A resident with her belongings looked on Sunday at the site of a rocket attack on Chasiv Yar, near Bakhmut. Credit … Mauricio Lima for The New York Times
Last week, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin warned that Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine had just begun. The deadly attacks on three fronts this weekend suggest that, after suffering major setbacks early in its war, Moscow’s appetite for conflict has not diminished.
In parts of the northeast that has seized, in the Kharkiv province, near its border, Russia has moved to strengthen its control. In the east he carried out a series of attacks, while further south he was forced to defend his positions.
As a result of the failure to seize the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, at the start of the war, Russia has used its superior firepower to gain ground in the eastern Donbas region. The last city in Luhansk province fell into the hands of Russian forces this month, and it is believed that Russia is taking time to rotate with new troops. However, his forces have intensified strikes in Donetsk province. At least five urban centers in Donetsk have been criticized since Saturday. Mr Putin told Russia’s parliament last week: “We haven’t started anything yet.”
Rescue workers fought on Sunday to remove survivors of the remains of a five-story residential block in the eastern village of Chasiv Yar in Donetsk, which was the target of Russian missiles. Eighteen people died and eight people were rescued.
But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a speech on Saturday that he hoped a Western-supplied influx of weapons – including $ 400 million in military aid announced by the Biden administration on Friday – would help correct its disadvantage. and “reduce Russia’s attack capabilities.” . ”
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based research group, said Monday in a report that “Russian forces are in the midst of an operational break across the theater in Ukraine” while turn some troops and introduce new ones. before the expected attempt to move forward, especially in the Donetsk province. But, he added, this did not mean a pause in the bombing.
Mr. Zelensky, mocked this notion in an overnight speech: “Many spoke of the alleged‘ operational pause ’in the occupants’ actions in Donbas and other parts of Ukraine. Thirty-four airstrikes by Russian planes over the past day are a response to all those who raised this “pause”.
Firefighters removed the wreckage after a military attack on Monday on a building in Kharkiv. Credit … Nacho Doce / Reuters
While the war has shattered civilian lives, it has also reshaped geopolitics, leaving Russia isolated, giving NATO a new sense of purpose and pushing the United States and European nations to issue sanctions.
In an effort to expand the coalition ready to punish Moscow, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken urged China’s foreign minister at the end of the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia to join the United States and to its NATO and Western partners to “stand up.” against the war in Russia.
Although Ukraine is the largest country in Europe, recent fighting has focused on a crescent-shaped portion of the east of the country that runs from the second largest city, Kharkiv, in the northeast. , passing through Donbas to southern cities such as Mariupol and Kherson, both. now in Russian hands.
Moscow, which seized Crimea in 2014, already controls about a fifth of Ukraine and aims to annex the territory it has seized since the war began. His forces carried out attacks in the northeastern region of Kharkiv on Saturday.
Russia last week established a civilian administration in parts of Kharkiv province that it now controls and presented a flag that, according to state news agency Tass, “symbolizes historical ties” between the region and Russia.
In the south, in Kherson province, Ukrainian forces appear to be intensifying their efforts to attack Russian ammunition and equipment depots, as well as concentrations of Russian soldiers. A large explosion in the region on Saturday morning sparked a thick column of smoke as Ukrainian forces continued to strike Russian positions in the area pending a possible counteroffensive to reclaim occupied territory, officials said.