A 3-month-old baby was among six people killed in Russia’s shelling of cruise missiles in the Black Sea port city of Odessa, officials said.
Kyiv, Ukraine – Russian troops in Ukraine On Saturday, they tried to storm a metallurgical plant that houses soldiers and civilians in the southern city of Mariupol, trying to crush the last corner of the resistance in a place that has deep symbolic and strategic significance for Moscow, Ukrainian officials said.
Assault reported on the eve of Orthodox Easter happened after the Kremlin said its troops had captured the entire destroyed city except the Azovstal plant, and when Russian troops were beating other cities and towns in southern and eastern Ukraine.
A 3-month-old baby was among six people killed in Russia’s shelling of cruise missiles in the Black Sea port city of Odessa, officials said.
Meanwhile, President Vladimir Zelensky said he would meet on Sunday in Kiev with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. He announced his visit at a press conference and did not immediately give more details. The White House declined to comment.
Zelensky also complained about the death of a baby in Odessa. “The war started when this child was one month old. Can you imagine what’s going on? he said. “They’re just bastards.” … I have no other words for it, just bastards. “
The fate of Ukrainians in the village sprawling seaside steel plant in Mariupol it was not immediately clear; Earlier on Saturday, a Ukrainian military unit released a video reportedly shot two days earlier in which women and children hiding underground, some for two months, said they were eager to see the sun.
“We want to see a peaceful sky, we want to breathe fresh air,” Said one woman in the video. “You just have no idea what it means for us to just eat, drink sweetened tea. It’s happiness for us. “
During the battle for the port, Russia said it had taken control of several villages in the eastern Donbas and destroyed 11 Ukrainian military facilities overnight, including three artillery depots. Russian attacks also affected settlements.
Associated Press reporters watched the shelling of residential areas of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city; The governor of the region Oleg Sinegubov said that three people died. In the Luhansk district of Donbass, Governor Sergei Gaidai said that six people were killed during the shelling of the village of Gorski.
In Sloviansk, a town in the northern Donbass, the AP saw two servicemen arrive at a hospital, one of whom was mortally wounded. Nearby, a small group of people gathered near the church, where the priest consecrated them with water on Holy Saturday.
While British officials said Russian forces had not acquired significant new positions, Ukrainian officials announced a nationwide curfew the day before. Easter Sundaya sign of a breakdown of war and a threat to the whole country.
Mariupol has been a key target of Russia since the invasion began on February 24 and has gained enormous importance in the war. Completing the capture would give Russia its biggest victory, after a nearly two-month siege turned much of the city into a smoldering ruin.
This would deprive Ukrainians of a vital port, free Russian troops to fight elsewhere, and create a land corridor to the Crimean peninsula that Moscow seized in 2014. Russian-backed separatists control part of the Donbass.
Adviser to the Presidential Administration of Ukraine Alexei Arastovich said at a briefing on Saturday that Russian troops had resumed air strikes on the Azovstal plant and were trying to storm it. A direct attempt to seize the plant would be a reversal of an order given by Russian President Vladimir Putin two days earlier.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told Putin on Thursday that all of Mariupol, with the exception of Azovstal, had been “liberated.” At the time, Putin ordered him not to send troops to the plant, but instead to block it, a clear attempt to freeze those inside and force them to surrender.
Ukrainian officials estimate that about 2,000 of their troops are on the plant site along with civilians hiding in its underground tunnels. Arestovic said they were trying to resist new attacks.
Earlier on Saturday, the regiment of the National Guard of Ukraine “Azov”, which has employees who hid at the company, published a video of about two dozen women and children. An independent verification of its contents could not be verified, but if it is genuine, it will be the first video evidence of what life was like for civilians who are there underground.
The video shows the soldiers giving candy to the children, who responded with fists. One young girl says she and her relatives “have seen neither the sky nor the sun” since they left home on February 27th.
According to AP Deputy Regiment Commander Svyatoslav Palamar, the video was shot on Thursday. The Azov Regiment has its roots in the Azov Battalion, which was formed in 2014 by far-right activists at the beginning of the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine and has drawn criticism for some of its tactics.
More than 100,000 people – compared to a pre-war population of about 430,000 – remain in Mariupol with food, water and heat shortages, according to Ukrainian authorities, who say more than 20,000 civilians were killed in the city during the Russian blockade.
Satellite imagery released this week shows what appears to be a second mass grave near Mariupol, and local authorities have accused Russia of burying thousands of civilians to hide the massacre there. The Kremlin did not comment on satellite images.
Ukrainian authorities said on Saturday they would try to evacuate women, children and the elderly from Mariupol again, but, like previous plans to evacuate civilians from the city, it failed. Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, said Russian forces had not allowed organized Ukrainian buses to transport residents to Zaporozhye, a city 227 kilometers (141 miles) northwest.
“At 11 o’clock at least 200 Mariupol residents gathered near the Port City shopping center waiting to be evacuated,” Andryushchenko wrote in the Telegram exchange program. “The Russian military approached the Mariupol residents and ordered them to disperse, as there would be shelling now.”
At the same time, according to him, Russian buses were going about 200 meters. Residents who boarded were told they were being taken to the separatist-occupied territory and not allowed to disembark, Andryushchenko said. His account cannot be verified independently.
According to the adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Anton Gerashchenko, during the attack on Odessa, Russian troops fired at least six missiles. Defense forces repulsed some missiles, but at least one was hit, he said.
“Residents of the city heard explosions in different areas,” Gerashchenko told Telegram. “Dwelling houses were affected. One victim is already known. He burned in his car in the yard of one of the buildings. “
Later, the head of the Presidential Administration Andrei Ermak said that a 3-month-old child was among the five killed.
In his night video, Zelensky complained about all the victims of the war, noting that Easter is celebrated in memory of the Resurrection of Christ after his death through the crucifixion.
“We believe in the victory of life over death,” he said. “No matter how fierce the fighting was, there is no chance of death in life. Everyone knows that. Every Christian knows that. “
This was reported by Fish of Zaporozhye, Ukraine. Associated Press journalists Mstislav Chernov and Felipe Dana in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Yuras Karmanov in Lviv, Inna Varenitsa in Kveve, and Robert Burns and Aamer Madhani of Washington contributed to the report, as did other AP staffers around the world.
