Ukrainian forces in Borodyanka, northwest of Kyiv, Ukraine (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)

Thursday’s Coverage: Defenders Cling On in Mariupol; 91-Year-Old Holocaust Survivor Among the Dead

UPDATE 1500 GMT:

In a post on the Russian social media platform VK, the pro-Kremlin outlet Readovka quoted Russia’s Defense Ministry acknowledging the significant losses among its invasion forces in Ukraine.

The outlet later deleted the report.

UPDATE 1408 GMT:

Vladimir Putin has rebuffed the call of European Council President Charles Michel for direct talks with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

According to the Kremlin, Putin said that he would only attend direct talks if discussions between Moscow and Kyiv produced concrete results, and that the Ukrainians are being “inconsistent” in negotiations.

The Kremlin has refused to engage with a 15-page proposal tabled by Ukraine in talks in Turkey in late March.

1355 GMT:

Russia’s Defense Ministry has said there will only be an evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal steel works in besieged Mariupol “when white flags are raised”.

The Ministry said ivilians will be escorted to either territories controlled by Ukraine or to Russia “at the evacuees’ own discretion”. Ukrainian fighters who surrender will be “guaranteed” their lives.

UPDATE 1348 GMT:

Like Ukraine, Moldova has submitted a first questionnaire in the pursuit of European Union membership. President Maia Sandu tweeted:

UPDATE 1047 GMT:

A former senior manager at Russian gas giant Novatek, Sergei Protosenya, his wife, and his daughter have been found dead in a rented villa in Spain.

The 55-year-old millionaire was found hanged, while his wife and daughter were stabbed to death in the villa near Barcelona on Tuesday.

Protosenya was the chief accountant of Novatek a member of the board of directors. His wealth was estimated at $433 million.

Novatek is Russia’s largest independent natural gas producer, surging from a small company in the early 200s to a $79 billion firm in September 2021 through its connections to the Kremlin. Gennady Timchenko, a key Novatek shareholder, is a close associate of Vladimir Putin.

UPDATE 1038 GMT:

The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has documented the “unlawful killing, including by summary execution, of some 50 civilians” in Bucha, northwest of Kyiv.

Ukrainian officials have said hundreds of civilians were slain, buried in mass graves or left i the street, during Russia’s occuption of the town. Some were executed with hands bound behind their backs.

The UN Mission has documented and verified at least 2,345 civilians killed and 2,919 injured.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said:

We know the actual numbers are going to be much higher as the horrors inflicted in areas of intense fighting, such as Mariupol, come to light.

The scale of summary executions of civilians in areas previously occupied by Russian forces are also emerging. The preservation of evidence and decent treatment of mortal remains must be ensured, as well as psychological and other relief for victims and their relatives.

Almost every resident in Bucha our colleagues spoke to told us about the death of a relative, a neighbor or even a stranger. We know much more needs to be done to uncover what happened there and we also know Bucha is not an isolated incident.

Bachelet’s office added, “Russian armed forces have indiscriminately shelled and bombed populated areas, killing civilians and wrecking hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure, actions that may amount to war crimes.”

UPDATE 1030 GMT:

India’s Tata Steel has “taken a conscious decision to stop doing business with Russia”

Tata, one of the largest steelmakers in India and in Europe, is withdrawing days after a similar announcement by Indian IT giant Infosys.

The world’s largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev, said Friday that it would sell its stake in Russian joint venture AB InBev Efes.

Carlsberg and Heineken have already taken similar steps.

In March, AB InBev suspended sales of its Budweiser brand in Russia and forfeited any financial benefit from the joint venture.

UPDATE 1020 GMT:

A Russian commander has confirmed the Kremlin’s intent to occupy southern Ukraine as well as the Donbas in the east, establishing a land bridge to Russian-occupied Crimea.

“Since the beginning of the second phase of the special operation, which began literally two days ago, one of the tasks of the Russian army is to establish full control over Donbas and southern Ukraine. This will provide a land corridor to Crimea,” said Maj. Gen. Rustam Minnekaev, the acting commander of Russia’s Central Military District.

Minnekaev also threatened further pressure on Moldova through Russia’s occupation of the region of Transnistria.

The general’s statement bolsters the warning of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of sham referenda for long-term Russian occupation of southern Ukraine (see 0715 GMT).

UPDATE 0827 GMT:

The governor of the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, Serhiy Haidai, says Russian forces have prevented aid to and evacuation from the town of Rubizhne:

We will try to get to the southern part of Rubizhne by car and bring food there, because people are waiting to be taken away. Unfortunately, the evacuation bus did not arrive — heavy artillery fire began. The Russians are not allowing the civilian population to be saved, they are blocking people in cities that are constantly under fire.

UPDATE 0822 GMT:

Germany’s Europe Minister Anna Luehrmann says Berlin is pursuing an arrangement in which it will supply heavy weaponry, including tanks, “very fast” to NATO partners. The partners in turn will send equivalent older weaponry, on which Ukrainian forces are already trained, to Kyiv.

UPDATE 0715 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned of Russian plans to “falsify” an “independence” referendum in areas it occupies in southern Ukraine.

Zelenskiy told residents of the areas not to give any personal information to Russian forces.

I urge the residents of the southern regions of Ukraine – Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions – to be very careful about what information you provide to the invaders. And if they ask you to fill out some questionnaires, leave your passport data somewhere, you should know — this is not to help you….

This is aimed to falsify the so-called referendum on your land, if an order comes from Moscow to stage such a show. And this is the reality. Be careful.

UPDATE 0700 GMT:

World Bank President David Malpass says the Russian invasion has caused $60bn of physical damage to Ukraine’s infrastructure.

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Addressing leaders of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund via video link on Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine needs $7bn each month to maintain its economy.

On Wednesday, G7 finance ministers announced additional support to Ukraine, totalling $24bn for 2022 and beyond, and said they are prepared to do more as needed.

UPDATE 0643 GMT:

For the fourth day this week, Russia has blocked all humanitarian corridors in Ukraine.

Ukraine Deputy Prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk wrote on Telegram: “Due to the danger on the routes today, 22 April, there will be no humanitarian corridors. I appeal to all those who are waiting for the evacuation: be patient, please hold on!”

UPDATE 0640 GMT:

The Ukraine Parliament says 208 children have been killed and 386 wounded during Russia’s invasion.

The number does not include the toll from areas where information is hard to gather, such as besieged Mariupol.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: The US has allocated another $800m in heavy artillery, ammunition, and drones to Ukraine in the face of Russia’s offensive in the east of the country.

In an address from the White House, President Joe Biden announced the package, which include 72 howitzers, 144,000 artillery rounds, and more than 120 drones. Fifty Ukrainian artillery officer will be trained for a week by US instructors in an unnamed European country.

We’re in a critical window of time when [the Russians] are going to set the stage for the next phase of this war. And the United States and our allies and partners are moving as fast as possible to continue to provide Ukraine the weapons their forces need to defend their nation.

Biden noted that the focus on artillery is because of the largely flat agricultural land in the east, contrasting with the forests around Kyiv. He explained that the US had already given Ukraine 10 anti-tank missiles for each Russian tank on the battlefield, as well as armored cars, armed drones, and other heavy equipment. Washington is also brokering supplies from other countries.

“We won’t always be able to advertise everything that our partners are doing to support Ukraine in its fight for freedom,” Biden said. He reworked Theodore Roosevelt’s quote by adding the name of an advanced anti-tank weapon: “Sometimes we will speak softly and carry a large Javelin.”

The package takes the total of US assistance to Ukraine during the Russian invasion to about $3.4 billion.

Biden also announced a new program, “Uniting for Ukraine,” to accept up to 100,000 Ukrainians. Officials said it is a a “clear signal of support” for European nations hosting the large majority of more than 5 million people who have left the country since Russia invaded on February 24.

The President pledged another $500m in economic support, and he introduced a ban on Russian ships visiting US ports.

European countries also signalled more military assistance on Thursday, as Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen visited him in Kyiv. Sánchez promised 200 tonnes of equipment including heavy transport vehicles and ammunition, “more than doubling what we have sent so far”. Frederiksen announced another $90m in military aid, bringing the total to $146m, and support for further sanctions against Russia.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said dozens of Ukrainian soldiers are training in Britain on use of 120 British armored vehicles being delivered to Ukraine. British forces are also training Ukrainian counterparts in Poland on use of anti-aircraft missiles.

The UK is providing 80 Mastiff, Husky and Wolfhound protected mobility vehicles for “combat, combat support, and combat service roles”. The other 40 vehicles are for combat reconnaissance.

“Help Needed Today More Than Ever”

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who has appealed for an urgent escalation in military aid, welcomed Biden’s statement.

The announcement came as Russia pressed ahead with its quest to seize territory in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, expanding the areas it has occupied since 2014 in the Donbas.

Local officials said the Russians moved into 42 villages in Donetsk on Thursday. The head of the Luhansk regional military administration, Serhiy Gaidai, said “80% of our territories are now controlled” by the Russians: “The fights are going on.”

Russia’s “Barbaric” Killings in Mariupol

The mayor of besieged Mariupol, Vadym Boychenko, said on Thursday that Russia is burying bodies of slain civilians in a new mass grave to hide evidence of “barbaric” war crimes.

Boychenko said Russian trucks collected corpses from the streets of the port city in southeast Ukraine. They took them to the nearby village of Manhush, secretly throwing into 30-meter-wide trenches in a field next to the old cemetery.

The claim was backed up by satellite images from the US company Maxar Technologies, showing an expanding site that has more than 200 new graves. The graves could hold as many as 9,000 dead, said the Mariupol City Council.

Boychenko has estimated that at least 21,000 Mariupol residents have been killed during the Russian invasion and siege, with some of the bodies burnt in mobile crematoriums.

The Estonian and Latvian Parliaments went even further in their description of Russian mass killings, officially declaring them as “genocide”.

The Estonian Parliament said “systematic and massive war crimes” have been committed against the Ukrainian nation and “acts of genocide” against civilians by Russian forces: “These crimes are ideologically incited by Russia’s political and military leadership and its national propaganda authorities.”

With about 100,000 people still trapped in Mariupol, Russian forces continue to block almost all evacuations.

On Thursday, Vladimir Putin appeared to step back from an attempt to storm the Azovstal iron and steel works, the central area of resistance to the Russian assault. At a staged meeting at the Kremlin, he said a plan to overrun the complex is “impractical”.

I order it to be cancelled.

This is the case when we have to think, that is, we always have to think, and in this case even more so, about preserving the lives and health of our soldiers and officers. There is no need to climb into these catacombs and crawl underground through these industrial facilities.

Putin instead pointed to a siege of the Ukrainian fighters, as well as an estimated 1,000 civilians in underground shelters: “Block the industrial zone so that a fly can’t get through. Propose again that all who have not yet put down their arms do so. The Russian side guarantees them their lives and dignified treatment.”

Speaking before Putin, Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu tried to cover the change in plan with an assertion that Mariupol had been “liberated” despite the ongoing fighting.

Ukrainian officials dismissed the claim. Presidential advisor Oleksiy Arestovic, “This situation means the following: they cannot physically capture Azovstal. They have understood this. They suffered huge losses there.”

A Ukrainian analyst, speaking from Dnipro to EA WorldView, said Russian forces are still 5 km (3.1 miles) away from the center of the iron and steel works. He added that Ukrainian defenders were able to counter-attack in the port on Wednesday, freeing 500 trapped marines.

US officials also dismissed Shoygu’s proclamation as disinformation to cover up the situation in Mariupol.