Russia Steps Up Attacks in Possible Bid to Split Ukraine

 

Russia Steps Up Attacks in Possible Bid to Split Ukraine

 

Ukrainian officials said they are worried that Russia may try to divide their country, as Korea was after World War II. Large explosions were reported near Kyiv early Monday.

 

28-3-2022

Austin Ramzy

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/03/28/world/ukraine-russia-war

 

Here are the latest developments from Ukraine.

• Russia appears to be shifting its focus to securing control of eastern Ukraine after efforts to take the capital, Kyiv, and other major cities stalled in the face of stiff resistance.
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• Ukrainian officials said that they are worried that Russia may try to split the country between regions it controls and those it does not, a division that recalled the fate of Germany and Korea after World War II.
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• Still, Russian forces pressed on with attacks across the country. There were large explosions reported in Kyiv early Monday and Russian forces tried to capture highways and key towns to the east and northwest of the capital, the Ukrainian military said. The Russian navy is also maintaining a blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, effectively isolating it from maritime trade, and sporadically firing missiles from ships at “targets throughout Ukraine,” the British Ministry of Defense said on Sunday.
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• Defense analysts said Mariupol in southern Ukraine could soon fall after weeks of Russian bombardment. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said Sunday that he often speaks with Ukrainian forces defending the city and has encouraged them to withdraw if their survival was at risk. They remained because they feared abandoning civilians and their dead and wounded comrades, he said.
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• Talks between Ukraine and Russia are expected to begin again in Turkey, although previous meetings have led to little progress toward ending the fighting. Mr. Zelensky said in a video posted on his Telegram account late Sunday that his country continued to demand security guarantees and protection of its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
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• Mr. Zelensky also criticized the Russian authorities for threatening legal action against Russian journalists if they published an interview conducted Sunday with the Ukrainian president. Some journalists based outside the country ran the interview, while others in Russia did not.
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• “It would be funny if it wasn’t tragic,” Mr. Zelensky said in the video posted to Telegram. “This means that they are nervous. Perhaps they saw that their citizens are beginning to question the situation in their own country.”
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• The Oscars held a moment of silence for the people of Ukraine and urged viewers to support the country. But Mr. Zelensky, who had lobbied to speak remotely during the ceremony Sunday night, did not make an appearance.
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• Schools in Kyiv will reopen online on Monday, the city’s authorities said, but teachers were encouraged to give light workloads to students already under strain from the Russian invasion.