Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has vowed to “fight to the end” in the strategically important Mariupol region, where the last known resistance pocket of the devastated port city was drilled into an extensive steel plant filled with tunnels. AP personnel witnessed the explosions in Lviv, which has been less affected by the fighting than in other parts of the country and was considered a relatively safe haven. Lviv Mayor Andriy Santovi said on Facebook that five rockets had hit the city and that emergency services had responded to the blasts. He said more details would follow. With rockets and rockets hitting various parts of the country, Zelensky accused Russian soldiers of torturing and kidnapping in areas they controlled. The fall of Mariupol, which has been reduced to rubble in a seven-week siege, would give Moscow its biggest victory in the war. But a few thousand fighters, according to Russian estimates, were holding the giant Azovstal steel plant, 11 square kilometers (4 square miles) long. “We will fight to the end for victory in this war,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Dennis Smihal promised on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. He said Ukraine was ready to end the war through diplomacy, if possible, “but we have no intention of giving up.” Many Mariupol residents, including children, are also sheltered at the Azovstal factory, Mikhail Versinin, the city’s patrol chief, told Mariupol TV. He said they were hiding from Russian bombing and Russian soldiers. Occupying the city in the Sea of ​​Azov would free Russian troops for a new offensive to take control of the Donbas region in the industrial east of Ukraine. Russia would also fully secure a land route to the Crimean peninsula, which it occupied from Ukraine in 2014, depriving Ukraine of a major port and valuable industrial resources. Russia wants to occupy Donbass, where Moscow-backed separatists are already controlling some territory after its attempt to seize the capital, Kyiv, failed. “We are doing everything to ensure the defense” of eastern Ukraine, Zelensky said in his overnight address to the nation. As for the besieged Mariupol, there seemed to be little hope of a military rescue. Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday that the remaining Ukrainian troops and civilians there were basically surrounded. He said that “they are continuing their struggle”, but that the city essentially no longer exists due to the mass destruction. Relentless bombings and street battles in Mariupol have killed at least 21,000 people, according to Ukrainian estimates. A maternity hospital was hit by a deadly Russian airstrike in the first weeks of the war and about 300 people were killed by a bombing of a theater where civilians had taken refuge. An estimated 100,000 people remained in the city from a pre-war population of 450,000, trapped without food, water, heating or electricity. Shots from a drone broadcast by the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti showed mile by mile broken buildings and, on the outskirts of the city, the steel complex, from which towering plumes of smoke rose. Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar described Mariupol as a “shield defending Ukraine”. Russian forces, meanwhile, have carried out airstrikes near Kyiv and elsewhere in an apparent attempt to weaken Ukraine’s military capability ahead of an impending attack on Donbas. Following the humiliating sinking of the Russian Black Sea Fleet flagship last week in what the Ukrainians boasted was a rocket attack, the Kremlin had pledged to intensify its attacks on the capital. Russia said Sunday it had attacked an ammunition factory near Kyiv overnight with precision-guided missiles, the third such strike in several days. Explosions were also reported in Kramatorsk, the eastern city where rockets killed at least 57 people earlier this month at a train station full of civilians trying to flee before the Russian attack. At least five people were killed in Russian bombings in Kharkov, Ukraine’s second largest city, on Sunday, regional officials said. The barrage fell on apartment buildings. The streets were full of broken windows and other debris. Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov, in a passionate speech to celebrate Orthodox Sunday, criticized Russian forces for not abandoning the bombing campaign on such a sacred day. Zelensky described the bombing in Kharkov as “nothing more than deliberate terrorism.” In his overnight address to the nation, Zelensky also called for a stronger response to the brutality of Russian troops in parts of southern Ukraine, he said. “Torture wards are being built there,” he said. “They kidnap representatives of local governments and anyone who is seen as visible in local communities.” He again urged the world to send more weapons and impose tougher sanctions on Moscow. Malyar, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, said the Russians were pounding Mariupol with air strikes and could prepare for an amphibious landing to bolster their ground troops. The looming attack in the east, if successful, would give Russian President Vladimir Putin a victory he needed to sell to the Russian people amid growing war losses and economic hardship caused by Western sanctions. Austrian Chancellor Carl Nehammer, who met with Putin in Moscow last week – the first European leader to do so since the February 24 invasion – said the Russian president was “in his own war logic” for Ukraine. In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press”, Nehammer said he believed Putin believed he was winning the war and “we have to look him in the eye and face him with what we see in Ukraine.” Zelensky also celebrated Easter on Sunday, saying on Twitter: “The Resurrection of the Lord is a testimony to the victory of life over death, good over evil.”


Chernov reported from Kharkov. Philip Crowther in Lviv, Yesica Fisch in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, and Associated Press reporters around the world contributed to this report. Follow the AP coverage for the war at


title: “Missiles Cause Multiple Blasts In Western Ukrainian S Lviv " ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-21” author: “Stephanie Brew”


Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has vowed to “fight to the end” in the strategically important Mariupol region, where the last known resistance pocket of the devastated port city was drilled into an extensive steel plant filled with tunnels. AP personnel witnessed the explosions in Lviv, which has been less affected by the fighting than in other parts of the country and was considered a relatively safe haven. Lviv Mayor Andriy Santovi said on Facebook that five rockets had hit the city and that emergency services had responded to the blasts. He said more details would follow. With rockets and rockets hitting various parts of the country, Zelensky accused Russian soldiers of torturing and kidnapping in areas they controlled. The fall of Mariupol, which has been reduced to rubble in a seven-week siege, would give Moscow its biggest victory in the war. But a few thousand fighters, according to Russian estimates, were holding the giant Azovstal steel plant, 11 square kilometers (4 square miles) long. “We will fight to the end for victory in this war,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Dennis Smihal promised on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. He said Ukraine was ready to end the war through diplomacy, if possible, “but we have no intention of giving up.” Many Mariupol residents, including children, are also sheltered at the Azovstal factory, Mikhail Versinin, the city’s patrol chief, told Mariupol TV. He said they were hiding from Russian bombing and Russian soldiers. Occupying the city in the Sea of ​​Azov would free Russian troops for a new offensive to take control of the Donbas region in the industrial east of Ukraine. Russia would also fully secure a land route to the Crimean peninsula, which it occupied from Ukraine in 2014, depriving Ukraine of a major port and valuable industrial resources. Russia wants to occupy Donbass, where Moscow-backed separatists are already controlling some territory after its attempt to seize the capital, Kyiv, failed. “We are doing everything to ensure the defense” of eastern Ukraine, Zelensky said in his overnight address to the nation. As for the besieged Mariupol, there seemed to be little hope of a military rescue. Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday that the remaining Ukrainian troops and civilians there were basically surrounded. He said that “they are continuing their struggle”, but that the city essentially no longer exists due to the mass destruction. Relentless bombings and street battles in Mariupol have killed at least 21,000 people, according to Ukrainian estimates. A maternity hospital was hit by a deadly Russian airstrike in the first weeks of the war and about 300 people were killed by a bombing of a theater where civilians had taken refuge. An estimated 100,000 people remained in the city from a pre-war population of 450,000, trapped without food, water, heating or electricity. Shots from a drone broadcast by the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti showed mile by mile broken buildings and, on the outskirts of the city, the steel complex, from which towering plumes of smoke rose. Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar described Mariupol as a “shield defending Ukraine”. Russian forces, meanwhile, have carried out airstrikes near Kyiv and elsewhere in an apparent attempt to weaken Ukraine’s military capability ahead of an impending attack on Donbas. Following the humiliating sinking of the Russian Black Sea Fleet flagship last week in what the Ukrainians boasted was a rocket attack, the Kremlin had pledged to intensify its attacks on the capital. Russia said Sunday it had attacked an ammunition factory near Kyiv overnight with precision-guided missiles, the third such strike in several days. Explosions were also reported in Kramatorsk, the eastern city where rockets killed at least 57 people earlier this month at a train station full of civilians trying to flee before the Russian attack. At least five people were killed in Russian bombings in Kharkov, Ukraine’s second largest city, on Sunday, regional officials said. The barrage fell on apartment buildings. The streets were full of broken windows and other debris. Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov, in a passionate speech to celebrate Orthodox Sunday, criticized Russian forces for not abandoning the bombing campaign on such a sacred day. Zelensky described the bombing in Kharkov as “nothing more than deliberate terrorism.” In his overnight address to the nation, Zelensky also called for a stronger response to the brutality of Russian troops in parts of southern Ukraine, he said. “Torture wards are being built there,” he said. “They kidnap representatives of local governments and anyone who is seen as visible in local communities.” He again urged the world to send more weapons and impose tougher sanctions on Moscow. Malyar, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, said the Russians were pounding Mariupol with air strikes and could prepare for an amphibious landing to bolster their ground troops. The looming attack in the east, if successful, would give Russian President Vladimir Putin a victory he needed to sell to the Russian people amid growing war losses and economic hardship caused by Western sanctions. Austrian Chancellor Carl Nehammer, who met with Putin in Moscow last week – the first European leader to do so since the February 24 invasion – said the Russian president was “in his own war logic” for Ukraine. In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press”, Nehammer said he believed Putin believed he was winning the war and “we have to look him in the eye and face him with what we see in Ukraine.” Zelensky also celebrated Easter on Sunday, saying on Twitter: “The Resurrection of the Lord is a testimony to the victory of life over death, good over evil.”


Chernov reported from Kharkov. Philip Crowther in Lviv, Yesica Fisch in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, and Associated Press reporters around the world contributed to this report. Follow the AP coverage for the war at