A man suspected of being a Russian accomplice was arrested during an operation by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) in Kharkov, Ukraine, on Monday, April 18, 2022. (AP Photo / Felipe Dana) Russian forces fired rockets into the western city of Lviv and pounded several other targets across Ukraine on Monday in a bid to quell the country’s defense ahead of a full-scale offensive in the east. At least seven people have been killed in Lviv, where black smoke has risen over a city that has seen only sporadic attacks during nearly two months of war and has become a haven for civilians fleeing fighting elsewhere. To the growing anger of the Kremlin, Lviv has also become an important gateway for weapons supplied by NATO and foreign fighters involved in the Ukrainian cause. The attacks came as Russia continued to concentrate troops and artillery in the east and south for the expected launch of a new ground offensive in Donbass, the Russian-speaking industrial heart of Ukraine. In other news, several thousand Ukrainian troops are estimated to be hiding in a mammoth steel plant in Mariupol, Russia’s last known resistance stronghold in the devastated southern port city after seven weeks of bombing. The detainees ignored an ultimatum of surrender by the Russians on Sunday. And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has submitted a completed questionnaire as a first step towards rapid accession to the European Union – a desire that has been a source of frustration in Russia for years. Zelensky, however, offered to abandon any bid to join NATO, one of the Kremlin’s key demands. The Russian missile strikes in Lviv hit three military infrastructure facilities and a car repair shop, according to the governor of the region, Maksym Kozytskyy. He said one child was among the injured. Lviv, the largest city and a major transport hub in western Ukraine, is about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from NATO member Poland. Russia has strongly protested against the growing flow of Western weapons into Ukraine. In the Russian state media, some presenters accused that the supplies amount to direct involvement of the West in the fight against Russia. Lviv has also been considered a relatively safe place for seniors, mothers and children trying to escape the war. A hotel hosting Ukrainians who had fled fighting in other parts of the country was among the buildings that were severely damaged, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said. “The nightmare of war has taken us even to Lviv,” said Lyudmila Turchak, who left the eastern city of Kharkiv with two children. “There is no place in Ukraine where we can feel safe.” A powerful explosion also shook Vasylkiv, a city south of the capital Kiev, where a military air base is located, according to residents. It was not immediately clear what was hit. Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, was hit by bombings that killed at least three people, according to Associated Press reporters at the scene. One of the dead was a woman who appeared to be going out to collect water in the rain. She was found lying with a water container and an umbrella next to her. Military analysts say Russia is stepping up its strikes on arms factories, railways and other infrastructure targets across Ukraine to deplete the country’s ability to withstand a major attack on Donbass, the capture of which became the Kremlin’s main target. when his attempt to invade Kyiv failed. The Russian military says its missiles hit more than 20 military targets in eastern and central Ukraine yesterday, including ammunition depots, command headquarters and groups of troops and vehicles. It also said that its artillery hit an additional 315 Ukrainian targets and that warplanes struck 108 bombs on Ukrainian troops and military equipment. The claims could not be independently verified. Over the weekend, Russia also claimed that it had destroyed Ukraine’s air defense radar equipment. General Richard Danat, a former British army commander, told Sky News that Russia was conducting a “softening” campaign ahead of the Donbas attack. “We are doing everything to ensure the defense” of eastern Ukraine, Zelensky said in his overnight address to the nation on Sunday. A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal estimates of the war, said there were now 76 Russian battle units, known as regular battalions, in eastern and southern Ukraine, up from 65 last week. That could translate to about 50,000 to 60,000 troops, based on what the Pentagon said at the start of the war was the typical unit strength of 700 to 800 troops, but the numbers are hard to pinpoint at this stage of the battle. The official also said that four U.S. cargo flights arrived in Europe on Sunday with an initial delivery of weapons and other materials to Ukraine as part of a $ 800 million package announced by Washington last week. And the training of the Ukrainian personnel in American 155 mm machine guns is going to start in the next few days. Ukraine halted the evacuation of civilians for a second day on Monday, saying Russian forces were bombing and blocking humanitarian corridors. Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Ukraine was negotiating safe passage through cities and towns in eastern and southeastern Ukraine, including Mariupol and other Donbas districts. The Luhansk region government in Donbas said four civilians trying to escape were shot and killed by Russian forces. Verestsuk warned Russia on social media: “Your refusal to open these humanitarian corridors will in the future be a reason to prosecute all those involved in war crimes.” The Russians, in turn, accused the “neo-Nazi nationalists” in Mariupol of obstructing the evacuation. The occupation of Mariupol, where Ukrainians estimate that 21,000 people have been killed, is considered key, not least because it would deprive Ukraine of a vital port and complete a land bridge between Russia and the Crimean peninsula occupied by Moscow eight years ago. years. The U.S. defense official said that if Russian forces were able to take full control of Mariupol, they could release nearly a dozen regular battalions for use elsewhere in Donbass. Meanwhile, a pro-Russian Ukrainian politician arrested last week on charges of treason appeared in a video offering himself in exchange for the evacuation of trapped defenders and civilians in Mariupol. Ukraine’s state security services have released a video of Viktor Medvetsuk, the former leader of a pro-Russian opposition party with personal ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. It was not clear if Medvedchuk was speaking under pressure. Putin reiterated his insistence that Western sanctions against Russia had failed. He said the West had failed to “cause panic in markets, the collapse of the banking system and shortages in stores”, although acknowledging a sharp rise in consumer prices in Russia, saying they had risen by 17.5%.
