Russian artillery struck the Ukrainian cities of Mariupol and Kharkiv again on Wednesday, as the West prepares more sanctions against Moscow in response to civilian deaths that Kiev and its allies call “war crimes”.
According to the latest British military intelligence report, the humanitarian situation in Mariupol, an important strategic point for Russian interests, is worsening.
“Most of the remaining 160,000 residents do not have electricity, communication, medicine, heat or water. Russian forces have blocked access to humanitarian aid, likely putting pressure on defenders to surrender,” the document says.
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereschuk said authorities would try to get more civilians out of conflict zones through 11 humanitarian corridors on Wednesday — although people trying to leave Mariupol would have to use their own vehicles.
Since last week, Ukrainian officials and analysts have said that Russia has shifted its military objectives in Ukraine. Instead of trying to take Kiev and the cities around the capital, Moscow’s forces had retreated and would be concentrating on the east of the country.
In Lugansk, for example, authorities on Wednesday urged residents to leave “while it is safe”. The region is part of the Donbass, territory where Ukraine has faced pro-Moscow separatists since 2014 and where Russia recognized the independence of two rebel republics days before starting the war.
Western sanctions against Russia have gained new momentum since the weekend, when hundreds of bodies were found on the streets and in mass graves in Butcha, on the outskirts of Kiev.
The scenario, described as massacre, genocide and classified as a war crime by Ukraine’s allies, prompted a new wave of retaliation, including a ban on Russian coal imports and the access of Russian ships to European Union ports.
According to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, there is more to come. “These sanctions will not be the last. Now we have to look at the oil and revenues that Russia gets from fossil fuels.”
The United States is also expected to announce new measures against Moscow later on Wednesday. President Joe Biden spoke on the topic earlier this week, when he again called Vladimir Putin a war criminal, but did not elaborate on what will be new in the sanctions.
According to the White House, the new measures will be coordinated between Washington, the G7 and the EU and will target Russian banks and officials.
In a speech to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said new sanctions against Russia “must be proportionate to the seriousness of the occupiers’ war crimes” and that the leaders Westerners are now experiencing a “crucial moment”.
At the Vatican, Pope Francis on Wednesday condemned what he called the “massacre in Butcha” and kissed a Ukrainian flag sent from the city, which he referred to as “martyred”.
“The recent news of the war in Ukraine, instead of bringing relief and hope, has brought new atrocities, such as the Butcha massacre,” the pontiff said at the end of his weekly Vatican audience. “Stop this war! Let the weapons be silent! Stop sowing death and destruction.”
When he kissed the flag, the Catholic leader was applauded by the thousands of people who attended the ceremony. He then invited a group of refugee children from Ukraine to join him.
“These children had to flee to reach a safe land. This is the fruit of the war. We will not forget them and we will not forget the people of Ukraine,” the pope said. According to UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, more than 4.2 million people have left Ukraine since the start of the war.
