Pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin mounted both on the battlefield and in the halls of world power as Ukrainian troops boosted their counteroffensive on Saturday to advance further into the country’s partially retaken northeast.
At a high-level summit in Uzbekistan, Putin vowed to press ahead with his attack on Ukraine despite recent military setbacks, but has also faced concerns expressed by India and China over the length of the conflict.
“I know today’s era is not one of war,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the Russian leader in televised remarks as the two met in Uzbekistan on Friday. “We discussed this with you on the phone several times, that democracy and dialogue touch the whole world.”
At the same summit a day earlier, Putin acknowledged China’s unspecified “questions and concerns” about the war in Ukraine, while thanking Chinese President Xi Jinping for his government’s “balanced position” on the conflict .
The hasty withdrawal of his troops this month from parts of a northeastern region they occupied early in the war, along with rare public reservations expressed by key allies, underscored the challenges Putin faces in all fronts Both China and India maintain strong ties with Russia and had tried to remain neutral with Ukraine.
Xi, in a statement released by his government, expressed his support for Russia’s “core interests” but also an interest in working together to “inject stability” into world affairs. Modi said he wanted to discuss “how we can move forward on the path of peace”, adding that the main concerns facing the world are issues of food security, fuel security and fertilisers.
Ukrainian soldiers stand on top of a destroyed Russian tank in a reclaimed area of the Kharkiv region near the Russian border on Saturday. (Leo Correa/The Associated Press)
“We have to find some way out and you too have to contribute to that,” Modi stressed in a rare public rebuke.
The comments cast a shadow over a summit Putin had hoped would strengthen his diplomatic status and show he was not so isolated internationally.
Emerging New Line of Defense: Analysts
On the battlefield, Western defense officials and analysts said Saturday that Russian forces were apparently establishing a new defensive line in northeastern Ukraine after Kyiv’s troops breached the previous one.
A woman uses a mobile phone on a street in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Saturday. (Jon Gambrell/The Associated Press)
Britain’s Ministry of Defense said the new front line is likely to be between the Oskil River and Svatove, about 150 kilometers southeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
The new line emerged after the Ukrainian counter-offensive punched a hole in the previous line of war, allowing Kyiv’s soldiers to retake large swathes of land in the northeastern Kharkiv region bordering Russia.
A part of a missile is seen sticking out of the ground in front of a destroyed residence in Balakliya, Ukraine, on Saturday. (Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty Images)
After Russian troops withdrew from the city of Izium, Ukrainian authorities discovered a mass grave, one of the largest found to date.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that there are more than 440 graves at the site containing the bodies of hundreds of civilian adults and children, as well as soldiers, and that some had been tortured, shot or killed by artillery bombardments. He cited evidence of atrocities, including a body with a rope around its neck and broken arms.
“Torture was a widespread practice in the occupied territory. This is what the Nazis did. This is what [the Russians] do,” Zelenskyy said Saturday in his late-night video address. “We will establish the identity of all those who tortured, who mocked, who brought this atrocity from Russia here to Ukrainian soil.”
A woman eats an apple as she sits near damaged houses in Izium, Ukraine, on Saturday. (Gleb Garanich/Reuters)
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces are crossing the Oskil River in the Kharkiv region and have placed artillery there, the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said on Saturday.
The river, which flows south from Russia to Ukraine, had been a natural break in the new front lines since Ukraine launched its push about a week ago.
“Russian forces are likely to be too weak to prevent further Ukrainian advances along the entire Oskil River,” the institute said.
Signs of progress in the east
Videos circulating online indicated that Ukrainian forces were continuing to retake land in the country’s embattled east, although their veracity could not be independently verified.
A damaged Russian vehicle is seen parked on a street in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces, on Saturday. (Alexei Alexandrov/The Associated Press)
One video showed a Ukrainian soldier walking past a damaged building and then pointing over his shoulder at a comrade who was flying the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag on a cell phone tower. The soldier in the video identified the captured village as Dibrova, northeast of the city of Sloviansk in Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
Another video showed two Ukrainian soldiers in what appeared to be a bell tower, with one saying they had retaken the village of Shchurove, northeast of Sloviansk.
The Ukrainian military and the Russians did not comment on the two villages.
Elsewhere, Russian forces continued to hit cities and towns with missiles and shelling.
A Russian missile attack early Saturday caused a fire in Kharkiv’s industrial zone, said Oleh Syniehubov, the regional governor. Firefighters extinguished the fire.
A Ukrainian soldier sits on a tank near part of the front line in Ukraine’s Donetsk region on Friday. (Reuters)
Syniehubov said the missile debris suggests the Russians fired S-300 surface-to-air missiles at the city. The S-300 is designed to hit missiles or aircraft in the sky, not targets on the ground. Analysts say Russia’s use of the missiles suggests it may be running out of precision munitions.
Bombing of the nearby town of Chuhuiv later Saturday killed an 11-year-old girl, Syniehubov reported.
In the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, a large part of which is occupied by Russians, one person was injured after Russian forces shelled the city of Orikhiv, Ukrainian Zaporizhzhia Governor Oleksandr Starukh reported on Telegram. Starukh said Russian troops also shelled two villages in the region, destroying several civilian facilities.
Pro-Russian troops are seen firing a gun in the direction of Avdiivka, Ukraine, on Saturday. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)
Explosions were also reported Saturday in the Russian-occupied areas of Zaporizhzhia. The official stationed in Russia Vladimir Rogov told Telegram that at least five explosions were heard in the city of Melitopol, which was occupied at the beginning of the war.
The city’s Ukrainian mayor, Ivan Fedorov, said the explosions took place in a village south of the city, where Russian troops had moved some military equipment.
Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region also came under Russian fire overnight, according to its governor, Valentyn Reznichenko. “The enemy attacked six times and launched more than 90 deadly projectiles against peaceful towns and villages,” Reznichenko said.
A Ukrainian tank is seen passing a former Russian checkpoint in Izium, Ukraine, on Friday. (Evgeniy Maloletka/The Associated Press)
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s nuclear power operator Energoatom said a convoy of 25 trucks has brought diesel fuel and other critical supplies to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, which was shut down last year a week amid fears that the fighting in the area could lead to a radiation disaster.
The trucks were able to pass through Russian checkpoints on Friday to deliver spare parts for repairing damaged power lines, chemicals for plant operation and additional fuel for standby diesel generators, Energoatom said.