Russian forces bombed a Mariupol art school where hundreds of civilians were taking cover, Ukraine said Sunday — as President Volodymyr Zelensky warned the terror faced in the battered port city will be “remembered for centuries to come.”
The horrific attack was followed by a Russian missile assault from the sea Sunday that killed more than 100 Ukrainian special-forces members and “foreign mercernaries” at a training facility in the northern Ukraine town of Ovruch, Russia said, according to the Moscow Times.
The Kremlin also claimed Sunday to have fired its second round of nuclear-capable hypersonic Kinzhal missles to destroy a fuel-storage facility in the Mykolaiv region in the south, the day after unleashing the faster-than-the-speed-of-sound weapons near the western Ivano-Frankivs region. The strikes marked the first time hypersonic weapons have ever been used in combat.
There was no immediate word on casualties at the art center-turned-war shelter, where about 400 people had fled to amid Russia’s devastating bombardment of the city.
The strike marked the second time in less than a week that there was an attack on a public building where Mariupol residents had taken shelter. A bomb also struck a local theater where more than 1,000 people, including children, were believed to be sheltering Wednesday.
“To do this to a peaceful city … is a terror that will be remembered for centuries to come,” Zelensky said in a late-night broadcast Saturday. “The more Russia uses terror against Ukraine, the worse the consequences for it.”
Civilians trapped in Mariupol are evacuated in groups under the control of pro-Russian separatists. Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Ukrainian firefighters and security teams at the scene of a building hit by Russian missiles in Kyiv on March 20, 2022. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
A map showing Russia’s continued attacks on Ukraine.
But Zelensky said Sunday he is still “ready” for negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin to try to bring an end to more than three weeks of fighting.
“I was ready for the last two years. And without negotiations we cannot end this war,” Zelensky told CNN.
“All the people who think that this dialogue is shallow and that it is not going to resolve anything, they just don’t understand that this is very valuable. If there is just 1 percent chance for us to stop this war, we need to take this chance, we need to do that.”
There was no immediate word on casualties at the makeshift shelter, where about 400 people had fled to amid Russia’s devastating bombardment of the city. Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Ukraine Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said seven humanitarian corridors would open Sunday to allow civilians to flee the fighting. Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
The UN has also have confirmed more than 847 civilian deaths since the war began, though it suggests the toll is likely much higher. EPA/ATEF SAFADIThe developments came as:
- Fifty-six residents of an old-folks home in Kreminna in eastern Ukraine were killed when a Russian tank shot on it, local officials said. While the attack happened nine days ago, the death toll was not known, and the tragic figure was just released Sunday.
- The White House said President Biden has “no plans’’ to visit Ukraine this week when he heads to Europe for emergency summits. “The trip will be focused on continuing to rally the world in support of the Ukrainian people and against President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, but there are no plans to travel into Ukraine,” spokeswoman Jen Psaki wrote in a tweet.
- US defense secretary Lloyd J. Austin III told CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Russia’s military strategy so far has been to feed its troops “into a wood chipper” and that its war campaign has “essentially stalled” amid heavy casualties.
- Zelensky addressed the Israeli Knesset on Sunday, invoking the Holocaust while accusing the country of ignoring Ukraine’s pleas for help.
- Andrey Paliy, a top Russian military official who was born in Kyiv but renounced Ukraine, has been killed on the front lines, according to posts on Russian social media. Paliy was a Black Sea fleet commander and was shot dead by Ukrainian forces near Mariupol, making him the first Russian naval boss and sixth high-up military leader to die since the Kremlin invasion of Ukraine started last month.
- After working non-stop since Feb. 23 under Russian command, 64 employees at the Chernobyl nuclear-power plant were allowed to go home Sunday, and 46 volunteers have taken over their shift, the facility said on social media.
- The war might cause more sticker shock in the US, as a huge part of the world supply of wheat is currently trapped in Russia and Ukraine.
Local officials in Mariupol said over the weekend that thousands of Ukrainians have been seized by force and taken across the border to Russia.
Destroyed buildings are seen as civilians trapped in Mariupol are evacuated. Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Pro-Russian separatists are seen with their armored vehicles on March 20, 2022. Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
A stray dog is seen next to a destroyed vehicle as fighting in Mariupol continues. Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
President Volodymyr Zelensky warned the terror faced in the battered port city will be “remembered for centuries to come.” HANDOUT/UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SER/AFP via Getty Images“Over the past week, several thousand Mariupol residents were deported onto the Russian territory,” the city council said in a statement on its Telegram channel late Saturday.
Russian’s defense agency said that more than 330,000 people have been “evacuated” from Ukraine to Russia since the start of the war. The department admitted there was a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Mariupol but blamed “Ukrainian nationalists” for the devastation that has been cause by the Kremlin’s army and said Ukraine has until early Monday to decide if it will surrender the city.
Meanwhile, air-raid sirens could be heard across Ukrainian cities Sunday as Russian forces said cruise missiles were launched from ships in the Black Sea and Caspian Sea.
Ukraine Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said seven humanitarian corridors would open Sunday to allow civilians to flee the fighting.
More than 3.4 million Ukrainians have fled the war-torn region since the fighting began Feb. 24, with a majority of around 2 million seeking safety in Poland, according to estimates from the United Nations.
The UN has also have confirmed more than 847 civilian deaths since the war began, though it suggests the toll is likely much higher.
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