In a month of fighting, Ukraine has fended off what many analysts had anticipated would be a quick Russian victory.

So far, Moscow has failed to capture any major city. Its armoured columns have barely moved in weeks, stalled at the gates of the capital Kyiv and besieging cities in the east.

They have taken heavy casualties and are low on supplies. Ukrainian officials say they are now shifting onto the offensive and have pushed back Russian forces, including north of Kyiv.

Ukraine said its forces had destroyed the Russian landing ship the “Orsk” at the Russian-occupied port of Berdyansk.

Video footage, which Reuters confirmed was from Berdyansk, showed smoke rising from a blaze at a dock and the flash of an explosion. Russian officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

BIDEN COMES TO EUROPE

As US President Joe Biden rallied allies on his first trip aboard since the war began, Washington announced US$1 billion more humanitarian aid for Ukraine and an offer to take in 100,000 refugees.

He said Russia should be expelled from the G20 group of major economies.

The Kremlin accuses NATO of an “hysterical and inadequate” understanding of events in Ukraine, a former Soviet Republic linked since the 9th century when Kyiv became the capital of the ancient state of Rus. Putin says NATO’s eastern expansion has threatened Russia’s security and divided it from Ukraine

Zelenskyy, who has won admiration across the West for leadership under fire, urged people around the world to take to the streets in support of Ukraine.

“Come from your offices, your homes, your schools and universities, come in the name of peace, come with Ukrainian symbols to support Ukraine, to support freedom, to support life,” he said in another of his regular video addresses.

Ukraine’s armed forces chief of staff said on Thursday Russia was still trying to resume offensives to capture the cities of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Mariupol.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a Putin ally, posted on social media that Chechen fighters had captured the main administrative building in Mariupol and raised their flag there. His account could not be confirmed independently.

Satellite photographs from commercial firm Maxar showed massive destruction of what was once a city of 400,000 people, with apartment buildings in flames.

Journalists have not been able to report from the Ukrainian-held part of Mariupol for 10 days, during which time Ukraine says Russia has bombed a theatre and an art school used as shelters, burying hundreds alive.

Ukrainian officials accused Russia on Thursday of having forcibly deported 15,000 people from the city to Russia.

Moscow denies this.



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