Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba (L) and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speak to the press as they arrive for a meeting of NATO foreign ministers at NATO headquarters, in Brussels, on April 7, 2022. (Photo by François WALSCHAERTS / AFP).
SEVERODONETSK, Ukraine — Desperate evacuation attempts from eastern Ukraine were under way Thursday as authorities warned of an imminent Russian offensive, following the devastation around Kyiv that has shocked the world.
Russian troops have been withdrawing from around the capital and Ukraine’s north, leaving a trail of destruction behind them, as they prepare for an expected assault on the country’s southeast.
The scenes of carnage left behind by retreating troops in towns like Bucha have caused outrage and led to a wave of fresh sanctions against Moscow.
But on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Moscow was undeterred and continued “to accumulate fighting force to realize their ill ambitions in (eastern) Donbas.”
“They are preparing to resume an active offensive,” he said.
Begging civilians to leave the region “while it is still possible,” local officials in Donbas’ Lugansk and Donetsk said the region was already facing constant indiscriminate shelling.
“We can see clearly that before the enemy goes to full attack, they will just destroy places completely,” local governor Sergiy Gaiday in Lugansk told Ukrainian broadcaster Channel 24.
Artillery fire
Gaiday said on Facebook that more than 1,200 people had been evacuated from Lugansk on Wednesday, but that efforts were being hampered by artillery fire, with some areas already inaccessible.
For those that unable to leave, he said, tons of food, medicine and hygiene products were being delivered as part of a massive humanitarian effort.
The head of the Donetsk Regional Military Administration said strikes had targeted aid points.
“The enemy aimed directly there with a goal to destroy the civilians,” Pavlo Kyrylenko wrote on Facebook.
He added that people were heeding calls to flee and he would be coordinating evacuation to make it “faster and more effective.”
Shells and rockets were also slamming into the industrial city of Severodonetsk, the easternmost city held by Ukrainian forces.
More than 11 million people have been displaced since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, aiming to seize the capital.
With that goal thwarted, it is instead trying to create a land link between occupied Crimea and Moscow-backed separatist statelets in Donbas.
Ukrainian forces are also regrouping for the offensive, including on a two-lane highway through the rolling eastern plains connecting Kharkiv and Donetsk.
The evacuation calls are being fueled by fears of fresh atrocities, after chilling discoveries in areas from which Moscow’s troops have withdrawn.
Kremlin denial
In one of the worst affected towns, Bucha, some residents were still trying to learn the fate of loved ones, while others were hoping to forget.
The Kremlin denies responsibility for any civilian deaths and Putin on Wednesday accused Ukrainian authorities of “crude and cynical provocations” in Bucha.
But the German government pointed to satellite pictures taken while the town was still under Moscow’s control, which appear to show bodies in the streets.
Russia’s denials “are in our view not tenable,” said German government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit.
And Ukrainian officials have warned other areas may have suffered worse than Bucha, including nearby Borodianka.
On Wednesday, the White House unveiled further measures targeting Russia’s top banks and two of President Vladimir Putin’s daughters, while Britain sanctioned two banks and vowed to eliminate all Russian oil and gas imports by the end of the year.
The EU is also poised to implement a fifth round of sanctions cutting off Russian coal imports—and European Council chief Charles Michel said that “sooner or later,” it must also impose oil and gas sanctions. —AFP
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