KYIV, Ukraine — With Russian troops besieging cities in Ukraine’s south, spurring a humanitarian catastrophe even as they press their offensive around the capital, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that the strategic coastal city of Odesa would soon be under attack as he again urged Western countries to create a no-fly zone.
“Russians have always visited Odesa, felt only warmth in Odesa. ... And now what? Bombs on Odesa? Artillery on Odesa?” Zelenskyy said in an impassioned video address Sunday. “It will be a war crime. It will be a historical crime.”
His pleas came as as Ukrainian authorities tried and failed for a second consecutive day to evacuate civilians from Mariupol and Volnovakha, two cities in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region. Mariupol, a port city of half a million people, is a key part of Russia’s offensive to deny Ukraine any exit to the sea. An earlier cease-fire on Saturday broke down with both the Ukrainian and Russian sides accusing the other of violations.
Both cities have in recent days suffered cut-offs of electricity, heat and food amid the encirclement by Russian forces that have expanded their reach across the south.
But the cease-fire didn’t materialize Sunday. Though a so-called “regime of silence” (meaning a cease-fire) was set to begin at 10 a.m. local time and last for 11 hours, it had collapsed by afternoon. Pavlo Kirilenko, head of the Ukrainian government’s military-civilian administration in Donetsk, said the evacuation convoy couldn’t leave, blaming the situation on Russian troops who he said were “regrouping their forces” and conducting “powerful shelling” of the city.
“It is extremely dangerous to take people out under such conditions,” he said, adding that a humanitarian convoy was heading toward Mariupol from the city of Zaporizhzhia, more than 120 miles away, but had yet to reach its destination.
The International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed that the estimated evacuation of some 200,000 people from Mariupol failed, saying the city was enduring “devastating scenes of human suffering.”
“Today, our team began opening up the evacuation route from Mariupol before hostilities resumed,” the group said in a statement. “We remain in Mariupol and are ready to help facilitate further attempts – if the parties reach an agreement.”
Mykolaiev, another coastal city that Russian forces have tried to take in recent days ahead of a push on Odesa, prepared to put up a defense. Its mayor, Oleksandr Senkevich, said on a post in his official Facebook page that the city remained in Ukrainian hands and thanked employees of a local company who helped prepare Czech hedgehogs — the large, caltrops-shaped anti-tank obstacles.
Later in the day, Zelenskyy posted another video message after reports of an eight-rocket barrage hitting the Vinnytsia regional airport, some 110 miles southwest of Kyiv: “Against our city against our peaceful Vinnytsia — which has never posed a threat to Russia in any way — a brutal, cynical missile strike has completely destroyed the airport.”
He added that Russia was obliterating Ukrainian infrastructure and that it was the responsibility of Western leaders to create a no-fly zone. “If you do not do that, if you don’t at least give us aircraft for us to be able to protect ourselves, there can be only one conclusion: You also want us to be slowly killed. This is also the responsibility of the world’s politicians. Western leaders. Today and Forever.”
The conflict has spurred a mass exodus of Ukrainians fleeing either to the country’s western regions or neighboring nations. On Sunday, the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said the number of Ukrainians who have crossed the border to the country’s neighbors surpassed 1.5 million.
He characterized it as “the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.”
With Moscow’s offensive reaching dense urban areas and casualties among civilians spiking, Zelenskyy exhorted Western powers to close the skies over Ukraine and deny the Russians the freedom to operate their aircraft in a video released Sunday morning.
“The world has the power to close our sky from Russian missiles. From Russian combat aircraft, helicopters,” he said. “If anyone still doubts, Ukraine needs planes. In fact, it’s simple. When you have the will. To make the sky safe. The sky of Ukraine. The sky of Europe.”
The U.N.'s human rights office said 364 civilians have been killed and 759 wounded since the start of the Russian invasion Feb 24. The number, the office said, is likely an undercount.
Ukrainian authorities insist Russians forces are targeting civilians. Videos and witness accounts of airstrikes on cities also offer evidence of such targeting. Moscow denies such attacks, blaming the casualties instead on what it describes as Ukrainian nationalists and neo-Nazis holding civilians hostage.
But civilians are increasingly caught up in the onslaught. Irpin, a town on Kyiv’s northwestern flank close to where a Russian column is bearing down on the capital, had been quiet earlier in the week but was the site of fierce clashes Sunday, with Russian and Ukrainian troops trading artillery and mortar attacks throughout the day.
The clashes continued even as evacuees ran to a severed bridge on Irpin’s southern edge before reaching what were supposed to be safer areas on the highway leading to Kyiv. But three members of a family — a father, mother and their child — were killed by an incoming mortar round that struck about 100 yards past the bridge. Similar attacks wound into the early afternoon, with mortar rounds smacking houses and kicking up shoots of soil even amid the exodus.
The scene was also turning dire for civilians in Bucha, Irpin’s neighboring town to the north. Bucha’s city council said in a post on Facebook that residents haven’t had electricity, heat or communications for several days, adding that “surviving is a struggle.”
“The enemy continues to fire on houses, cars, killing civilians and even children, looting shops. It is impossible to deliver humanitarian goods: the community is under siege,” the statement said. “Residents are asking to help the sick, those who have not been able to find relatives for several days. A significant number of residents are in basements.”
Meanwhile, tens of thousands have come to the country for its defense. Following Zelenskyy’s speech last weekend when he exhorted those who want to join Ukrainians in an “international legion” to fight against Russia, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Sunday the number of volunteers who have signed up was approaching 20,000 people hailing from 52 countries.
That adds to the more than 66,000 Ukrainian men who have returned to join the fight as well, according to Ukrainian defense minister Oleksii Reznikov in a tweet on Saturday. The figures could not be independently verified.
