Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said authorities “will not be able to help” residents who were left behind when large-scale fighting broke out. He said the governors of Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk regions were urging people to move immediately to safer areas. “It must be done now, because later people will come under fire and face the threat of death. “They will not be able to do anything about it,” he told the Telegram. The Deputy Prime Minister stressed: “It is necessary to evacuate as long as this possibility exists. At the moment, it still exists. “ The Kremlin has said it intends to occupy the entire Donetsk region amid reports that Putin wants to declare victory in Ukraine in time for May 9, the annual commemoration of Hitler’s Soviet defeat in World War II. A Western official said Putin would like to have an “announced success” by then, which could create “some tension” with Russian commanders as exhausted forces are likely to be thrown into battle soon enough in a bid to win. ground to the east. The new focus on the east follows the humiliating failure of Putin’s original apparent plan to seize the capital, Kyiv, overthrow the government of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and subjugate most of Ukraine in a matter of days. Instead, Russian troops advancing on Kyiv were forced to withdraw to Belarus after suffering casualties. The Kremlin has also withdrawn its forces from the Sumy region, as its advance there had stalled. The revised estimates are that 29 of Russia’s regular battalion groups – the smallest operational unit of its forces – are now “effective for battle”, from an invading force estimated at about 125 battalions – about 75% of the total Russian army. NATO and Western analysts believe that Russia is now determined to consolidate its gains in the south and southeast, with the Kremlin “reshaping its narrative” so that it can redefine the idea of victory. It already controls a land corridor that stretches from Mariupol along the Sea of Azov to the southern province of Kherson and Crimea. Its next targets appear to be the strategic cities of Sloviansk, which were occupied by Russian forces and separatists in 2014, Kramatorsk and Sievierodonetsk. Any attack is likely to meet with great resistance from the Ukrainian army. The Ukrainian military, however, has so far failed to reinforce its own forces in Donbas, a Western official said, because they are still trying to secure areas recaptured by Russian troops and must defend Kyiv against any surprise recapture attempt. of chapter. map of conflict zones Russia has stepped up its offensive against strongholds in the Donetsk and Luhansk cities, which have been occupied for eight years by pro-Kremlin separatists. Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Ukrainian-controlled region of Donetsk region, said on Wednesday that there had been intense enemy bombing. Ten high-rise buildings in Sievirodonetsk were bombed and set on fire, he said. Russian troops also attacked the town of Vuhldar, southwest of Donetsk. A Russian warplane has bombed an aid depot, Kirilenko said. Two civilians were killed and five were injured. Photos from the scene showed two women lying motionless on the street. One had lost her left leg. the other was lying on her back, with her arms thrown to her side. There were blood stains on a wall and broken windows. Kirilenko said the responsible “fascist” Russians “will not be forgiven.” Serhiy Haidai, head of the Luhansk regional military administration, predicted that the Russian attack was likely to begin “in three to four days” after they had relocated reserves. “We are witnessing the constant arrival of new forces, both equipment and personnel,” he said, stressing that the Ukrainian armed forces were ready to retaliate. About 30,000 civilians are still on the front line in Lysychansk, with a smaller number in Sievierodonetsk, he said. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said that Putin’s long-term goal was still to occupy all of Ukraine. He said the international community must be realistic and understand that the war and the invasion of Russia can continue for “many months or even years”. Western leaders have expressed outrage over the massacre of civilians in the Bucha Garden suburb northwest of Kiev, as fears grew for residents of other occupied cities and towns. Boris Johnson said the images of Ukrainians taken at close range with their hands tied together “did not look too far from genocide”. “Given what Putin has done in Ukraine, it is not surprising that people are reacting the way they do,” he said, promising further sanctions from the United Kingdom. According to Ukraine’s human rights ombudswoman Lyudmyla Denisova, more than 400 people have disappeared from the city of Hostomel in the Kiev region. She said witnesses told her that some had been killed during the 35 days of Russian occupation. The Kremlin has described as “monstrous forgery” allegations that its soldiers committed war crimes in Bucharest and elsewhere. Satellite images, however, show many bodies lying in the streets long before Russian troops withdraw and head north. Meanwhile, about 500 people have managed to get out of the besieged port of Mariupol accompanied by buses and private cars, organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). They are now located in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia. “It’s a huge relief for the hundreds of people who have suffered so much and are now in a safer place. “It is clear, however, that thousands more civilians trapped inside Mariupol need safe passage and assistance to enter,” said Pascal Hunt, head of the ICRC delegation in Ukraine. The ICRC team tried for five days and four nights to reach Mariupol, approaching a distance of 12 miles from the city, but security conditions had made entry impossible. Ukrainian officials say the Russian military has pounded the city in the past 24 hours, with 118 airstrikes. They also said Russian soldiers were collecting corpses to destroy evidence of war crimes such as Bucha. A mobile crematorium went from street to street, collecting and removing the bodies of people killed in bombings and shootings. In its latest assessment, the Ministry of Defense said that the humanitarian situation in Mariupol is deteriorating. “More than 160,000 residents remain without access to electricity, communications, medicine, heat or water. “Russian forces have blocked humanitarian access, possibly forcing defenders to surrender,” he said.
