Like many residents of Ukraine's besieged city of Chernihiv, linguistics scholar Ihar Kazmerchak spends his nights in a bomb shelter and starts his day lining up for the little potable water authorities have left to hand out.
Surrounded by Russian forces and under constant bombardment, the northern city known for its eclectic monasteries has no electricity, heating or running water. The lists at pharmacies of the medicines no longer available grow longer by the day.
“In basements at night, everyone is talking about one thing: Chernihiv becoming next Mariupol,” Kazmerchak, 38, said, referring to the southern port city 845 kilometers (525 miles) away that has suffered some of the worst horrors since Russia invaded Ukraine.
The fear is not misplaced. Russian bombs destroyed Chernihiv's main bridge over the Desna River on the road leading to Kyiv on Wednesday; on Friday, artillery shells rendered the remaining pedestrian bridge impassable, cutting off the last possible route for people to get out or for food and medical supplies to get in.
Just over a month into the invasion, Russia's attack has slowed into a grinding war of attrition as its military tries to pound cities like Chernihiv into submission. Bombings of hospitals and other non-military sites, such as the Mariupol theater where Ukrainian officials said a Russian airstrike is believed to have killed some 300 people last week, have given rise to war crime allegations.
Questions about the direction of Russia's offensive surfaced Friday when a high-ranking military official said the main objective of the first stage of the operation — reducing Ukraine's fighting capacity — had “generally been accomplished.” Col.-Gen Sergei Rudskoi, deputy chief of the Russian general staff, said Russian forces could now focus on “the main goal, the liberation of Donbas.”
Donbas is the largely Russian-speaking eastern region where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014 and where many residents desire close ties to Moscow. Mariupol is located there, although outside of the two territories controlled by the separatists.
U.S. Officials said Russian troops appeared to have halted for now their ground offensive aimed at capturing the capital, Kyiv, and were concentrating more on gaining control of the Donbas region in the country's southeast.