Ukraine retakes gateway to Kyiv
Mariupol defenders keep Russians at bay as peace talks set to resume in Istanbul.
Ukrainian forces recaptured a key Kyiv suburb and desperately clung on to control of the besieged city of Mariupol as negotiators prepared to meet their Russian counterparts for face-to-face talks in Istanbul on Tuesday night.
Troops liberated the suburban town of Irpin, Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky said, wresting a key gateway to the capital’s northwest from Russian control.
Heavy shelling continued in the area and fleeing residents described hellish scenes of bombs raining from the sky and people killed in cold blood while trying to escape.
“We saw those cars which tried to get out on their own. They were crushed by tanks, with people inside,” said 55-year-old Roman Molchanov. His sister added that the “Russian orcs” had “shot dead people sitting in their cars”.
Western experts described the loss of Irpin as a significant setback for Russian forces, which are still trying to regroup after a failed first attempt to encircle the capital.
It is now more than a month since Russian President Vladimir Putin’s tanks rolled into Ukraine, hoping to cripple or oust the democratic government in Kyiv.
The fighting has killed an estimated 20,000 people and forced more than 10 million from their homes.
The prospects of a peaceful end to the war – or an imminent victory for either side – appear faint.
Ukrainian and Russian negotiators will resume peace talks on Tuesday night under the shadow of shock allegations that delegates were poisoned at a previous round of negotiations. Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and Ukrainian negotiators were said to have been targeted earlier this month.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the Istanbul talks would focus on easing the humanitarian situation, and sounded a note of scepticism about the hopes for success.
“If we see that the mood has changed and they are ready for a serious, substantive conversation and balanced arrangements, then things will move forward,” he said.
“If it is a repetition of their propaganda” then talks would again fail.
Mr Putin has demanded the “demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine”, as well as the imposition of neutral status and recognition of the Donbas and Crimea as no longer part of Ukraine. Mr Kubela indicated there was little room for agreement there: “We do not trade people, land and sovereignty. Our position is concrete.”
On the battlefield, both sides appear determined to press where they can. Ukrainian officials still believe that Russia wants to take the capital Kyiv, dismissing suggestions the Kremlin is focused on the eastern Donbas region. Capturing “Kyiv is essentially a captured Ukraine, and this is their goal,” said Deputy Defence Minister Ganna Malyar, insisting Russia was still “trying to break through the corridor around Kyiv and block transport routes”.
On Monday Russian attacks near Kyiv cut power to more than 80,000 homes, officials said, underscoring the continued peril facing the capital.
While Ukraine’s forces are counterattacking in the north, they are struggling to retain control of the southern port city of Mariupol. Russian forces have encircled the city and have embarked on a steady and indiscriminate bombardment, trapping an estimated 160,000 people.
At least 5000 people have already died, according to one senior Ukrainian official who estimated the real toll may be closer to 10,000. “The burials stopped 10 days ago because of continued shelling,” Tetyana Lomakina, a presidential adviser now in charge of humanitarian corridors, said.
Local politician Kateryna Sukhomlynova said that unburied bodies lined streets and residents cowering in basement shelters had been forced to eat snow to stay hydrated. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry called the situation “catastrophic”, saying Russia’s assault from land, sea and air had turned a city once home to 450,000 people “into dust”.
France, Greece and Turkey are hoping to launch a mass evacuation of civilians from Mariupol within days, according to French President Emmanuel Macron, who is seeking agreement from Mr Putin. But as the ground war has stalled and Russian casualties have mounted, Moscow appears to have turned to ever-more brutal tactics. Western powers say they have seen evidence of war crimes, which are being investigated by the International Criminal Court.
On Monday, Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, said there was proof that Russian forces have used banned cluster bombs in the southern Odessa and Kherson areas.
And Britain’s Defence Ministry said that private Russian military firm Wagner Group has headed to eastern Ukraine, where “they are expected to deploy more than 1000 mercenaries, including senior leaders of the organisation, to undertake combat operations.” Reputed to be close to Mr Putin, the Wagner Group is suspected of abuses in Mali, Libya and Syria.
AFP
More reports P43
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