not elaborate.
“It’s impossible to say how many days we will still need to free our land, but it is possible to say that we will do it,” he said via video from Kyiv.
He also said authorities were working on establishing 12 humanitarian corridors and trying to ensure food, medicine and other basics get to people across the country. Thousands of civilians and soldiers on both sides are believed to have been killed in the invasion.
So far, the Russians have made the biggest advances on cities in the east and south — including in Mariupol, the heavily bombarded seaport where civilians scrounged for food and fuel amid a harrowing 10-day-old siege — while struggling in the north and around Kyiv.
Emergency workers and volunteers carry a wounded pregnant woman from a maternity hospital in Mariupol after it was hit in a Russian air strike.Credit:AP
Mariupol maternity hospital victim gives birth
The pregnant woman who was seen stretchered from Mariupol’s shelled hospital, believed to be beauty blogger Mariana Vishegirskaya, has reportedly given birth to a baby girl after surviving the attack.
Both mother and child are believed to be healthy, but remain in the encircled city of Mariupol near the Black Sea.
“I received an update from a relative of Mariana – a pregnant girl from Mariupol’s bombed hospital,” Olga Tokariuk, a journalist, said on Twitter.
“They were able to reach her on the phone briefly. Last night at 10pm, Marianna gave birth to a baby girl. They are OK, but it’s very cold in Mariupol and the bombing doesn’t stop.”
Mariupol’s council released a statement saying that at least 1582 civilians had so far been killed during Russia’s shelling and a 12-day blockade of the city.
“We will never forget and will never forgive this crime against humanity,” the council said.
Separately, the UN human rights office said it had received “credible reports” of several cases of Russian forces using cluster munitions in populated areas in Ukraine, adding that indiscriminate use of such weapons might amount to war crimes.
“Due to their wide area effects, the use of cluster munitions in populated areas is incompatible with the international humanitarian law principles governing the conduct of hostilities,” UN spokesperson Liz Throssell said in Geneva.
A man surveys the damage from a Russian air strike in Kharkiv. Credit:Kate Geraghty
“We remind the Russian authorities that directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects, as well as so-called area bombardment in towns and villages and other forms of indiscriminate attacks, are prohibited under international law and may amount to war crimes.”
The mayor of Odesa warned his city faced a similar threat to that endured in Mariupol. Gennadiy Trukhanov said Russian forces could soon surround the southern port city on three fronts.
He suggested Russian forces would seek to advance from territories they occupy in Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region towards Moldova’s separatist-controlled Transdniestria region, where Putin already has troops. Such a move could cut Odessa off from the rest of Ukraine.
Elsewhere, Ukraine’s armed forces and its Interior Minister said Russian aircraft had fired into Belarus in a “false flag” operation designed to broaden the war and drag that country into the conflict.
The Ukrainian air force said that at 2.30pm local time, Russian planes had left an airfield in Belarus and crossed into Ukrainian airspace before firing back on the village of Kopani. Two other Belarusian settlements were also targeted, it said.
‘Strategic turning point’: Zelensky
Zelensky on Friday accused Russia of relying on conscripts, reservists and Syrian mercenaries to prop up its invasion force after Putin gave the green light for the deployment of up to 16,000 “volunteers” from the Middle East
Zelensky said Ukraine was fighting an enemy that “collects reservists and conscripts from all over Russia to throw them into the hell of war, who came up with the idea of bringing in mercenaries against our people … thugs from Syria.”
Putin, at a meeting with Russian Defence Minister, Sergei Shoigu, slammed Ukraine’s own use of foreign fighters.
“As for the gathering of mercenaries from all over the world and sending them to Ukraine, we see the Western sponsors of Ukraine and the regime do not hide it,” Putin said. “They do it openly, dismissing all norms of international law.”
The Ukrainian Defence Ministry has created a unit called the “International Legion” to enlist foreign volunteers to aid the Ukrainian army. It said more than 20,000 volunteers and veterans from 52 countries had already expressed interest in joining.
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In the same meetings, Putin maintained his country could thrive despite its increasing isolation on the world stage.
The Russian President specifically cited the former Soviet Union as proof of the nation’s grit, according to a readout by the Kremlin of a Friday meeting.
“The Soviet Union did live the entire time under the conditions of sanctions; it developed and achieved colossal successes,” he was reported as saying.
Reuters, AP, Bloomberg
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Russians accused of kidnapping mayor as Putin dismisses new ‘diamond, caviar’ sanctions
Source: Philippines Alive
