As war looms in Ukraine’s east, Kyiv pressurizes West to do more

Ukraine announced on Sunday that it was seeking more European Union sanctions on Russia as well as more military assistance from its allies after Russian soldiers destroyed an airport and other facilities in the country’s east.

Since its invasion on Feb. 24, Russia has failed to conquer any major cities, but Ukraine claims Moscow has been assembling forces in the east in preparation for a major attack and has urged residents to escape.

Officials say Russian forces fired rockets into Ukraine’s Luhansk and Dnipro regions on Sunday. The airport in Dnipro was entirely destroyed by missiles, according to Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of the central Dnipropetrovsk district.

According to Mykola Lukashuk, the leader of the Dnipro area council, the strike injured five members of Ukraine’s state emergency service.

The headquarters of Ukraine’s Dnipro battalion in the village of Zvonetsky was destroyed by high-precision missiles, according to Russia’s defense ministry.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Twitter that he had spoken with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz over the phone regarding more penalties as well as increased defensive and financial help for his country. According to his office, Zelensky also discussed with Ukrainian officials Kyiv’s request for a new package of EU penalties.

Zelensky reaffirmed his call for a comprehensive ban on Russian energy supplies and more armaments for Ukraine in a video speech late on Saturday.

The EU prohibited Russian coal imports, among other things, on Friday, while oil and gas supplies from Russia remain unaffected.

New Penalties

The growing number of civilian deaths has prompted considerable international outrage and fresh sanctions.

According to Taras Didych, leader of the Dmytrivka community that contains Buzova, a grave containing at least two civilian victims was discovered in Buzova village near Kyiv, the latest such discovery since Russia’s pullout from territories north of the city.

Iryna Venediktova, Ukraine’s prosecutor general, informed an International news channel that the bodies of 1,222 dead Ukrainians have been discovered in the Kyiv region.

According to US national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Russia’s newly designated commander in charge of Ukraine is likely to commit crimes and cruelty against Ukrainian civilians. He didn’t provide any proof.

Ukraine and Western countries have accused Moscow of war crimes, which Moscow has denied. Ukrainian forces were preparing “another provocation” to accuse Russia of mass killings of civilians in Irpin, in the Kyiv region, the Russian Investigative Committee claimed on Sunday.

It claimed — without presenting evidence — that Ukrainian security service officers planned to take bodies from a morgue of residents killed in shelling by Ukraine’s own armed forces in order to fake alleged Russian war crimes.

Moscow has denied that people are being targeted as part of a “special operation” to demilitarize and “denazify” its southern neighbor. This has been criticized by Ukraine and Western nations as a spurious excuse for war.

Shelling Heavy

Hundreds of thousands of civilians were unable to flee several cities in the east due to severe shelling.

Ukrainian officials increased their calls for citizens to flee after a missile strike hit a train station in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, on Friday, which was packed with people trying to flee.

More than 50 people were slain, according to Ukrainian officials. Russia has denied culpability for the attack, claiming that the missiles deployed were exclusively utilized by Ukraine’s military.

On Sunday, residents of the Luhansk area would be able to board nine trains, according to the territory’s governor, Serhiy Gaidai, who wrote on the Telegram messaging service.

In a Palm Sunday speech, Pope Francis called for an Easter truce in Ukraine and questioned the purpose of putting a victory flag “on a heap of debris,” an apparent reference to Russia.

Patriarch Kirill, the head of Russia’s Orthodox Church and a close supporter of President Vladimir Putin, preached in Moscow on Sunday, urging people to rally behind the government.

Russia’s invasion has displaced about a quarter of Ukraine’s 44 million people, razed cities, and killed or injured tens of thousands.