Fighting raged on multiple fronts in Ukraine on Saturday, with intense combat in the besieged port city of Mariupol — site of some of the war's greatest suffering. Ukrainian officials say their forces there are battling the Russians over the Azovstal steel plant, one of the biggest in Europe.
The war is now in its fourth week. Overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused the Kremlin of deliberately creating “a humanitarian catastrophe,” but also appealed for Russian President Vladimir Putin to meet him for direct talks.
The U.N. Migration agency says the fighting has displaced nearly 6.5 million people inside Ukraine, on top of the 3.2 million refugees who have already fled the country. Ukraine says thousands have been killed.
In city after city around Ukraine, hospitals, schools and buildings where people sought safety have been attacked.
In Mariupol, Ukrainian troops were losing control of the key Azovstal steel plant, now damaged and heavily contested, according to comments from an adviser to Ukraine's interior minister.
“Now there is a fight for Azovstal," Vadym Denysenko said in televised remarks on Saturday. “I can say that we have lost this economic giant. In fact, one of the largest metallurgical plants in Europe is actually being destroyed.”
Zelenskyy said in his Friday nighttime video address to the nation that more than 9,000 people were able to leave Mariupol in the past day, and in all more than 180,000 people have been able to flee through humanitarian corridors.
The Russian military reported on Saturday that it has used its latest hypersonic missile for the first time in combat. A spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, said Kinzhal missiles destroyed an underground warehouse storing Ukrainian missiles and aviation ammunition in the western Ivano-Frankivsk region of Ukraine.
A 38-hour curfew was announced in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, to last from 4 p.M. Local time on Saturday until 6 a.M. On Monday. Officials said two missile strikes on the city's suburbs a day earlier killed nine people. Local authorities there say they continue to evacuate people from areas occupied by Russian troops.
Meanwhile, the head of the Russian delegation in talks with Ukrainian officials says the parties have come closer to an agreement on a neutral status for Ukraine — one of the key Russian demands as its offensive continues. Vladimir Medinsky said Friday that the sides also have narrowed their differences on the issue of Ukraine dropping its bid to join NATO. But Mikhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskyy, tweeted: “Our positions are unchanged. Ceasefire, withdrawal of troops & strong security guarantees with concrete formulas." The U.N. Human rights office says that it has recorded a total of 816 civilians killed and 1,333 injured since the Russian invasion began on Feb. 24, though it only reports counts that it can verify. It believes the figures vastly understate the actual toll. Ukrainian officials say thousands have been killed.
The office of the country's Prosecutor General reported Saturday that a total of 112 children have been killed since the start of the fighting. More than 140 children have been wounded. Since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, AP journalists are relaying images of destruction, distress, and defiance from across the country.
A soldier standing guard near the site of the strike in Lviv said he heard three blasts in quick succession around 6 a.M. A nearby resident described his building vibrating from the explosions and people panicking. Smoke continued to rise from the site hours later.