Russians kill baby as US officials visit
ZAPORIZHZHIA: Kyiv prepared on Saturday (Sunday AEST) for its first wartime visit from two top US officials, as Ukraine accused Russia of killing eight people, including an infant, in a strike on the southern city of Odesa that all-but buried hopes of a truce for Orthodox Easter.
The visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin comes at a symbolic moment on the day the war enters its third month, and with fierce battles continuing in the country’s east.
It also comes as the situation in the shattered port city of Mariupol remains bleak. The latest of many attempts to evacuate civilians failed on the weekend, and the situation facing an embattled unit of Ukrainian fighters sheltering in tunnels under a sprawling steel mill appeared increasingly desperate.
Several European leaders have already travelled to Kyiv to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky and underscore their support, but the US – a leading donor of finances and weaponry – had yet to send any top officials.
The State Department declined to comment or reveal any details of the visit by two of President Joe Biden’s most senior cabinet members.
Mr Zelensky, who announced the visit, also issued a new call for a meeting with Vladimir Putin “to end the war”. “I think that whoever started this war will be able to end it,” Mr Zelensky said, adding he was “not afraid” to meet the Russian leader.
But he again stressed that Kyiv would abandon talks with Moscow if its troops in Mariupol were killed.
Mr Zelensky also criticised a decision by UN SecretaryGeneral Antonio Guterres to visit Moscow on Tuesday, before heading to Kyiv.
“There is no justice and no logic in this order,” he said.
Meanwhile, about 200 residents gathered at a designated evacuation point in Mariupol on the weekend but were “dispersed” by Russian forces, city official Petro Andryushchenko said on Telegram, adding: “The evacuation was thwarted.” He claimed others had been told to board buses headed to places controlled by Russia.
Mariupol, which the Kremlin claims to have “liberated”, is pivotal to Russia’s war plans to forge a land bridge to Russian-occupied Crimea and possibly beyond as far as Moldova.
Ukraine says hundreds of its forces and civilians are holed up inside the Mariupol steel plant. Kyiv has repeatedly called for a ceasefire to allow civilians – many barely surviving with little or no food or water – to leave safely.
But on Saturday a Ukrainian presidential adviser, Oleksiy Arestovich, said Russian forces had resumed air strikes on the factory.
“Our defenders hold on regardless of the very difficult situation and even carry out counter-raids,” he said.
Further west, a missile struck a residential building in the Black Sea port of Odesa, killing eight people, including a three-month-old baby, and wounding at least 18, according to Zelensky.
“It looks like killing children is Russia’s new national idea,” Mr Zelensky said in his daily address to the nation, vowing to bring those responsible to justice.
“All those bastards will answer for every death,” the angry and emotional President promised.