Russian forces on Wednesday battled to encircle the Ukrainian army’s last stronghold in the long-fighting Eastern Province, as Russian airstrikes on a shopping mall in the country’s center killed at least 18 people two days ago.
The Battle of Moscow to seize the entire Donbass region from Ukraine saw Russian forces push toward two villages south of Lisichansk, while Ukrainian troops fought to stop their encirclement.
Britain’s Defense Ministry said Russian forces were making “incremental progress” in their offensive to capture Lisichansk, the last city in Ukrainian-controlled Luhansk province, after Ukraine’s forces retreated from the neighboring city of Svyarodonetsk. Was.
Russian troops and their separatist allies controlled 95% of Luhansk and about half of Donetsk, the two provinces that make up the mostly Russian-speaking Donbass.
The latest assessment by the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said Ukrainians were likely returning to the battle to seek more defensive positions while draining Russian military manpower and resources.
US director of national intelligence Avril Haines said Russia “may think time is on its side” because of the increasing costs borne by the West and the fatigue caused by the prolongation of the war. The most likely scenario predicted by US intelligence, Haines said, is a “grinding conflict” in which Russia declines to tighten its hold on southern Ukraine.
The US correctly predicted that Russia would invade Ukraine in February, but was wrong in assessing that it would quickly seize Kyiv. Speaking at an event in Washington on Wednesday, Haynes said that Russian President Vladimir Putin “effectively has the same political goals he had before, which means he wants to take over much of Ukraine” and calls it NATO. push away from
“We see a kind of mismatch between Putin’s near-term military objectives in the region and his military’s capability, his ambitions, and what the military is capable of achieving,” Haynes said.
Meanwhile, crews continued to search for the wreckage of a shopping mall in Kremenchuk, where Ukrainian officials say 20 people are missing.
Svitlana Rybalko, a press officer for Ukraine’s State Emergency Services, told The Associated Press that investigators found eight more bodies in addition to the 18 killed. It was not immediately clear if this meant there were more victims. Many of the survivors suffered severe limbs.
“The police cannot say with certainty how many (victims) there are. That’s why we’re not looking for bodies, but fragments of bodies,” Rybalko said.
Several families stood near the Amster shopping center on Wednesday morning, hoping to find missing loved ones.
“This is pure genocide,” said local resident Tatiana Chernyshova while laying flowers at the site. Such things cannot happen in the 21st century.
“We need to get everyone involved to help stop the war, help us fight these scum – these Russian aggressors,” Chernyshova said.
Psychologists working on-site with families said they are trying to help people recover from their loss.
“We are now trying to help them overcome their feelings, as it becomes harder and more painful later,” said a psychologist who did not give his name because he was authorized to speak to the press. were not.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of becoming a “terrorist” state after the attack on the mall. On Wednesday, he rebuked NATO for not embracing or equipping his beleaguered country more fully.
“NATO’s open-door policy should not resemble the old turnstiles on Kyiv’s metro, which remain open as long as you pay from them,” Zelensky said, speaking by video link at the NATO leaders’ meeting in Madrid. don’t.” “Ukraine has not paid enough? Is our contribution to the defense of Europe and the whole civilization not enough?”
He called for more modern artillery systems and other weapons and warned NATO leaders that they would either have to provide Ukraine with the assistance needed to defeat Russia or “face a delayed war between Russia and itself.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Wednesday dismissed claims of “tremendous provocation” by the Ukrainian government in trying to blame the Maul missile attack on the Russian military.
Britain’s Defense Ministry said there was a “realistic likelihood” that the mall strike was “to hit a target of nearby infrastructure.”
“Russian planners are prepared to accept high levels of collateral damage when they consider a military necessity to strike a target,” the ministry said. “It is almost certain that Russia will continue to launch attacks in an attempt to block the re-supply of Ukrainian front-line forces.”
The British ministry said Russia’s military was also facing a shortage of more advanced precision strike weapons, adding to civilian casualties.
In southern Ukraine, a Russian missile attack on a multi-storey apartment building in the city of Mykolaiv on Wednesday killed at least four people and injured five, regional governor Vitaly Kim said. Mykolaiv is a major port and seizing it – as well as Odessa to the west – will be key to Russia’s objective to cut Ukraine off its Black Sea coast.
Russia’s defense ministry said in a statement that the missile attack on Mykolaiv targeted the training of “foreign mercenaries” as well as ammunition depots.