Michael
Schwirtz, Shashank Bengali and Marc Santora
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/03/06/world/ukraine-russia
LVIV,
Ukraine — Russian forces launched a heavy artillery barrage against the
strategic southern Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv early Monday morning, a day
after Ukrainian troops pushed them from the city limits.
Russia’s
failure to seize Mykolaiv and other cities quickly, as President Vladimir V.
Putin of Russia appears to have intended, is largely a result of its military’s
faltering performance. Russian forces have suffered from logistical snafus,
baffling tactical decisions and low morale.
But it is
the fierce and, according to many analysts, unexpectedly capable defense by
Ukrainian forces, who are significantly outgunned, that has largely stalled the
Russian advance and, for now, prevented Mykolaiv from falling into Russian
hands.
Frantic
efforts to rescue civilians from the worsening violence in Ukraine came under
direct attack by Russian forces on Sunday as at least three people were killed
in shelling outside Kyiv. Russian forces were struggling to advance on multiple
fronts. The Ukrainian military said it was successfully defending its position
in fierce fighting north of Kyiv, the capital, and holding back Russians from
the east, where President Vladimir V. Putin’s forces bogged down in clashes
around an airport.
The United
Nations refugee agency said that 1.5 million people had fled Ukraine in the 10
days since Russia’s invasion began, making it the fastest growing refugee
crisis in Europe since World War II.
Here are
the latest developments:
A Russian
force advancing on Kyiv fired mortar shells on Sunday at a battered bridge used
by evacuees fleeing the fighting, sending panicked civilians running and
killing four: a mother and her two children and a family friend traveling with
them.
A planned
evacuation of Mariupol — a port city of a half-million people that has become a
key battleground in Russia’s objective to capture Ukraine’s entire southern
coast — was halted for a second consecutive day amid “intense shelling” by
Russian forces that have encircled the city, the mayor’s office said. Residents
are facing increasingly dire conditions in the city, which has been cut off
from food, heat and electricity for days.
Amid
antiwar rallies across Russia, the police said more than 3,000 people were
arrested, the highest nationwide total in any single day of protest in recent
memory. An activist group that tracks arrests, OVD-Info, reported detentions in
49 different Russian cities.
The Biden
administration is studying how to supply Russian-made Polish fighter jets to
Ukraine, U.S. officials say. President Volodymyr Zelensky is asking for more
lethal military aid, especially Russian-made aircraft that Ukrainian pilots
know how to fly. Russia threatened countries that allow the Ukrainian military
to use their airfields.
Hundreds of
thousands of homes across eastern and southern Ukraine had their gas turned off
on Sunday as the areas faced heavy fighting, according to Ukraine’s Gas
Transmission System Operator.
Mr.
Zelensky repeated his calls for NATO to enforce a no-fly zone over his country
to stop Russia’s aerial attack, saying, “It’s easy when you have the will.”
NATO has been unwilling to take such a step, fearful of triggering a wider war
with Russia.
Michael
Schwirtz
March 6,
2022, 10:33 p.m. ET50 minutes ago
50 minutes
ago
Michael
SchwirtzReporting from Ukraine
Russian
forces launched a heavy artillery barrage on the eastern outskirts of the
strategic Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv early Monday morning, a day after
Ukrainian troops pushed them from the city limits. Flashes from the bombardment
lit up the night sky along a large swath of the city though it was not
immediately clear what the precise target was. After a ferocious three-day
battle, Ukrainian troops defending the city had pushed Russian forces out of
Mykolaiv and retaken the airport. The city was relatively calm Sunday, with
pedestrians and traffic returning to what has been largely deserted city
streets. Mykolaiv has one of Ukraine’s three largest ports, and stands in the
way of Russian troops as they march west along the Black Sea coast in the direction of
Odessa.
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