KYIV, Ukraine
Ukraine President Volodymr Zelenskyy called on people worldwide to gather in public Thursday to show support for his embattled country as he prepared to address U.S. President Joe Biden and other NATO leaders gathered in Brussels on the one-month anniversary of the Russian invasion.
“Come to your squares, your
streets. Make yourselves visible and heard,” Zelenskyy said in English during
an emotional video address late Wednesday that was recorded in the dark near
the presidential offices in Kyiv. “Say that people matter. Freedom matters.
Peace matters. Ukraine matters.”
Zelenskyy said he would ask in
a video conference with NATO members that the alliance provide “effective and
unrestricted” support to Ukraine, including any weapons the country needs to
fend off the Russian onslaught.
Biden
was expected to discuss new sanctions and how to coordinate such
measures, along with more military aid for Ukraine, with NATO members, and then
talk with leaders of the G7 industrialized nations and the European Council in
a series of meetings on Thursday.
On the eve of a meeting with
Biden, European Union nations signed off on another 500 million euros ($550
million) in military aid for Ukraine.
When Russia unleashed its
invasion Feb. 24 in Europe’s biggest offensive since World War II, a swift
toppling of Ukraine’s government seemed likely. But a month into the fighting,
Moscow is bogged down in a grinding military campaign of attrition.
In its last update, Russia
said March 2 that nearly 500 soldiers had been killed and almost 1,600 wounded.
NATO estimates, however, that between 7,000 to 15,000 Russian troops have been
killed — the latter figure about what Russia lost in a decade of fighting in
Afghanistan.
A senior NATO military
official said the alliance’s estimate was based on information from Ukrainian
authorities, what Russia has released — intentionally or not — and intelligence
gathered from open sources. The official spoke on condition of anonymity under
ground rules set by NATO.
Ukraine also claims to have killed six Russian generals. Russia acknowledges just one dead general.
Ukraine has released little
information about its own military losses, and the West has not given an
estimate, but Zelenskyy said nearly two weeks ago that about 1,300 Ukrainian
troops had been killed.
With its ground forces slowed
or stopped by hit-and-run Ukrainian units armed with Western-supplied weapons,
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops are bombarding targets from afar,
falling back on the tactics they used in reducing cities to rubble in Syria and
Chechnya.
A senior U.S. defense official
said Wednesday that Russian ground forces appear to be digging in and setting
up defensive positions 15 to 20 kilometers (9 to 12 miles) outside Kyiv, the
capital, as they make little to no progress toward the city center.
The official, who spoke on
condition of anonymity to discuss military assessments, said it appears the
forces are no longer trying to advance into the city, and in some areas east of
Kyiv, Ukrainian troops have pushed Russian soldiers farther away.
Instead, Russian troops appear
to be prioritizing the fight in the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions in the
Donbas, in what could be an effort to cut off Ukrainian troops and prevent them
from moving west to defend other cities, the official said. The U.S. also has
seen activity from Russian ships in the Sea of Azov, including what appear to
be efforts to send landing ships ashore with supplies, including vehicles, the
official said.
Despite evidence to the
contrary, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted the military operation is
going “strictly in accordance” with plans.
In an ominous sign that Moscow
might consider using nuclear weapons, senior Russian official Dmitry Rogozin
said the country’s nuclear arsenal would help deter the West from intervening
in Ukraine.
“The Russian Federation is capable
of physically destroying any aggressor or any aggressor group within minutes at
any distance,” said Rogozin, who heads the state aerospace corporation,
Roscosmos, and oversees missile-building facilities. He noted in his televised
remarks that Moscow’s nuclear stockpiles include tactical nuclear weapons,
designed for use on battlefields, along with far more powerful nuclear-tipped
intercontinental ballistic missiles.
U.S. officials long have
warned that Russia’s military doctrine envisages an “escalate to deescalate”
option of using battlefield nuclear weapons to force the enemy to back down in
a situation when Russian forces face imminent defeat. Moscow has denied having
such plans.
Rogozin, known for his
bluster, did not make clear what actions by the West would be seen as meddling,
but his comments almost certainly reflect thinking inside the Kremlin. Putin
has warned the West that an attempt to introduce a no-fly zone over Ukraine
would draw it into a conflict with Russia. Western nations have said they would
not create a no-fly zone to protect Ukraine.
Zelenskyy noted in his
national address that Ukraine has not received the fighter jets or modern
air-defense systems it requested. He said Ukraine also needs tanks and
anti-ship systems.
“It has been a month of
defending ourselves from attempts to destroy us, wipe us off the face of the
earth,” he said.
In Kyiv, where near-constant
shelling and gunfire shook the city Wednesday as the two sides battled for
control of multiple suburbs, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said at least 264 civilians
have been killed since the war broke out. The independent Russian news outlet
The Insider said Russian journalist Oksana Baulina had been killed by shelling
in a Kyiv neighborhood on Wednesday.
In the south, the encircled port
city of Mariupol has seen the worst devastation of the war, enduring weeks of
bombardment and, now, street-by-street fighting. But Ukrainian forces have
prevented its fall, thwarting an apparent bid by Moscow to fully secure a land
bridge from Russia to Crimea, seized from Ukraine in 2014.
In their last update, over a
week ago, Mariupol officials said at least 2,300 people had died, but the true
toll is probably much higher. Airstrikes in the past week destroyed a theater
and an art school where civilians were sheltering.
Zelenskyy said 100,000
civilians remain in the city, which had a population of 430,000 before the war.
Efforts to get desperately needed food and other supplies to those trapped have
often failed.
In the besieged northern city
of Chernihiv, Russian forces bombed and destroyed a bridge that was used for
aid deliveries and civilian evacuations, regional governor Viacheslav Chaus
said.
Kateryna Mytkevich, 39, who
arrived in Poland after fleeing Chernihiv, wiped away tears as she said the city
is without gas, electricity or running water, and entire neighborhoods have
been destroyed.
“I don’t understand why we
have such a curse,” she said. - AP
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