Ukraine moving towards victory, says Zelensky; civilians huddle underground as Russia bombards cities
March 12, 2022 10:45 AM
Ukraine was at a turning point in the war with Russian forces appearing to be regroup for a possible assault on Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, as the United States imposed new sanctions on senior Kremlin officials and Russian oligarchs.
With the Russian assault in its third week, Zelensky, who has rallied his people with a series of addresses from the capital Kyiv, said Ukraine had "already reached a strategic turning point".
"It is impossible to say how many days we still have (ahead of us) to free Ukrainian land. But we can say we will do it," he said. "We are already moving towards our goal, our victory."
The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, three family members of President Vladimir Putin's spokesperson and lawmakers in the latest punishment for Russia's February 24 invasion.
"Treasury continues to hold Russian officials to account for enabling Putin's unjustified and unprovoked war," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said.
Russian forces kept up their bombardment of cities across the country on Friday in the biggest assault on a European country since World War Two. Satellite images showed them firing artillery as they advanced on Kyiv.
The fighting has created more than 2 million refugees, and thousands of Ukrainians are trapped in besieged cities. As
hundreds sheltered in Kharkiv metro stations, Nastya, a young girl
lying on a makeshift bed on the floor of a train carriage, said she had
been there for over a week, unable to move around much and ill with a
virus. "I'm scared
for my home, for the homes of my friends, very scared for the whole
country, and scared for myself of course," she said. Putin
calls the invasion a "special operation" to disarm Ukraine and unseat
leaders it calls neo-Nazis. Ukraine and Western allies call this a
baseless pretext for a war of choice that has raised fears of wider
conflict in Europe. The
governor of the Kharkiv region on the Russian border, said a
psychiatric hospital had been hit, and the mayor of the city of Kharkiv
said about 50 schools there had been destroyed. In the besieged
southern city of Mariupol, the city council said at least 1,582
civilians had been killed by Russian shelling and a 12-day blockade that
has left hundreds of thousands trapped with no food, water, heat or
power. Moscow denies targeting civilians. Russia's
defence ministry said the Black Sea port was surrounded, while
Ukrainian officials accused Russia of deliberately preventing civilians
getting out and humanitarian convoys getting in. A
new effort to evacuate civilians along a humanitarian corridor from
Mariupol appeared to have failed, as Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister
Iryna Vereshchuk said Russian shelling prevented them from leaving. "The situation is critical," Ukrainian interior ministry adviser Vadym Denysenko said. Western countries meanwhile took more economic steps to try to force Putin to end his assault. President
Joe Biden, who this week banned US imports of Russian oil, said the G7
industrial powers would revoke Russia's "most favoured nation" trade
status. Biden banned
US imports of Russian seafood, alcohol and diamonds. Washington
sanctioned more oligarchs and elites, including board members of Russian
banks, and a dozen lawmakers. European
Union leaders said they were ready to impose harsher sanctions on
Russia and might give Ukraine more funds for arms. But they rejected
Ukraine's request to join the bloc. European
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the EU would on
Saturday suspend Moscow's privileged trade and economic treatment, crack
down on its use of crypto-assets, and ban the import of iron and steel
goods from Russia, as well as the export of luxury goods in the other
direction. Russia's
main force has been stalled north of Kyiv, having failed in what
Western analysts say was an initial plan for a lightning assault. But
Britain's defence ministry said Russia appeared to be gearing up for a
new offensive in coming days that would probably include Kyiv. Images
taken on Friday and released by private US satellite firm Maxar showed
Russian forces were continuing to deploy closer to Kyiv and firing
artillery toward residential areas, according to the company's analysis. Multiple
homes and buildings were on fire and widespread damage was seen
throughout the town of Moschun, northwest of Kyiv, Maxar said. Reuters
could not independently verify the images. But
Britain's intelligence update said Russian ground forces were still
making only limited progress, hampered by logistical problems and
Ukrainian resistance. The
Ukrainian general staff said Russian forces were regrouping after
taking heavy losses. Ukrainian troops had pushed some back to
"unfavourable positions" near the Belarus border, it said. Kyiv's
mayor, former heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, said the
capital had enough essential supplies to last a couple of weeks. Supply
lines remained open. At
a meeting with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, Putin said there
were "certain positive shifts" in talks with Kyiv, but did not
elaborate. Ukraine
has raised the prospect of Moscow's ally Belarus entering the war,
accusing Russia of staging "false flag" air attacks on Belarus from
Ukraine to provide an excuse. Belarus
has served as a staging post for Russian forces before and after the
invasion. The Kremlin did not respond to a request for comment. Putin
and Lukashenko agreed Moscow would supply its smaller neighbour with
up-to-date military equipment, the official Belarus Belta news agency
said. Moscow might
not have sufficient troops to achieve its goals, said Mathieu Boulegue,
an expert at London's Chatham House think tank. "You
can't invade a country on a one-on-one ratio" of troops, Boulegue told
Reuters. "Nobody has done it, which means that either something was
wrong or they had very wrong assumptions."Psychiatric hospital
Gearing up
Belarus