Russian forces launched a deadly offensive in eastern Ukraine on Saturday as President Volodymyr Zelensky marked the 500th day of the war with a defiant performance, sharing a video of him visiting an island in the Black Sea became a powerful symbol of his country’s resistance to the invasion.
Hours later, in a familiar pattern of attack, at least eight civilians were killed and 13 others wounded when Russian forces shelled the city center of Lyman in the eastern Donetsk region around 10 a.m. , the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine said. in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
The Prosecutor General of Ukraine said that cluster bombs, a weapon shunned by many nations, was used in the attack. The White House on Friday said it would agree to provide Ukraine with such weapons, arguing that Kiev needs them to fight Russian troops in entrenched positions.
Rescue efforts continued, with officials saying a home and a shop were damaged. At the scene, bloodstains, broken glass and an overturned motorbike marked the site of the strike.
The mid-morning attack was a grim reminder of the damage Ukraine suffered after 500 days of war. Mr. Zelensky on Saturday paid tribute to all those who lost their lives, using the context of Snake Island to emphasize Ukraine’s resolve.
At the start of the war in February, an audio recording showed Ukrainian border guards on the island, 20 miles off the coast of Odesa, defying orders from a Russian warship to surrender. a series of memorable profanities that became a rallying cry, immortalized on stamps and on billboards across the country.
In a video posted on Saturday, Mr Zelensky paid tribute to the “heroes” who fought for Snake Island, calling the final battle a forced the Russian army to withdraw last June “one of the most important” since the full-blown invasion.
“Although this is a small piece of land in the middle of our Black Sea, it is great proof that Ukraine will regain its territory piece by piece,” said Zelensky. said in the video, which shows him climbing off a boat and across a rocky landscape to place blue and yellow flowers at a memorial.
It is not clear when the video was filmed: The leader of Ukraine was in Türkiye on Saturday, his latest stop on a tour of NATO countries ahead of next week’s summit to rally support for his country’s bid to join the alliance.
The war has reshaped Ukraine’s relations with the world, fueled efforts to join NATO, and turned Mr. Zelensky into a diplomatic disruptor. He used global attention to help Ukraine push for billions of dollars in military aid to fight the Russian invaders, and his country, armed with Western-supplied weapons, is in the first phase of a scrutinized campaign to regain occupied territory.
Kiev considers NATO membership the ultimate guarantee of its security; The application to join the alliance in September was made in the context of an all-out invasion of Russia.
While Mr. Zelensky admitted that Ukraine won’t join NATO any time soon, arguing that such a move would force the mutual defense alliance into direct military conflict with Russia, he has repeatedly urged members to set a timetable for accession. In recent months, he has expressed hope that next week’s summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, can bring clarity.
With just days to go before the meeting, Mr. Zelensky has begun a diplomatic offensive to advance his case. He traveled to Bulgaria and the Czech Republic on Thursday, then Slovakia and Turkey on Friday, where he met President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In a televised news conference early Saturday morning in Istanbul after meeting Zelensky, Mr Erdogan said that “Ukraine deserves to be a NATO member without a doubt”.
But President Biden, who is scheduled to attend the summit during his trip to Europe next week, told CNN in an interview that will be broadcast on Sunday that Ukraine’s acceptance to join NATO will most likely have to wait until after the war.
“I don’t think there is consensus within NATO on whether or not to include Ukraine in the NATO family at this point, in the midst of a war,” Biden said. an excerpt published by CNN.
At the same time, Mr. Biden defended what he called the “very difficult” decision. supplying cluster bombs to Ukraineoutlawed by many of the United States’ closest allies and is known to cause serious injury months or even years after the fighting ends.
Ultimately, the president determined that disarming Ukraine would mean rendering the country defenseless against Russia. He said it was a temporary move to overthrow Ukraine until the production of conventional artillery shells could be ramped up.
“Ukrainians are running out of ammo,” Biden said in an interview. CNN interview.
Officials in Kiev welcomed the move, with Ukraine’s Defense Minister, Oleksii Reznikov, saying the weapon would be of “significant help” and would only be used “on the ground” against the Russian military. , not in urban areas. “It’s important to note,” Mr. wrote on Twitter, that Russian forces had “indiscriminately used cluster munitions since Day One” of the invasion.
That point seems to resonate with many in Ukraine, where Kharkiv is trending on Twitter when people point out Russia’s use of cluster bombs there earlier in the war. The physical evidence reviewed by a New York Times journalist at the scene of the Lyman attack appears to be consistent with Ukraine’s assessment that cluster bombs were used in that attack.
Ukrainian forces have been preparing for a counter-offensive for about a month, a slow and bloody assault aimed at dislodging Russian forces from the south and east of the country. Although aided by training and sophisticated new weapons from Western allies, Kiev’s forces were only small profit recognitionAnd fierce battle caused Ukraine to take an undisclosed number of casualties, along with some of the country’s newest tanks and armored vehicles.
While the counterattacks raged, Russian forces continued to fire missiles and launch drones into Ukrainian towns and villages behind the front lines.
On the eve of the 500th day, the United Nations say it’s confirmed The deaths of more than 9,000 civilians — including more than 500 children — since the full-blown invasion, called it a “grim milestone” in a war that “continues to inflict terrible damage.” It warns that the true death toll is likely much higher.
That number increased again on Saturday in Lyman, where, not long after the strike, garbage collectors and the few remaining civilians in the city had begun their daily lives, seemingly getting used to it. with episodes of violence sometimes moving to their homes from the front line 10 miles away. .
Anzhela, an employee at a local store who declined to give her full name for security reasons, said she was in the store when the strike happened.
“The walls saved us, so thank God we are fine,” she said, adding: “But outside, a man next to the shop was injured. The man just came out, and then what happened next we don’t know.”
Just hours after the victims were taken away, a second volley of rockets hit the city center. The number of casualties, if any, was not immediately clear.
