Ukraine war: Russian forces squeeze Kyiv and surround Mariupol
- Northwest suburbs of the capital have already endured days of heavy bombardment while Russian armoured vehicles are advancing on the northeastern edge
- Airport destroyed, oil depot hit in Vasylkiv, 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of Kyiv; Hospital, orphanage and eye clinic in southern city Mykolaiv under fire
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Russian forces upped pressure on Kyiv Saturday, pummelling civilian areas in other Ukrainian cities, amid fresh efforts to get aid to the devastated port city of Mariupol.
Russian strikes destroyed the airport in the town of Vasylkiv on Saturday morning, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of Kyiv, while an oil depot was also hit and caught fire, the mayor said.
The northwest suburbs of the capital, including Irpin and Bucha, have already endured days of heavy bombardment while Russian armoured vehicles are advancing on the northeastern edge.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak on Friday called it a “city under siege”, while Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Saturday Kyiv was reinforcing defences and stockpiling food and medicine. Buses were continuing to bring refugees into the city from the hard-hit suburbs Klitschko said in a video message, adding: “We will not give up.”
Other cities have already fallen or been surrounded following Russia’s invasion of its neighbour on February 24, with civilians targeted in what the United Nations warned could amount to war crimes.
02:31
Mass graves dug in besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol as locals bury their dead
The southern port city of Mariupol is facing what Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called “the worst humanitarian catastrophe on the planet”, with more than 1,500 civilians dead in 12 days.
Kyiv said on Saturday that Russian forces shelled a mosque in Mariupol where 80 civilians, including Turkish citizens, had taken shelter. However, this was denied by Ismail Hacioglu of the local mosque association, who told Turkish television the area was under fire but the mosque was not hit.
A humanitarian convoy carrying food and medicine for around 400,000 residents in Mariupol on Saturday left Zaporizhzhia, to the North east, city officials said, with buses to bring civilians back.
Clergy from the Orthodox Church would accompany the convoy, they said, after Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of targeting previous similar efforts.
Meanwhile an AFP reporter in the southern city of Mykolaiv said a hospital in the northern district of Ingulski came under fire, while heating is out in the area, forcing many residents to flee.
01:57
Volunteers at roadside kitchen feed thousands near Kyiv front line
“They shot at the civilian areas, without any military objective,” said the hospital’s head, Dmytro Lagochev, adding: “There’s a hospital here, an orphanage and an ophthalmological clinic.”
Mykolaiv, which lies on the road to the strategic port city of Odessa, has been under attack for days.
