ODESSA, Ukraine — President Vladimir V. Putin warned on Saturday that crippling financial sanctions imposed by the West had been “akin to a declaration of war,” because the Russian navy pummeled civilian targets and continued shelling close to the primary protected routes supposed to permit besieged Ukrainians to flee, apparently violating a cease-fire that had been agreed to solely hours earlier.
The Russian assaults close to the “humanitarian corridors,” reported by Ukrainian officers, got here hours after each international locations had agreed to open protected routes for residents to flee Mariupol, a serious port metropolis on the Sea of Azov the place tens of 1000’s of individuals have been with out warmth, electrical energy or water for 3 days, and Volnovakha, one other beleaguered city 40 miles to the north.
Ten days into the Russian invasion, the shelling across the corridors made clear that Mr. Putin had settled on a plan to hammer civilian infrastructure and pulverize fundamental companies and neighborhoods in a sustained assault that has set off what the United Nations calls the fastest-moving exodus of European refugees since World War II.
In a information convention within the capital, Kyiv, the Ukrainian authorities introduced a dozen stoned-faced Russian prisoners of warfare, who spoke of chaotic firefights that had led to their seize and condemned Russian leaders.
It was unimaginable to determine whether or not the troopers had been talking below duress. The Geneva Convention prohibits militaries from parading prisoners.
Mr. Putin, in his first prolonged remarks because the begin of the warfare, threatened to completely take in Ukraine, the previous Soviet republic of practically 44 million people who declared its independence from Moscow 30 years in the past.
“The current leadership needs to understand that if they continue doing what they are doing, they risk the future of Ukrainian statehood,” he stated.
In addition to his warning on sanctions, which have been crushing Russia’s economic system, Mr. Putin stated that imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine — which Ukrainian officers have been demanding, however NATO has to this point rejected — “will be seen by us as participation in the armed conflict.” He blamed Ukraine for sabotaging the humanitarian routes, saying its troops had used civilians as “human shields.”
Mr. Putin’s threats got here as residents within the first main metropolis to fall to Russian troops, Kherson, in southern Ukraine, took to the streets to protest, chanting and waving Ukrainian flags. The demonstrations had been probably the most seen instance but of resistance to Russian occupation and a direct rebuke to Mr. Putin’s declare that the Russian navy has been liberating Ukrainian cities.
Around 10 a.m. lots of of individuals began gathering in Liberty Square, within the middle of Kherson, in keeping with movies of the scene. In one video, a person stood atop a Russian armored personnel provider, waving a Ukrainian flag because it drove down the road, prompting cheers from onlookers.
The metropolis’s mayor, Ihor Kolykhaev, stated Russian forces had fired into the air to disperse the gang, although protesters initially stayed within the space. There had been no studies of casualties, he stated, estimating the gang’s measurement at about 2,000 individuals.
The protests underscored the challenges going through the Russian navy as its strikes to seize and maintain Ukrainian territory. Mr. Putin insists that Ukrainians and Russians are “one people,” and has described resistance to Russia’s incursion because the product of brainwashing by nefarious Western operators and “neo-Nazis” within the Kyiv authorities.
But Mr. Kolykhaev stated it was ludicrous for Russian forces to destroy metropolis companies and provide traces for medicines and different important items after which current themselves as “kind liberators.” Russian troops seized Kherson on Wednesday after a vicious battle that killed 300 individuals, together with dozens of civilians, he stated.
“First they create a critical situation,” Mr. Kolykhaev stated in a textual content message, “then heroically they save us.”
The Russian assault has additionally deepened the desperation in Mariupol, a serious metropolis of practically half one million individuals in southern Ukraine the place residents described youngsters trapped in bomb shelters with out meals, water or heat. It has been largely unimaginable to usher in medical provides and different reduction to town, the place the native authorities has refused to give up, regardless of each day bombing by Russian forces, which have surrounded town.
“The shelling is constant and at random,” Diana Berg, a Mariupol resident, stated in an interview on Thursday. “Everything I ever thought to be a nightmare is nothing compared to what I am witnessing.”
Mariupol was reduce off from telecommunications, she stated, which means there was no web, cellphone service, electrical energy or scorching water. Residents, she stated, had been constructing fires within the streets to remain heat. “And when you’re on the street, at any moment, a rocket can land next to you,” Ms. Berg stated.
In an effort to alleviate the struggling, Russia’s Defense Ministry stated on Saturday that it had agreed to a cease-fire and protected routes for residents of Mariupol and Volnovakha, a close-by metropolis in equally dire straits, starting at 10 a.m. Moscow time.
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March 5, 2022, 12:36 p.m. ET
But Ukrainian officers stated that Russian troops had shortly violated the settlement, and so they warned residents who had been planning to go away the cities to show again and take shelter. “The Russian side is not upholding the cease-fire and is continuing to shell Mariupol and the surrounding regions,” Mariupol’s administration stated on Saturday afternoon.
Since the warfare started, not less than 1.2 million individuals in Ukraine have fled to neighboring international locations, the pinnacle of the United Nations refugee company stated on Saturday. The motion, principally of girls and youngsters, is coming at a sooner fee than through the peak of the Balkan wars within the Nineties and much sooner than through the Hungarian refugee disaster of 1956, when Soviet troops crushed an rebellion in that nation, stated Filippo Grandi, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
“This is the fastest-moving refugee crisis — let’s call it a refugee crisis, please, it’s a refugee crisis — since World War II,” Mr. Grandi stated in an interview after getting back from a go to to the border between Ukraine and Moldova.
He stated he had been significantly struck by the jarring suddenness with which the refugees crossing there had been wrested from snug lives in what had till just lately been calm, practical cities.
“It is an avalanche of people with cars, with pets,” Mr. Grandi stated. “It’s entire cities being emptied, and crossing the border.”
Poland has taken within the largest variety of Ukrainians, however Mr. Grandi was significantly involved about Moldova, which has acquired extra refugees per capita than any of Ukraine’s different neighbors. Since Feb. 24, greater than 200,000 individuals coming from Ukraine have entered Moldova, which is dwelling to 2.6 million and is one in all Europe’s poorest international locations.
Unlike its neighbors to the west, Moldova shouldn’t be a member of the European Union, and subsequently lacks vital institutional assist from the bloc.
As the United States and its NATO allies have moved to resupply the outgunned and outmanned Ukrainian navy with Javelin and Stinger missiles and different weapons, Western officers stated the Russian offensive was encountering cussed resistance.
Outside Kyiv, there have been fierce assaults and counterattacks as Ukrainian forces battled to maintain the Russians from encircling town. A 40-mile-long convoy of navy autos approaching Kyiv from the north appears to be largely stalled, in keeping with Western analysts, and the Ukrainian navy stated its forces have been attacking it the place they’ll.
The information convention with Russian prisoners of warfare on Saturday was unexpectedly organized by the Ukrainian authorities to bolster their declare that the Ukrainian navy is efficiently defending itself in opposition to Russian forces beset with logistical issues and low morale.
The Russian troopers, studying from ready statements and answering questions as masked and closely armed safety officers regarded on, described being captured after their armored columns had been ambushed.
“The whole column burned,” stated one soldier, who recognized himself as Lt. Dmitri Kovalensky. He stated his tank unit was attacked by what he believed was a mixture of projectiles from an armed drone and shoulder-fired anti-tank missiles close to Sumy, in northeastern Ukraine. He stated he ran right into a forest and later surrendered.
There was one trace the captives had been fearful about their look on the information convention. “Now, after this press conference, I am afraid not only for myself but also for my family” again in Russia, Sgt. Mikhail Kulikov stated.
In its newest evaluation of the Russian assault, the British Ministry of Defense stated Ukraine continued to carry three key cities — Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol — in addition to Sumy, though it was “highly likely” that Russian forces had encircled all 4.
Western analysts stated Russia gave the impression to be advancing on the southern port metropolis of Mykolaiv, the place residents and the navy have braced for an imminent assault. But these troops would possibly bypass town to hurry their advance on Odessa, a serious port on the Black Sea and the headquarters of the Ukrainian Navy.
Ukraine’s protection minister stated on Saturday that his nation’s forces and its cities had been most weak to air assault. “Aircraft of all kinds are bombing cities, towns and civilian infrastructure, including critical and dangerous nuclear and hydropower plants,” the minister, Oleksii Reznikov, stated in an announcement.
He stated that Russian forces had hit residential neighborhoods, colleges, hospitals and church buildings, and had shelled transportation hubs as individuals tried to flee.
The Russian forces’ main goal is to encircle Kyiv, Mr. Reznikov stated, and to weaken resistance in cities that Russian troops have surrounded or are urgent to seize.
Michael Schwirtz reported from Odessa, Ukraine; Andrew E. Kramer from Kyiv, Ukraine; and Michael Levenson from New York. Reporting was contributed by Marc Santora in Lviv, Ukraine; Patrick Kingsley in Chisinau, Moldova; and Masha Froliak in Kyiv.