KYIV, Ukraine — As Russian forces pressed ahead Tuesday in their drive to seize the strategic southern port of Mariupol and encircle Ukrainian defenders in the country’s east, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the nearly 7-week-old war could be entering a “new stage of terror” for his embattled country, and again accused Russia of war crimes.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, said there was “no doubt” Moscow would achieve its aims in Ukraine, and defended as a “noble” cause an invasion denounced by much of the world as horrific. Blaming Ukraine, he said peace talks were stymied.
Western and Ukrainian military officials are trying to ascertain whether Russia had or intended to use chemical weapons in a final bid to subdue Mariupol. A Russian-backed separatist leader, who had earlier threatened their use, denied Tuesday that such munitions had been deployed.
