Putin vows to press invasion until Russia’s goals are met
KYIV, Ukraine – Vladimir Putin vowed Tuesday that Russia’s bloody offensive in Ukraine would continue until its goals are fulfilled and insisted the campaign was going as planned, despite a major withdrawal in the face of stiff Ukrainian opposition and significant losses.
Russian troops, thwarted in their push toward Ukraine’s capital, are now focusing on the eastern Donbas region, where Ukraine said Tuesday it was investigating a claim that a poisonous substance had been dropped on its troops. It was not clear what the substance might be, but Western officials warned that any use of chemical weapons by Russia would be a serious escalation of the already devastating war.
Russia invaded on Feb. 24, with the goal, according to Western officials, of taking Kyiv, toppling the government and installing a Moscow-friendly regime. In the six weeks since, Russia’s ground advance stalled, its forces lost potentially thousands of fighters and the military was accused of killing civilians and other atrocities.
Putin insisted Tuesday that his invasion aimed to protect people in parts of eastern Ukraine controlled by Moscow-backed rebels and to “ensure Russia’s own security.”
He said Russia “had no other choice” but to launch what he calls a “special military operation,” and vowed it would “continue until its full completion and the fulfillment of the tasks that have been set.”
For now, Putin’s forces are gearing up for a major offensive in the Donbas, which has been torn by fighting between Russian-allied separatists and Ukrainian forces since 2014, and where Russia has recognized the separatists’ claims of independence. Military strategists say Russian leaders appear to hope that local support, logistics and the terrain in the region favor Russia’s larger, better-armed military, potentially allowing its troops to finally turn the tide in their favor. a basement in the village of Shevchenkove and that Russian forces were believed to be responsible.
Prosecutors are also investigating allegations that Russian forces fired on a convoy of civilians trying to leave by car from the village of Peremoha in the Brovary district, killing four people, including a 13-year-old boy. In another attack near Bucha, five people were killed, including two children, when a car was fired upon, prosecutors said.
Putin falsely claimed Tuesday that Ukraine’s accusation that hundreds of civilians were killed by Russian troops in the town of Bucha were “fake.” Associated Press reporters saw dozens of bodies in and around the town, some with hands bound who appeared to have been shot at close range.
The Russian leader In Mariupol, a strategic civilians dead, their bodU.S. President Joe Biden phosphorus, toxic propspoke at the Vostochny port city in the Donbas, ies “carpeted through the for the first time referred erties, specifically and despace launch facility in the a Ukrainian regiment streets.” Mayor Vadym to Russia’s invasion as a liberately, then it becomes country’s far east, during defending a steel mill Boychenko said the death “genocide,” linking the war banned,” he said. his first known foray outclaimed a drone dropped toll in Mariupol alone to rising prices. “Your famIn the face of stiff resisside Moscow since the war a poisonous substance on could surpass 20,000 and ily budget, your ability to tance by Ukrainian forcbegan. He also said that the city. It indicated there gave new details of allegafill up your tank, none of es bolstered by Western foreign powers wouldn’t were no serious injuries. tions by Ukrainian officials it should hinge on whether weapons, Russian forces succeed in isolating RusThe assertion by the Azov that Russian forces have a dictator declares war and have increasingly relied on sia.
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tinued to strike targets investigating, and it was for each meter of the city. produce smoke screens. feared the toll would rise
across Ukraine in a bid to possible phosphorus muThey make (Russia) pay an Deliberately firing them as minesweepers comb
wear down the country’s nitions – which cause exorbitant price.” into an enclosed space to through the area.
defenses. Russia’s defense horrendous burns but are British Foreign Secexpose people to fumes Ukraine’s prosecunot classed as chemical retary Liz Truss said the could breach the Chemical tor- general’s office said ministry said Tuesday weapons – had been used use of chemical weapons Weapons Convention, said Tuesday that it was also that it used used air- and in Mariupol. “would be a callous escalaMarc-Michael Blum, a forlooking into events in the sea-launched missiles to
Much of the city has tion in this conflict,” while mer laboratory head at the Brovary district, which lies destroy an ammunition been razed in weeks of Australian Foreign MinNetherlands-based Orgato the northeast. depot and airplane hanpummeling by Russian ister Marise Payne said nization for the ProhibiThe prosecutor’s office gar at Starokostiantyniv in troops. The mayor said it would be a “wholesale tion of Chemical Weapons. said the bodies of six cithe western Khmelnytskyi Monday that the siege breach of international “Once you start using vilians had been found region and an ammunition has left more than 10,000 law.” the properties of white with gunshot wounds in depot near Kyiv.