Ukraine and Russia have increasing numbers of human casualties as it enters the fourth week of the war.
International outrage over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine grew as U.S. and Ukrainian officials said civilians waiting in line for bread and shelter in a theater had been killed by Russian forces.
Russian forces in Ukraine are blasting cities and killing civilians but no longer making progress on the ground, Western countries said on Thursday, as a war Moscow was thought to have hoped to win within days entered its fourth week.
Local officials said rescuers in the besieged southern port of Mariupol were combing the rubble of a theatre where women and children had been sheltering when Russian forces bombed it the previous day.
Petro Andrushchenko, the mayoral adviser, told Reuters by phone: “The bomb shelter held. Now the rubble is being cleared. There are survivors. We don’t know about the (number of) victims yet.”
Russia denied striking the theatre, which commercial satellite pictures showed had the word “children” marked out on the ground in front before it was blown up.
Mariupol has suffered the worst humanitarian catastrophe of the war, with hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in basements with no food, water, or power for weeks. Russian forces have begun letting some people out in private cars this week but have blocked aid convoys from reaching the city.
This assessment reiterated the ministry’s update on Wednesday, which said that Russian forces had experienced delays in “achieving their objectives.”
Since President Vladimir Putin announced the invasion on February 24 as part of a “special military operation” to “demilitarize” and “de-nazify” Ukraine, the expected swift campaign hasn’t materialized.
Moscow has yet to capture any of Ukraine’s biggest cities despite the largest assault on a European state since World War Two. More than 3 million Ukrainians have fled and thousands have died as the war enters its fourth week.
In the capital Kyiv, a building in the Darnytsky district was extensively damaged by what the authorities said was debris from a missile shot down early in the morning.
As residents cleared glass and carried bags of possessions away, a man knelt weeping by the body of a woman who lay close to a doorway, covered in a bloody sheet.
Kyiv and its Western allies believe Russia launched the unprovoked war to subjugate a neighbor Putin calls an artificial state. Although both sides have pointed to limited progress in peace talks this week, President Putin showed little sign of relenting.
In a vituperative televised speech, he inveighed against “traitors and scum” at home who helped the West, and said the Russian people would spit them out like gnats.
Heavily outnumbered Ukrainian forces have prevented Moscow from capturing any of Ukraine’s biggest cities so far despite the largest assault on a European state since World War Two.
The United Nations’ top court for disputes between states ordered Russia on Wednesday to immediately halt its military operations in Ukraine, saying it was “profoundly concerned” by Moscow’s use of force.
Russian airstrikes targeted the city of Marfa, located near Kharkiv early Thursday morning. The missiles destroyed a school and community center.
The Kremlin said negotiators were discussing a status for Ukraine similar to that of Austria or Sweden, both members of the European Union that are outside the NATO military alliance. Austria and Sweden, the biggest of six EU members outside NATO, both have small militaries that cooperate with the alliance.
Vladimir Medinsky, Russia’s chief negotiator, told state TV: “Ukraine is offering an Austrian or Swedish version of a neutral demilitarized state but at the same time a state with its own army and navy.”
President Zelensky has said Ukraine could accept international security guarantees that stopped short of its longstanding aim to join NATO. That prospect has been one of Russia’s primary concerns.
Zelensky said in a video address released early on Thursday: “My priorities during the negotiations are absolutely clear: the end of the war, guarantees of security, sovereignty, restoration of territorial integrity, real guarantees for our country, real protection for our country.”
Amid the unrelenting fighting, both sides have spoken of progress at talks. Ukrainian officials have said they think Russia is running out of troops to keep fighting and could soon come to terms with its failure to topple the Ukrainian government.
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