By News Agencies
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said TODAY that his country had reached a strategic turning point in its war with Russia, but cautioned that it was not possible to say how long fighting would continue.
“It is impossible to say how many days we still have to free Ukrainian land. But we can say we will do it. For we have already reached a strategic turning point,” he said in a televised address, urging the international community to increase sanctions pressure on Russia.
There were further reports on Friday of Russia aerial attacks on built-up areas including a psychiatric hospital near the eastern town of Izyum.
Oleh Synegubov, governor of the Kharkiv region, said 360 people had been at the hospital but no casualties were reported. He described the bombing as a “brutal attack on civilians”.
“All 30 staff and 330 patients were in a bomb shelter at the time of the strike,” Ukraine’s State Emergencies Service said in a statement.
In Lviv, Ukraine’s westernmost large city, air sirens were heard in the early hours of Friday. Explosions were also reported in Lutsk near the Polish border and in Dnipro, a major stronghold in central-east.
Three air strikes in Dnipro killed at least one person, state emergency services said, adding that the strikes were close to a kindergarten and an apartment building. The strike in Lutsk targeted an airfield, said the city’s mayor Igor Polishchuk, who urged citizens to take cover.
More than 400,000 people remain trapped in Mariupol, which is surrounded by Russian forces, and basic supplies are running out. Some 200,000 are believed to want to leave amid a relentless Russian artillery onslaught but have not been able to do so despite the daily declaration of humanitarian corridors.
Mariupol’s mayor, Vadym Boichenko, said Russia was targeting residential areas “every 30 minutes”. At least 1,207 people have died although the real figure is believed to be much higher because residents cannot leave their homes to retrieve dead bodies from the streets.
Regrouping forces
As Russian forces appeared to be regrouping in order to encircle Kyiv and the US planned to ratchet up the economic pressure on president Vladimir Putin, Mr Zelenskiy tried to rally Ukrainians in a video address late on Thursday condemning Moscow’s relentless assault on cities.
“This is outright terror . . . from experienced terrorists,” he said of the alleged attack on the Mariupol aid convoy. “The world needs to know this. I have to admit it – we are all dealing with a terrorist state.
“They did it deliberately, they knew what they were blowing up, they have an order to keep the city a hostage, abuse it and bomb it constantly, and shell it.”
Mr Putin gave the green light on Friday for up to 16,000 volunteers from the Middle East to be deployed alongside Russian-backed rebels to fight in Ukraine, doubling down an invasion the West thought was losing momentum.
The move, just over two weeks into the invasion, allows Russia to deploy battle-hardened mercenaries from conflicts such as Syria without risking additional Russian military casualties.
At a meeting of Russia’s Security Council, defence minister Sergei Shoigu said there were 16,000 volunteers in the Middle East who were ready to come to fight alongside Russian-backed forces in the breakaway Donbass region of eastern Ukraine.
In a potentially significant military development, satellite images released by the US company Maxar Technologies on Thursday appeared to show that the large Russian military convoy last seen northwest of Kyiv had largely dispersed and redeployed. Maxar said its pictures showed that armoured units had fanned out through towns and forests in the area, with artillery pieces moved into potential firing positions.
“Russia is likely seeking to reset and re-posture its forces for renewed offensive activity in the coming days,” Britain’s ministry of defence said in an intelligence update. “This will probably include operations against the capital Kyiv.”
A US defence official cited by CNN said that Russian forces had moved 5km closer to Kyiv, despite Ukrainians fighting back “very, very well” around the capital. The Ukrainian military said in its daily operational report on Friday morning that Russian troops had dispersed to regroup and replenish supplies.
Biological weapons
Russia has called a meeting of the UN security council on Friday to discuss what it claims are US plans to use biological weapons in Ukraine. But Mr Zelenskiy denied any such tactic and said the claim showed it was Russia that planned to use chemical weapons.
“This makes me really worried,” he said, “because we’ve been repeatedly convinced: if you want to know Russia’s plans, look at what Russia accuses others of.”
US president Joe Biden will announce another ratcheting up of the economic pressure on Friday when he calls for the end of normal trade relations with Russia. This measure, which is likely to be rubber-stamped and passed into law by Congress, will make Russia a pariah in the world economy in the same category as Cuba and North Korea. It could lead to increased tariffs on Russian goods and will remove what in international trade is termed “most favoured nation status”.
The price of oil slipped back again on Friday and is set to record its biggest weekly drops since November after see-sawing on fears that more countries would ban Russian imports, balanced by the growing prospect that other big producers could bring on more supply.
Outlawing all US trade with Russia would deepen the already serious economic problems facing Mr Putin’s regime.
The head of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, said Russia was “moving into a deep recession”, with massive depreciation of the rouble and sinking purchasing power for its citizens. A debt default was no longer “an improbable event”, she said.
European Union leaders meeting at Versailles to discuss the Ukraine crisis said in a statement on Thursday night that Russia was “inflicting unspeakable suffering on the Ukrainian population” and called for an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of forces. – Agencies