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Russia advances towards Kyiv; cities under siege
Updated On: 13 March, 2022 12:09 PM IST | Kyiv | Agencies
Russian forces close to less than 30 kilometres from the capital as satellite images showed artillery firing on residential areas, restaurants, theatres and a maternity hospital
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An explosion is seen in an apartment building after Russian’s army tank fires in Mariupol, Ukraine. Pic/AP
Russian forces appeared to make progress from the northeast in their slow fight toward Ukraine’s capital, while tanks and artillery pounded places already under siege with shelling so heavy that residents of one city were unable to bury the growing number of dead. In past offensives in Syria and Chechnya, Russia’s strategy has been to crush armed resistance with sustained airstrikes and shelling that levels population centres. That kind of assault has cut off the southern port city of Mariupol, and a similar fate could await Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine if the war continues.
In Mariupol, unceasing barrages into the city have thwarted repeated attempts to bring in food and water and evacuate trapped civilians. A deadly strike on a maternity hospital there this week sparked international outrage and war-crime allegations. Mariupol’s death toll has passed 1,500 in 12 days of attack, the mayor’s office said. Shelling forced crews to stop digging trenches for mass graves, so the “dead aren’t even being buried,” the mayor said. Invading Russian forces have struggled far more than expected against determined Ukrainian fighters. But Russia’s stronger military threatens to grind down Ukrainian forces, despite an ongoing flow of weapons and other assistance from the West for Ukraine’s westward-looking, democratically elected government. The conflict has already sent 2.5 million people fleeing the country.
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