Putin’s forces ‘tighten the noose’ around Kyiv: Locals prepare for street fighting with Kremlin tanks just 13 miles away and grim battle to topple Zelensky’s government feared to be imminent
- Kyiv could be just hours away from Russian assault, as West warns Putin’s forces are ‘tightening the noose’
- The city is under the control of Volodymyr Zelensky’s government, but is at risk of being completely encircled
- New footage from Wednesday shows Kremlin tanks driving through Irpin just 13 miles from centre of Kyiv
- The crisis in Ukraine likely to get worse as Russia resort to increasingly brutal attacks in civilian areas
Kyiv could be just hours away from a ‘horrific’ Russian assault, as Western officials warn that Putin’s forces are ‘tightening the noose’ around the Ukrainian capital.
The city currently remains under the control of Volodymyr Zelensky’s government, but is at increasing risk of being completely encircled as soldiers and volunteers prepare for street battles by digging trenches and building barriers on roads into Kyiv.
Though a massive Russian convoy stretching 40 miles north of the capital is fast resembling a traffic jam, Western officials fear that Moscow’s suspected plan to seize the city and topple the comic-turned-wartime Ukrainian president ‘is definitely not over’.
Dramatic new footage from Wednesday morning shows suspected Kremlin ‘peacekeeping’ tanks driving through the town of Irpin, which has been under a constant barrage of Russian shelling for several days, just 13 miles from the centre of Kyiv.
Ukraine’s military warned on Wednesday that Russia is ‘not abandoning its plans to encircle’ Kyiv and that its ‘defence forces are repelling and holding back’ the offensive ‘in all directions’.
The crisis in Ukraine is likely to get worse as Russian forces resort to increasingly brutal and indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas in response to stronger than expected resistance. On Wednesday, a suspected Russian airstrike shelled a children’s hospital in Mariupol in the south, wounding at least 17 people. Mortuary workers were pictured putting corpses in body bags or carpets, taking them to the outskirts of the besieged port city, and then dumping them in mass graves.
CIA director William Burns on Tuesday said that Russian losses have been ‘far in excess’ of what Moscow expected, sparking fears that Putin’s generals will ramp up their ‘war of terror’ on innocent civilians and strike further non-military targets.
An official told The Times in London: ‘I think around Kyiv they are continuing to tighten the noose… this is definitely not over. They are still set on moving in. It’ll be utterly horrific when they do’.
Britain’s Ministry of Defence said fighting continued northwest of the capital on Wednesday, with the cities of Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Mariupol being heavily pummelled by surrounding Russian forces.
Putin’s troops are placing military equipment on farms and amid residential buildings in the northern city of Chernihiv, Ukraine’s military said. In the south, Russians in civilian clothes are advancing on the city of Mykolaiv, a Black Sea shipbuilding centre of 500,000 people, it said.
Dramatic new footage from Wednesday morning shows Kremlin ‘peacekeeping’ tanks driving through the town of Irpin
Members of the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces train to use an anti-tank weapon on the outskirts of Kyiv, March 9, 2022
A child looks out a steamy bus window with drawings on it as civilians are evacuated from Irpin, March 9, 2022
A military priest tries to comfort a crying woman who was evacuated from Irpin, at a triage point in Kyiv, March 9, 2022
Ukraine has rejected most Russian evacuation routes because they lead to Russian soil or that of its ally, Belarus, while routes that Ukraine has proposed have come under bombardment. The only successful evacuation to take place so far has been from Sumy to Poltava (in green)
Residents cross the destroyed bridge as they flee from the frontline town of Irpin, Kyiv (Kiev) region, Ukraine, 09 March 2022
Smoke rise after shelling in Mariupol, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 9, 2022
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The Ukrainian military, meanwhile, is building up defences in cities in the north, south and east, and forces around Kyiv are ‘holding the line’ against the Russian offensive, authorities said.
In Irpin, a town of 60,000, police officers and soldiers helped elderly residents from their homes. One man was hoisted out of a damaged structure on a makeshift stretcher, while another was pushed toward Kyiv in a shopping cart. Fleeing residents said they had been without power and water for the past four days.
Regional administration head Oleksiy Kuleba said the crisis for civilians is deepening in and around Kyiv, with the situation particularly dire in the suburbs.
‘Russia is artificially creating a humanitarian crisis in the Kyiv region, frustrating the evacuation of people and continuing shelling and bombing small communities,’ he said.
The situation is even worse in Mariupol, a strategic city of 430,000 people on the Sea of Azov that has been encircled by Russian forces for the past week.
Efforts to evacuate residents and deliver badly needed food, water and medicine failed on Tuesday because of what the Ukrainians said were continued Russian attacks. The city took advantage of a lull in the shelling on Wednesday to hurriedly bury 70 people. Some were soldiers but most were civilians.
Authorities announced new cease-fires on Wednesday morning to allow thousands of civilians to escape from towns around Kyiv as well as the southern cities of Mariupol, Enerhodar and Volnovakha, Izyum in the east and Sumy in the northeast.
Previous attempts to establish safe evacuation corridors largely failed because of what the Ukrainians said were Russian attacks. But Putin, in a telephone call with Germany’s chancellor, accused militant Ukrainian nationalists of hampering the evacuations.
It was not immediately clear whether anyone was able to leave other cities on Wednesday, but people streamed out of Kyiv’s suburbs, many headed for the city centre, even as explosions were heard in the capital and air raid sirens sounded repeatedly. From there, the evacuees planned to board trains bound for western Ukrainian regions not under attack.
Nationwide, thousands are thought to have been killed, both civilians and soldiers, in the two weeks of fighting since Putin’s forces invaded. The UN estimates more than 2million people have fled the country, the biggest exodus of refugees in Europe since the end of the Second World War.
The fighting knocked out power to the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear plant, raising fears about the spent fuel that is stored at the site and must be kept cool. But the UN nuclear watchdog agency said it saw ‘no critical impact on safety’ from the loss of power.
Zelensky warned on Wednesday that ‘millions’ of Ukrainians could die if NATO and the West wait for World War Three to start before imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine. He also warned that Russia wants Ukrainians to ‘feel like animals’ as he urged the West to act two weeks after Moscow launched an all-out invasion of his homeland – and added that Putin is ‘going directly to hell’.
‘They want us to feel like animals because they blocked our cities, the biggest cities in Ukraine and they blocked them because they don’t want our people to get some food or water,’ he said in an interview with Sky News.
‘We can’t stop all of this alone. Only if the world will unite around Ukraine.
‘Don’t wait for me to ask you several times, a million times, to close the sky. You have to phone us, to our people who lost their children, and say “sorry we didn’t do it yesterday”.
‘The world did nothing. I’m sorry, but it’s true. In future, it will be too late. They will close the sky but will lose millions of people [while they wait]’.
Ukraine has called on Putin’s Russia to ‘capitulate’ as Kremlin lapdog Sergei Lavrov prepares for ‘peace talks’ with Kyiv’s foreign minister in Turkey on Thursday.
Moscow’s most senior diplomat arrived in the southern resort city of Antalya to negotiate with Dmytro Kuleba at a summit mediated by Ankara, which has supplied Ukraine with drones and condemned the invasion but criticised punitive global sanctions against Russia.
Russia and Ukraine’s meeting will be the highest-level diplomatic encounter since the Kremlin launched a full-scale operation to ‘demilitarise’ and ‘de-Nazify’ the country – aims dismissed as baseless pretexts by Kyiv and the West to instead overthrow Zelensky.
But in a video on Facebook confirming that talks would proceed, Kuleba said his expectations were ‘limited’ and that the success of the negotiations would depend on ‘what instructions and directives Lavrov is under’ from the Kremlin at the discussions.
People flee near a destroyed bridge to cross Irpin River as Russia’s invasion on Ukraine continues, in Irpin outside Kyiv, Ukraine, March 9, 2022
Residents cross the destroyed bridge as they flee from the frontline town of Irpin, March 9, 2022
A baby is carried as people flee near a destroyed bridge to cross Irpin River as Russia’s invasion on Ukraine continues, in Irpin outside Kyiv, Ukraine, March 9, 2022
Residents cross the destroyed bridge as they flee from the frontline town of Irpin, Ukraine, March 9, 2022
This image taken from video provided by the Mariupol City Council shows the aftermath of Mariupol Hospital after an attack, in the besieged port city of Mariupol, March 9, 2022
Ukrainian soldiers and emergency employees work at the side of the damaged maternity hospital in Mariupol, March 9, 2022
Mortuary workers move a dead body into a plastic bag in outskirts of Mariupol, March 9, 2022
Civilians wait to board a train as they flee Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Odessa, March 9, 2022
Ukraine’s deputy PM rejects Moscow’s ‘ultimatums’ and demands Putin give up his war as Lavrov lands in Turkey for talks today with Kyiv counterpart
Ukraine has called on Putin’s Russia to ‘capitulate’ as Kremlin lapdog Sergei Lavrov prepares for ‘peace talks’ with Kyiv’s foreign minister in Turkey on Thursday.
Moscow’s most senior diplomat arrived in the southern resort city of Antalya to negotiate with Dmytro Kuleba at a summit mediated by Ankara, which has supplied Ukraine with drones and condemned the invasion but criticised punitive global sanctions against Russia.
Russia and Ukraine’s meeting will be the highest-level diplomatic encounter since the Kremlin launched a full-scale operation to ‘demilitarise’ and ‘de-Nazify’ the country – aims dismissed as baseless pretexts by Kyiv and the West to instead overthrow Volodymyr Zelensky.
But in a video on Facebook confirming that talks would proceed, Kuleba said his expectations were ‘limited’ and that the success of the negotiations would depend on ‘what instructions and directives Lavrov is under’ from the Kremlin at the discussions.
Russia has demanded that Ukraine cease military action, change its constitution to enshrine neutrality so it cannot join the EU or NATO, recognise Crimea as sovereign Russian territory and recognise the separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent territories.
Speaking to BBC Newsnight on Wednesday, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Verashchuk called Moscow’s peace terms ‘ultimatums’ and thundered: ‘There is only one discussion to be had: Russia’s capitulation.’
‘I think that in order to make demands you need to meet, you need to talk. But of course, the ultimatums that Russia has put forward are unacceptable: to recognize Crimea, to recognise the separatist republics as independent states, this is completely impossible,’ she said.
Russia has demanded that Ukraine cease military action, change its constitution to enshrine neutrality so it cannot join the EU or NATO, recognise Crimea as sovereign Russian territory and recognise the separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent territories.
Speaking to BBC Newsnight on Wednesday, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Verashchuk called Moscow’s peace terms ‘ultimatums’ and thundered: ‘There is only one discussion to be had: Russia’s capitulation.’
‘I think that in order to make demands you need to meet, you need to talk. But of course, the ultimatums that Russia has put forward are unacceptable: to recognize Crimea, to recognise the separatist republics as independent states, this is completely impossible,’ she said.
‘Of course we cannot trade away our territory, we would have to amend the constitution. How could we look the Ukrainian people in the eye and calmly give away a part of sovereign independent Ukraine. How will we look our children in the eyes? This is aggression, not just against Ukraine as you can clearly see. This is a challenge to the whole world.’
Asked what Ukraine wants from the West, Verashchuk went on: ‘We want them to help us to impose a no-fly zone, at least over critical infrastructure. We would like air defence systems’.
When it was put to her that Britain and the US have ruled out no-fly zones because of the risk of nuclear war with Russia, Kyiv’s deputy prime minister retorted: ‘And the fact that the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is no longer under our control? You don’t think that is a nuclear standoff with Russia?
‘Putin is raising the stakes, he knows that. Who do you think this is aimed at? President Zelensky, or President Biden?’.
Putin’s actions have sparked an unprecedented Western diplomatic, economic and cultural boycott of Russia and all things Russian.
Britain’s prime minister Boris Johnson has committed to impose the ‘maximum economic cost’ on Russia as the Foreign Secretary is expected to say aggression like Putin’s must ‘never again’ be allowed to ‘grow unchecked’.
In a call on Wednesday evening, the Prime Minister joined Zelensky in condemning a reported Russian strike on a maternity hospital in the besieged port city of Mariupol.
He noted that this, together with reports Russian forces had failed to respect ceasefire agreements, was ‘yet further evidence that Putin was acting with careless disregard for international humanitarian law’, Downing Street said.
Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss prepared to call for a ‘paradigm shift’ in the wake of Russia’s assault on Ukraine.
In a speech in the US on Thursday, she will make comparisons between the Russian despot’s actions and 9/11, and will urge the international community to change its approach to dealing with antagonistic world leaders.
One of the three areas where she will say the UK wants to see stronger action is on forging stronger global alliances, including with countries not historically aligned to Britain, according to Foreign Office officials.
Giving the Makins Lecture at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington, the Cabinet minister will say it is time to end ‘strategic dependence’ on hostile and authoritarian states, including a departure from using Russian energy.
It comes after the UK and the US on Tuesday announced they will phase out imports of Russian oil by the end of the year as part of increased sanctions on Moscow.
Truss will also argue that allies must strengthen deterrence by spending more on defence and NATO, warning that the ‘era of complacency is over’.
The Foreign Secretary is expected to say that the West needs to become ‘tough’ in its approach to global security in the wake of the Ukraine crisis in order to prevent future aggressors from making advances.
She will urge leaders to ramp up global pressure and ‘tighten the vice’ on the Kremlin, including by implementing further sanctions, such as encouraging other countries to join in bringing about punitive measures and implementing a ‘full Swift ban’.
Truss, who on Wednesday met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, is scheduled to argue that Putin has ‘launched a full-frontal assault’ not just on Ukraine but ‘on the very foundation of our societies and the rules by which we coexist’.
She will add: ‘The invasion of Ukraine is a paradigm shift on the scale of 9/11. How we respond today will set the pattern for this new era.
‘If we let Putin’s expansionism go unchallenged it would send a dangerous message to would-be aggressors and authoritarians around the world. We can’t allow that to happen.’
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