Annexation plan warning
A senior US official warned that Russia is planning to annex large portions of eastern Ukraine this month and recognise the southern city of Kherson as an independent republic.
Michael Carpenter, US ambassador to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, said that those suspected actions are ‘‘straight out of the Kremlin’s playbook’’ and will not be recognised by the United States or its allies.
In Mariupol, more than 100 people – including elderly women and mothers with small children – left the rubble-strewn Azovstal steelworks on Sunday and set out in buses and ambulances for the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia, about 230 kilometres to the northwest, according to authorities and video released by the two sides.
Mariupol Deputy Mayor
Sergei Orlov told the BBC that the evacuees were making slow progress. Authorities gave no explanation for the delay.
At least some of the civilians were apparently taken to a village controlled by Russia-backed separatists.
The Russian military said some chose to stay in separatist areas, while dozens left for Ukrainian-held territory.
In the past, Ukraine has accused Moscow’s troops of taking civilians against their will to Russia or Russian-controlled areas. The Kremlin has denied it.
The Russian bombardment of the sprawling plant by air, tank and ship picked up again after the partial evacuation, Ukraine’s Azov Battalion, which is helping to defend the mill, said on the Telegram messaging app.
Orlov said high-level negotiations were under way among Ukraine, Russia and international organisations on evacuating more people.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that at least 220 Ukrainian children have been killed by the Russian army since the war began, and 1570 educational institutions have been destroyed or damaged.
In other developments, European Union energy ministers met to discuss new sanctions against the Kremlin, which could include restrictions on Russian oil.
Some Russia-dependent members of the 27-nation bloc, including Hungary and Slovakia, are wary of taking tough action.
Thwarted in his bid to seize Kyiv, the capital, Russian President Vladimir Putin has shifted his focus to the Donbas, Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland, where Moscow-backed separatists have been battling Ukrainian forces since 2014.
Carpenter, the US ambassador to the OSCE, cited information that Russia is planning ‘‘sham referenda’’ in the so-called
Donetsk and Luhansk ‘‘people’s republics’’ that would attach the entities to Russia.
He also said there were signs that Russia would engineer an independence vote in Kherson.
He noted that local mayors and legislators there have been abducted, that internet and cellphone service had been severed and that a Russian school curriculum is soon to be imposed.
Ukraine’s government has said Russia also has introduced the ruble as currency there.
Russia said yesterday it struck dozens of military targets in the region in the past day.
It said it hit concentrations of troops and weapons and an ammunition depot near Chervone in the Zaporizhzhia region, west of the Donbas.
Ukrainian and Western officials say Moscow’s troops are raining fire indiscriminately, taking a heavy toll on civilians while making only slow progress. –