Russia Ramps Up Ukraine Assaults in Effort to Seize Strategically Key Port Metropolis

“It’s a complete lie,” Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko mentioned in response to Mr. Lavrov’s assertion. “Every thing that was mentioned, every phrase was completely not true.”

Ukrainian authorities Thursday raised the casualty depend of Wednesday’s hospital bombing to a few useless and 17 wounded. Vice President Kamala Harris, throughout a go to to Poland on Thursday, referred to as for a battle crimes investigation, including Russia was committing atrocities within the preventing in Ukraine.

Russia has been accused earlier than of focusing on hospitals. Physicians for Human Rights corroborated 492 assaults on healthcare services in Syria and 847 deaths of medical personnel there between March 2011 and December 2017 that had been brought on by Russian and Syrian forces. Different teams, together with Docs With out Borders, had related findings. Russia at one level referred to as such accusations “figments of the creativeness.”

For the Kremlin, Mariupol is a key goal. Capturing the strategically vital port metropolis would open a land hall from the Russian border alongside Ukraine’s southern coast to Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014, and release Russian forces to maneuver on Kyiv. Russia started bombarding town on the first day of its invasion, and its floor forces have attacked from the east and west.

Ukraine’s authorities resumed efforts to evacuate civilians Thursday from a handful of cities the place Ukrainian and Russian forces have agreed to a tentative cease-fire. Whereas related efforts have failed due to preventing, the Ukrainian authorities mentioned that 60,000 civilians have escaped by agreed-upon corridors for the reason that first had been organized earlier this week.

Makes an attempt to evacuate individuals from Mariupol on the Azov Sea have failed repeatedly. Its siege and bombardment is changing into a cautionary story for what would possibly occur to different Ukrainian cities as Russia presses its invasion.

The town is now surrounded by Russian troops, a few of whom have reached its outskirts, based on native authorities. The Ukrainian defenses have taken extreme losses, however have been capable of repel the assaults, Mariupol’s Deputy Mayor Serhiy Orlov mentioned.

The town is guarded by a drive consisting of Ukraine’s coast and border guard in addition to an area militia that was shaped by volunteers in response to Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine.

The militia started as a ragtag unit that was later formally admitted into the common armed forces of Ukraine as a part of the Nationwide Guard. It has since turn into one of many best-equipped and best-trained army items, hardened over eight years of warfare within the space that joins Ukraine-controlled territory from the Russian-occupied zone.

Oleg Zhdanov, a reserve colonel within the Ukrainian military and a army analyst, mentioned that Mariupol’s defenders embody items with ample expertise preventing Russian-led troops in Ukraine’s east. He mentioned they’ve inflicted heavy losses prior to now two weeks on Russian attackers, who he mentioned had been mounting expensive frontal assaults.

However the each day Russian bombardment has left town of greater than 400,000 with out meals, clear water or electrical energy. Video footage of components of Mariupol have begun to resemble cities flattened by Russia in different conflicts, similar to Grozny in Chechnya and Idlib in Syria.

Andzela Timchenko, a grandmother of 4 young children, mentioned by phone Thursday that she and her household have been taking refuge in a basement of their dwelling, melting snow for consuming water. However she mentioned even the snow had run out, and he or she frightened that her grandchildren could quickly undergo from dehydration. She mentioned native authorities offered small rations of Pepsi-Cola and cereals on Wednesday, in addition to pellets to make hearth to heat up and cook dinner meals.

Her household had been woken up by the roar of warplanes at 3 a.m. Thursday, adopted by a barrage of explosions that brought on the earth to shake beneath them, she mentioned.

“They’re bombing every thing, the streets are filled with useless individuals,” she mentioned.

Father Serhi Gorobtsov, an orthodox priest, mentioned the air raid Thursday was extra intense than others earlier than it. “Tall buildings are collapsing like dominoes,” Mr. Gorobtsov posted on his

Fb

web page on Thursday.

On the bombed hospital website, Mariupol’s deputy mayor mentioned different, uncounted our bodies couldn’t be recovered due to intense shelling, and that 47 had been buried in a typical grave on Wednesday. The hospital was the second to be hit after a significant clinic with 600 beds was focused earlier within the week. A blood financial institution was additionally bombed, Deputy Mayor Serhiy Orlov mentioned.

Mr. Lavrov, the Russian overseas minister, Thursday denied any intentional bombing of civilian targets. His assembly with Ukrainian Overseas Minister

Dmytro Kuleba

in Antalya, Turkey, lasted 90 minutes. No progress was made on a cease-fire settlement, Mr. Kuleba mentioned.

In a press convention after the assembly, Mr. Lavrov blamed biased western media for reporting the alleged atrocities and shrugged off worries about Western financial sanctions which have begun to sever Russia’s ties with the U.S. and Europe.

Russia, he mentioned, will retool its economic system to be extra impartial. The transfer, he mentioned, was “lengthy overdue.”

Areas seized as of Saturday

Course of invasion forces

Managed by or allied to Russia

Major refugee crossing places

Ukraine territory, acknowledged by Putin as impartial

Chernobyl

Not in operation

Managed by

separatists

Areas seized as of Saturday

Course of invasion forces

Managed by or allied to Russia

Ukraine territory, acknowledged by Putin as impartial

Major refugee crossing places

Chernobyl

Not in operation

Managed by

separatists

Areas seized as of Saturday

Course of invasion forces

Managed by or allied to Russia

Major refugee crossing places

Ukraine territory, acknowledged by Putin as impartial

Chernobyl

Not in operation

Managed by

separatists

Areas seized as of Saturday

Course of invasion forces

Managed by or allied to Russia

Major refugee crossing places

Ukraine territory, acknowledged by Putin as impartial

Areas seized as of Saturday

Course of invasion forces

Managed by or allied to Russia

Major refugee crossing places

Ukraine territory, acknowledged by Putin as impartial

U.S. officers say that Moscow, having did not swiftly take management of Ukraine after it launched its invasion two weeks in the past, is prone to attempt advancing with rising disregard for civilian casualties. Moscow has mentioned its forces aren’t intentionally focusing on civilians.

Western analysts say that rising civilian casualties are inevitable because the preventing in Ukraine strikes into its main cities. Ukrainian forces, unable to match the Russians in manpower or weaponry, have proven a desire to falling again to city areas, the place fierce preventing is anticipated.

—Jared Malsin, James Marson, Max Colchester and Drew Hinshaw contributed to this text.

Corrections & Amplifications
Volodymyr Zelensky

is the president of Ukraine. An earlier model of this text misspelled his title as Voldymyr Zelenksy. (Corrected on March 10)

Write to Alan Cullison at alan.cullison@wsj.com, Brett Forrest at brett.forrest@wsj.com and Bojan Pancevski at bojan.pancevski@wsj.com