Ukraine’s president was preparing to make a direct appeal for more help in a rare speech by a foreign leader to the U.S. Congress, even as Russia continued its bombardment of the Ukrainian capital Wednesday.
Three weeks into the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested there was reason for optimism that negotiations with the Russian government might yet yield an agreement.
Previewing his speech to the U.S. Congress, Zelenskyy thanked President Joe Biden and “all the friends of Ukraine” for $13.6 billion in new support. He appealed for more weapons and more sanctions to punish Russia and repeated his call to “close the skies over Ukraine to Russian missiles and planes.”
He said Russian forces had been unable to move deeper into Ukrainian territory but had continued their heavy shelling of cities; meanwhile, he said after delegations from the two countries met, Russia’s demands were becoming “more realistic.” The sides were expected to speak again later Wednesday.
“Efforts are still needed, patience is needed,” he said in his video address to the nation. “Any war ends with an agreement.”
Developments on the diplomatic front and on the ground occurred as the number of people fleeing Ukraine amid Europe’s heaviest fighting since World War II eclipsed 3 million.
Zelenskyy said 28,893 civilians were able to flee through nine humanitarian corridors in the past day although the Russians refused to allow aid into Mariupol.
Shrapnel from an artillery shell slammed into a 12-story apartment building in central Kyiv on Wednesday, obliterating the top floor and igniting a fire that sent plumes of smoke over the area, according to a statement and images released by the Kyiv emergencies agency. The neighboring building was also damaged. The agency reported two victims, without saying if they were injured or killed.
Also, a powerful explosion thundered overnight in Kharkiv that was heard across the eastern city.
In addition to airstrikes and shelling by ground forces, Russian naval ships fired overnight on a town south of Mariupol on the Azov Sea and another near Odesa on the Black Sea, according to local officials.
Russian forces have intensified fighting in the Kyiv suburbs, notably around the town of Bucha in the northwest and the highway leading west toward Zhytomyr, the head of the Kyiv region Oleksiy Kuleba said. He said Russian troops are trying to cut off the capital from transport arteries and destroy logistical capabilities even as they plan a wide-ranging attack to seize Kyiv.
Twelve towns around Kyiv are without water and six without heat.
Across the Kyiv region, he said, “Kindergartens, museums, churches, residential blocks and engineering infrastructure are suffering from the endless firing.”
A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the Pentagon’s assessment, said the Russians were using long-range fire to hit civilian targets inside Kyiv with increasing frequency but that their ground forces were making little to no progress around the country. The official said Russian troops were still about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the center of the capital.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, hospital workers have found themselves on two frontlines, battling COVID-19 in intensive care units as war rages outside.
The Kharkiv Regional Clinical Infectious Diseases Hospital has barricaded its windows.
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