A senior Russian military official says Moscow plans to take full control of the eastern Donbas region and the southern part of Ukraine during their new offensive in the country as the fate of the besieged southern port of Mariupol hangs in the balance.
Rustam Minnekayev, acting commander of the Central Military District, was quoted by official Russian state media outlets on April 22 as saying that full control of southern Ukraine was a strategic goal to allow access to Moldova’s pro-Russian breakaway region of Transdniester, which borders Ukraine.
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The comments by Minnekayev were the most detailed description yet of Russia’s goals in the second phase of its invasion of Ukraine, and were highlighted by Kyiv as a sign that the Kremlin has been lying in previous statements that said it had no territorial ambitions.
“They are not going to stop. The command of the russian central military district announced the next victim of the Russian aggression. After gaining control over the southern Ukraine, Russia plans to invade Moldova, where they say Russian speakers are being ‘oppressed,'” Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said on Twitter.
Kyiv has warned several times that Transdniester could be used as a staging area for Russian operations against Ukraine or Moldova, which shares a border and a common history with NATO member Romania.
Moscow-backed separatists in Transdniester, a sliver of land between the Dniester River and the Moldovan–Ukrainian border, declared independence in 1990 over fears that Moldova would seek reunification with Romania.
The two sides fought a short war in 1992 that was quelled by the intervention of Russia on the side of the separatists. Russia still has more than 1,000 soldiers in Transdniester, where it also controls huge Soviet-era munitions depots.
To have land access to Transdniester, the Russian Army would have to capture the cities of Odesa and Mykolayiv.
The Donbas region includes the areas of Luhansk and Donetsk, where Kremlin-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014.
Minnekayev’s comments came a day after President Vladimir Putin claimed that Russian forces had “liberated” Mariupol following almost two months of intense shelling that has caused thousands of deaths and widespread destruction in the city with a prewar population of some 400,000.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has dismissed the Russian claim, saying Mariupol “continues to resist.”
Zelenskiy also said Russia’s gains in the east will only be temporary, after the invading forces reportedly took more than 40 villages on April 21.
Meanwhile, the United Nations human rights office in Geneva said there was growing evidence that Russia’s actions in Ukraine may amount to war crimes.
In the town of Bucha, near Kyiv, a UN mission has documented that 50 civilians had been killed there, including by summary execution, it said.
Russian officials have denied that their soldiers killed any civilians there and accused Ukraine of staging the atrocities.
Adding to fears atrocities have been committed across the country, Maxar Technologies said late on April 21 that imagery from near Mariupol appeared to show a mass grave that has expanded in recent weeks to contain more than 200 new graves.
Maxar said a review of images from mid-March through mid-April indicates the expansion began on March 23-26. The site lies adjacent to an existing cemetery in the village of Manhush, 20 kilometers west of Mariupol.
While Ukrainian troops continue to resist in fierce fighting throughout the eastern front, diplomatic pressure continues to pile up on Russia.
An EU official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said European Council President Charles Michel spoke with Putin on April 22 in a “blunt and direct manner” about the unacceptability of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. He also called for a “humanitarian cease-fire” for the upcoming Orthodox Easter holiday on April 24.
Mariupol’s mayor on April 22 renewed an appeal for the “full evacuation” of the city. “We need only one thing — the full evacuation of the population. About 100,000 people remain in Mariupol,” Mayor Vadym Boychenko said on national TV.
Boychenko has said tens of thousands of residents had been killed. The figure cannot be verified. Russia denies targeting civilians.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said separately that Kyiv was not attempting to establish any humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians from Ukrainian cities and towns on April 22.
“Because of the insecurity along the routes, there will be no humanitarian corridors today, April 22,” Vereshchuk wrote on Facebook. “To all those who are waiting for an evacuation, please be patient and hold on.”
On April 21, some 79 people, mostly women, were evacuated on three buses from Mariupol.
A regular British military update said on April 22 that Putin’s decision to impose a blockade on the Azovstal steel complex likely indicates a desire to contain resistance in Mariupol.
“A full ground assault by Russia on the plant would likely incur significant Russian casualties, further decreasing their overall combat effectiveness,” the British Ministry of Defense added on Twitter.
The British military also said that heavy shelling continued in Donbas as Russia seeks to advance further in eastern Ukraine.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on April 22 that the United Kingdom will reopen its embassy in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, next week after moving it to Lviv just days before Russia launched its invasion.
Speaking during a visit to India, Johnson said, “we will very shortly next week reopen our embassy in Ukraine’s capital city.” He did not give a specific date.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a separate statement from London that the reopening of the embassy was due to the “extraordinary fortitude and success” of Ukraine’s resistance to Russian forces.
“I want to pay tribute to the bravery and resilience of the embassy team and their work throughout this period,” she said.
Earlier this month Johnson visited Kyiv in a show of support for Ukraine as it fights to repel Russia’s massive invasion, which began on February 24.
In Washington, U.S. President Joe Biden said on April 21 that the Russian claim of victory in Mariupol was “questionable” as he announced another $1.3 billion in U.S. aid for Ukraine.
“There is no evidence yet that Mariupol is completely fallen,” Biden said at the White House, where he said a new package of $800 million in military aid will go to support brave Ukrainian forces and civilians who are fighting the Russian invasion in the Donbas region.
Zelenskiy expressed his gratitude but said Ukraine needs more — up to $7 billion each month to make up for economic losses in addition to weapons and money for the continuing war.
With tens of thousands of buildings damaged and key infrastructure in ruins, “we will need hundreds of billions of dollars to rebuild,” Zelenskiy said in a virtual address to a meeting of World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) leaders in Washington.
Zelenskiy said Russian forces intended to destroy “all objects in Ukraine that can serve as an economic base for life. That includes railroad stations, food warehouses, oil, refineries.”
Amid the pledges of support and appeals for more aid, the fate of Mariupol hung in the balance, with the city’s Ukrainian defenders trapped in the sprawling Azovstal steel plant.
One of the Ukrainian defenders told the BBC that the besieged plant where they are holed up was largely destroyed above ground. “We have wounded and dead inside the bunkers. Some civilians remain trapped under the collapsed buildings,” Svyatoslav Palamar said.
French President Emmanuel Macron called on Russia to respect international humanitarian law and allow civilians to leave Mariupol.
“In Mariupol, the situation is only getting worse. Tens of thousands of civilians are trapped. I once again call on Russia to respect international humanitarian law, to allow residents to leave the city, to allow humanitarian aid to enter, “Macron wrote on Twitter.
