On Day 25 of war, School bombed in Ukraine city; Zelenskyy cites war crimes

International

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Lviv,
Mar
20:
Ukrainian
authorities
said
the
Russian
military
bombed
an
art
school
where
about
400
people
had
taken
refuge
in
the
port
city
of
Mariupol,
where
President
Volodymyr
Zelenskyy
said
an
unrelenting
siege
by
Russian
troops
would
go
down
in
history
for
what
he
said
were
war
crimes.
Local
authorities
said
the
school’s
building
was
destroyed
and
people
could
remain
under
the
rubble.

There
was
no
immediate
word
on
casualties.
Russian
forces
on
Wednesday
also
bombed
a
theater
in
Mariupol
where
civilians
were
sheltering,
authorities
have
said.

“To
do
this
to
a
peaceful
city,
what
the
occupiers
did,
is
a
terror
that
will
be
remembered
for
centuries
to
come,”
Zelenskyy
said
in
his
nightly
video
address
to
the
nation.

Mariupol,
a
strategic
port
on
the
Azov
Sea,
has
been
under
bombardment
for
at
least
three
weeks
and
become
a
symbol
of
the
horror
of
Russia’s
war
in
Ukraine.

Local
authorities
have
said
the
siege
has
cut
off
food,
water
and
energy
supplies,
and
killed
at
least
2,300
people,
some
of
whom
had
to
be
buried
in
mass
graves.
Russian
forces
have
surrounded
the
battered
city
and
pushed
deeper
into
it
in
recent
days.
Heavy
fighting
shut
down
a
major
steel
plant
and
local
authorities
pleaded
for
more
Western
help
Saturday.

“Children,
elderly
people
are
dying.
The
city
is
destroyed
and
it
is
wiped
off
the
face
of
the
earth,”
Mariupol
police
officer
Michail
Vershnin
said
from
a
rubble-strewn
street
in
a
video
addressed
to
Western
leaders
that
was
authenticated
by
The
Associated
Press.

The
fall
of
Mariupol,
the
scene
of
some
of
the
war’s
worst
suffering,
would
mark
a
major
battlefield
advance
for
the
Russians,
whose
advance
is
largely
stalled
outside
other
major
cities
more
than
three
weeks
into
the
biggest
land
invasion
in
Europe
since
World
War
II.
In
the
capital,
Kyiv,
at
least
20
babies
carried
by
Ukrainian
surrogate
mothers
are
stuck
in
a
makeshift
bomb
shelter,
waiting
for
parents
to
travel
into
the
war
zone
to
pick
them
up.

Some
just
days
old,
the
babies
are
being
cared
for
by
nurses
who
cannot
leave
the
shelter
because
of
constant
shelling
by
Russian
troops
who
are
trying
to
encircle
the
city.
Details
also
began
to
emerge
about
a
rocket
attack
that
killed
as
many
as
40
marines
in
the
Black
Sea
port
city
of
Mykolaiv
on
Friday,
according
to
a
Ukrainian
military
official
who
spoke
to
The
New
York
Times.
It
wasn’t
clear
how
many
marines
were
inside
at
the
time,
and
rescuers
continued
searching
the
rubble
of
the
barracks.

A
senior
Ukrainian
military
official,
who
spoke
to
the
Times
on
condition
of
anonymity
to
reveal
sensitive
information,
estimated
that
as
many
as
40
marines
were
killed,
which
would
make
it
one
of
the
deadliest
known
attacks
on
Ukrainian
forces
during
the
war.
Meanwhile
the
Russian
military
reported
Sunday
that
it
had
carried
out
a
new
series
of
strikes
on
Ukrainian
military
facilities
with
long-range
hypersonic
and
cruise
missiles.

The
Russian
Defense
Ministry’s
spokesman,
Maj.
Gen.
Igor
Konashenkov,
said
a
Kinzhal
hypersonic
missile
hit
a
Ukrainian
fuel
depot
in
Kostiantynivka,
a
city
near
Mykolaiv.

The
Russian
military
said
Saturday
that
it
used
a
Kinzhal
for
the
first
time
in
combat
to
destroy
an
ammunition
depot
in
Diliatyn
in
the
Carpathian
Mountains
in
western
Ukraine.
Russia
has
said
the
Kinzhal,
carried
by
MiG-31
fighter
jets,
has
a
range
of
up
to
2,000
kilometers
(about
1,250
miles)
and
flies
at
10
times
the
speed
of
sound.
Pentagon
press
secretary
John
Kirby
said
Saturday
that
the
US
couldn’t
confirm
the
use
of
a
hypersonic
missile
in
Ukraine.
Konashenkov
said
Kalibr
cruise
missiles
launched
by
Russian
warships
from
the
Caspian
Sea
were
also
involved
in
the
strike
on
the
fuel
depot
in
Kostiantynivka
and
were
used
to
destroy
an
armor
repair
plant
in
Nizhyn
in
the
Chernihiv
region
in
northern
Ukraine.

Despite
the
siege
in
Mariupol
and
the
geographic
scope
of
Russia’s
assault,
many
remained
struck
by
Ukraine’s
ability
to
hold
back
its
much
bigger,
better-armed
foe.
The
United
Kingdom’s
Defense
Ministry
said
Ukraine’s
airspace
continued
to
be
effectively
defended.

“Gaining
control
of
the
air
was
one
of
Russia’s
principal
objectives
for
the
opening
days
of
the
conflict
and
their
continued
failure
to
do
so
has
significantly
blunted
their
operational
progress,”
the
ministry
said
on
Twitter.

Russia
is
now
relying
on
stand-off
weapons
launched
from
the
relative
safety
of
Russian
airspace
to
strike
targets
within
Ukraine,
the
British
ministry
said.
Estimates
of
Russian
deaths
vary
widely,
but
even
conservative
figures
are
in
the
low
thousands.
Russia
had
64
deaths
in
five
days
of
fighting
during
its
2008
war
with
Georgia.
It
lost
about
15,000
in
Afghanistan
over
10
years,
and
more
than
11,000
in
years
of
fighting
in
Chechnya.

Russia’s
number
of
dead
and
wounded
in
Ukraine
is
nearing
the
10
per
cent
benchmark
of
diminished
combat
effectiveness,
said
Dmitry
Gorenburg,
a
researcher
on
Russia’s
security
at
the
Virginia-based
CNA
think
tank.
The
reported
battlefield
deaths
of
four
Russian
generals
–
out
of
an
estimated
20
in
the
fight
–
signal
impaired
command,
Gorenburg
said.

Russia
would
need
800,000
troops
–
almost
equal
to
its
entire
active-duty
military
–
to
control
Ukraine
long-term
in
the
face
of
armed
opposition,
said
Michael
Clarke,
former
head
of
the
British-based
Royal
United
Services
Institute,
a
defense
think
tank.
“Unless
the
Russians
intend
to
be
completely
genocidal
–
they
could
flatten
all
the
major
cities,
and
Ukrainians
will
rise
up
against
Russian
occupation
–
there
will
be
just
constant
guerrilla
war,”
said
Clarke.

UN
bodies
have
confirmed
more
than
847
civilian
deaths
since
the
war
began,
though
they
concede
the
actual
toll
is
likely
much
higher.

The
UN
says
more
than
3.3
million
people
have
fled
Ukraine
as
refugees.
Evacuations
from
Mariupol
and
other
besieged
cities
proceeded
along
eight
of
10
humanitarian
corridors
that
Ukraine
and
Russia
agreed
to
on
Saturday
Deputy
Prime
Minister
Iryna
Vereshchuk
said,
and
a
total
of
6,623
people
left.
Vereshchuk
said
planned
humanitarian
aid
for
the
southern
city
of
Kherson,
which
Russia
seized
early
in
the
war,
could
not
be
delivered
because
the
trucks
were
stopped
along
the
way
by
Russian
troops.
Ukraine
and
Russia
have
held
several
rounds
of
negotiations
aimed
at
ending
the
conflict
but
remain
divided
over
several
issues,
with
Moscow
pressing
for
its
neighbour’s
demilitarisation
and
Kyiv
demanding
security
guarantees.
Around
Ukraine,
hospitals,
schools
and
buildings
where
people
sought
safety
have
been
attacked.

A
satellite
image
from
Maxar
Technologies
released
Saturday
confirmed
earlier
reports
that
much
of
the
theater
in
Mariupol
was
destroyed.
It
also
showed
the
word
“CHILDREN”
written
in
Russian
in
large
white
letters
outside
the
building.
Russian
forces
fired
on
eight
cities
and
villages
in
the
eastern
Donetsk
region
between
Friday
and
Saturday,
Ukraine’s
national
police
said.
Dozens
of
civilians
were
killed
or
wounded,
and
at
least
37
residential
buildings
and
facilities
were
damaged
including
a
school,
a
museum
and
a
shopping
center.

In
the
western
city
of
Lviv,
Ukraine’s
cultural
capital,
which
was
hit
by
Russian
missiles
on
Friday,
military
veterans
were
training
dozens
of
civilians
on
how
to
handle
firearms
and
grenades.
“It’s
hard,
because
I
have
really
weak
hands,
but
I
can
manage
it,”
said
one
trainee,
22-year-old
Katarina
Ishchenko.
The
Mariupol
city
council
claimed
Saturday
that
Russian
soldiers
had
forcibly
relocated
several
thousand
city
residents,
mostly
women
and
children,
to
Russia.

It
didn’t
say
where,
and
AP
could
not
immediately
confirm
the
claim.
Zelenskyy
adviser
Oleksiy
Arestovych
said
the
nearest
forces
that
could
assist
Mariupol
were
already
struggling
against
“the
overwhelming
force
of
the
enemy”
and
that
“there
is
currently
no
military
solution
to
Mariupol.”

Zelenskyy
on
Sunday
ordered
11
political
parties
with
links
to
Russia,
the
largest
of
which
has
44
out
of
450
seats
in
the
country’s
parliament,
to
suspend
activities
during
the
period
of
martial
law.
“Activities
by
politicians
aimed
at
discord
and
collaboration
will
not
succeed,”
he
said
in
the
address.(AP)
RUP