Putin hails invasion as bombs fall
Rescuers hampered by rockets
While Ukrainian rescue workers searched a bombed-out apartment building for survivors of a Russian attack, President Vladimir Putin of Russia sought to assure his citizens yesterday, in a speech invoking his nation’s victory over Nazi Germany, that this was another virtuous war.
Efforts to pull people from the apartment strike in the city of Kramatorsk were interrupted by a new barrage of Russian rockets that hit a clinic, a school and other buildings, amid signs that a broader Russian offensive might be shaping up.
Some 480km to the east, Putin said at a broadcast event in Volgograd, Russia, “The legacy of generations, values and traditions — this is all what makes Russia different, what makes us strong and confident in ourselves, in our righteousness and in our victory.”
Putin’s attempt to put a veneer of nobility on an unprovoked invasion that has killed thousands of civilians and turned millions more into refugees was made in the Russian city once known as Stalingrad, on the 80th anniversary of a victory there against Nazi Germany that changed the course of World War II.
The number of Russian troops killed or wounded since Putin launched his invasion nearly a year ago is nearing 200,000, US and other Western officials estimate, up from an estimate of over 100,000 in November, swelled by the intense but largely stalemated fighting in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. The staggering losses reflect both how poorly Russia has fared in what the Kremlin expected would be a quick and easy conquest, and Putin’s ability and determination to throw massive resources into the fight.
In Kramatorsk yesterday, rescuers were digging through the rubble of a four-story building hit by rockets the night before, when a searing light raced across the sky. Firefighters, police officers and bystanders froze.
Then came the booms, which sent people scattering in all directions for whatever cover they could find.
One woman sobbed. Another one cursed. “Fascists!” she said.
The overnight attack on Kramatorsk had killed at least three people and wounded more than a dozen. The barrage, which hit more than a dozen other buildings, local officials said, wounded another five.
The remains of people’s lives could be seen scattered amid the bricks and concrete blocks: a collection of colorful bras, a red volleyball, a teddy bear and a child’s red, blue and yellow play tent.
Among those hurt in the attack was a married couple. The husband sustained a serious concussion and the wife a broken arm, said a friend of theirs, Anna Olendarenko, 51.
“Horrible doesn’t even describe it,” she said. “You can’t wrap your head around it.”
In recent days, there have been claims by Kremlin backers of scattered Russian attacks and incremental gains along the Donbas front line.
A prominent Moscow-aligned war blog called Rybar described several Russian advances in villages near the city of Bakhmut, the area of most intense combat recently.
Visiting Kyiv yesterday in a show of support for Ukraine and its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ursula von der Leyen, chief of the European Union’s executive branch, announced that an international centre for the prosecution of the “crime of aggression” in Ukraine would be set up in The Hague.
The EU last year made Ukraine a candidate for membership, a move that infuriated the Kremlin and had been considered highly unlikely before the war.
“Russia must be held accountable in court for its odious crimes,” von der Leyen said. “Prosecutors from Ukraine and the European Union are already working together. We are collecting evidence.”
Kramatorsk has been the target of frequent rocket attacks by Russian forces since the war began in February, but in recent weeks, the strikes on the city center have intensified as Russian forces ramp up for an expected offensive to take the whole of Ukraine’s Donbas region.
The city, a sprawling industrial hub that was home to about 200,000 people before the war, poses a serious impediment to Russia’s control of the region.
Kramatorsk also sits just 32km northwest of a more immediate Russian objective, the smaller city of Bakhmut, and is vital to Ukraine’s efforts to resupply its forces holding Bakhmut. Kremlin forces have fought for months to conquer Bakhmut, at a huge cost in Russian casualties, and its fall would be Moscow’s first significant military victory since the summer.
Both sides, their forces slowed by winter conditions, are expected to attempt major offensives in the coming weeks. But Zelenskyy has said that the increasing artillery strikes in the east, coupled with a large Russian troop buildup in occupied parts of eastern Ukraine, suggest that the Russians may be beginning one now.
Addressing Ukrainians, Zelenskyy expressed confidence that his country would prevail — but acknowledged that the Russians could still inflict pain.
“Tactically,” he said, “they still have the resources to attempt offensive actions. They are looking for options to try to change the course of the war, and are trying to put the potential of all the territories they still control in the service of aggression.”