Kyiv/Lviv, Ukraine
Reuters
US President Joe Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal on Wednesday, prompting the Kremlin to say the comment was “unforgivable” as the war in Ukraine raged for a 21st day despite talk of compromise in peace negotiations.
Moscow has yet to capture any of Ukraine’s biggest cities following its incursion that began on 24th February, the largest assault on a European state since World War II that has raised fears of wider conflict in the West unthought-of for decades.
A firefighter works at a site of a fire, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on 16th March. PICTURE: Reuters/Oleksandr Lapshyn.
Putin on Wednesday said the Kremlin was ready to discuss neutral status for its neighbour but said what he calls a “special military operation” to “demilitarize and denazify” Ukraine was “going to plan”. Russian forces kept up their bombardments of besieged cities, including intensified shelling of the capital Kyiv.
Biden said the United States was offering an additional $US800 million in security assistance to Ukraine to fight Russia, with the new package including drones and anti-armour systems.
“More will be coming as we source additional stocks of equipment that…we are ready to transfer,” he said.
Biden later condemned Putin: “He is a war criminal,” he told reporters.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the comment was “unacceptable and unforgivable rhetoric”, according to Tass news agency.
At the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Washington will help Ukraine acquire additional long-range missile anti-aircraft systems as the West bolsters his government, which is still holding out hope that talks with Russia can find a solution.
Zelenskiy said negotiations were becoming “more realistic” and Russia’s foreign minister said proposals under discussion were “close to an agreement.”
The US Embassy in Kyiv said Russian forces had shot dead 10 people waiting in line for bread in Chernihiv, north-east of Kyiv. Russia denied the attack and said the incident was a hoax.
Footage from Ukraine’s state broadcaster showed bodies lying on the street. The Ukrainian general prosecutor’s office said it had opened an investigation.
Emergency services said rescue workers had found the bodies of five people, including three children, during searches of shell-hit residential buildings in Chernihiv.
In the besieged southern port of Mariupol, the city council said Russian forces bombed a theatre where civilians were sheltering. The number of casualties was not known.
Russia’s defence ministry denied it had carried out an air strike against the theatre. Reuters could not independently verify the information.
A satellite image shows a closer view of Mariupol Drama Theatre before bombing, as a word “children” in Russian is written in large white letters on the pavement in front of and behind the building, in Mariupol, Ukraine, on 14th March. PICTURE: Satellite image ?2022 Maxar Technologies/Handout via Reuters.
“Darkest time”
The Governor of Zaporizhzhia region said Russian forces had fired artillery at a convoy of evacuees from Mariupol, wounding five people. Ukraine’s military said children were among the casualties.
Three people were killed and five wounded after shelling caused a fire at a market in eastern Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, emergency services said.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said 400 staff and patients were being held hostage at a hospital Russian forces had captured in Mariupol on Tuesday.
Moscow denies targeting civilians.
Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said Russian shelling caused a fire and damaged private homes and a gas line there on Wednesday evening after early morning barrages.
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Russian troops have halted at the gates of the capital after taking heavy losses in a war Western officials say Moscow expected to win within days.
In a speech to the US Congress by video link, Zelenskiy appealed for tougher sanctions on Russia and more weapons to help his country, repeating a request for a no-fly zone over Ukraine, something the West fears would worsen the conflict.
“In the darkest time for our country, for the whole of Europe, I call on you to do more,” said Zelenskiy, who showed video clips of dead and wounded children and blasted buildings.
Alongside additional US help announced on Wednesday, NATO defence ministers meeting in Brussels also pledged more arms supplies to help Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy delivers a video address to senators and members of the House of Representatives gathered in the Capitol Visitor Center Congressional Auditorium, at the US Capitol in Washington, US, on 16th March. PICTURE: Drew Angerer/Pool via Reuters.
More talks
Negotiations were due to resume on Wednesday by a video link for a third straight day.
The Kremlin said negotiators were discussing a status for Ukraine similar to that of Austria or Sweden, both members of the European Union that are outside the NATO military alliance.
Ukraine’s chief negotiator said Kyiv was still demanding a ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian troops, with guarantees.
The signs of compromise sent relief through global financial markets.
In what was seen as a major shift, Zelenskiy had said on Tuesday Ukraine could accept international security guarantees that stopped short of its longstanding aim to join NATO.
Keeping Ukraine out of the Western military alliance was one of Russia’s main demands before it invaded.
“Neutral status is now being seriously discussed along, of course, with security guarantees,” Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said. “There are absolutely specific formulations which in my view are close to agreement.”
Vladimir Medinsky, Russia’s chief negotiator, told state TV: “Ukraine is offering an Austrian or Swedish version of a neutral demilitarised state, but at the same time a state with its own army and navy.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the idea “could really be seen as a compromise”.
Austria and Sweden, the biggest of six EU members outside NATO, both have small militaries that cooperate with the alliance.
Chief Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak said Kyiv was seeking direct talks between Zelenskiy and Putin. Moscow has said they could meet but only to finalise an agreement already hammered out.
Damage to Russia’s economy
While Russia has long objected to Ukraine’s NATO ambitions, Kyiv and its allies have said Moscow’s true aim was to overthrow Ukraine’s pro-Western, elected leaders.
Ukrainian forces have withstood an assault by a much larger army. Zelenskiy said Ukrainian troops had killed a fourth Russian major general. Reuters was not able to verify this.
Ukraine said about 20,000 people had escaped besieged Mariupol in cars, but hundreds of thousands remain trapped under bombardment without heat, power or water. More than three million refugees have now fled Ukraine for other countries.
Russia was due to pay $US117 million in interest on dollar-denominated sovereign bonds, but may pay in roubles instead, amounting to its first default on foreign debt since the Bolshevik revolution.
Moscow said it had the money, and Washington would be to blame if it cannot pay.
In his most explicit acknowledgment of the pain inflicted by Western sanctions, Putin said inflation and unemployment would rise, and structural changes to the economy would be needed.
– With reporting from Reuters bureaux.
