By Pavel Polityuk and Natalia Zinets
KYIV (Reuters) – Russia resumed its assault on the last Ukrainian defenders holed up in a giant steel works in Mariupol, days after Moscow declared victory in the southern city and said its forces did not need to take the plant.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the country’s army was not ready to try to break through the siege of the port city.
But he said America’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, would visit Kyiv on Sunday and discuss the types of weapons Ukraine needs as Russia’s invasion enters its third month.
“As soon as we have (more weapons), as soon as there are enough of them, believe me, we will immediately retake this or that territory, which is temporarily occupied,” Zelenskiy told a Saturday evening news conference.
The White House has not confirmed any travel plans for Blinken and Austin. The State Department and Pentagon declined comment.
The attack on Mariupol, the biggest battle of the conflict, has raged for weeks. Capturing the city is seen as vital to Russia’s attempts to link the eastern Donbas region with Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Moscow seized in 2014.
Moscow-backed separatists have held territory in the Donbas region for years.
Ukraine estimates tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in Mariupol and says 100,000 civilians are still there. The United Nations and Red Cross say the civilian toll is at least in the thousands.
A new attempt to evacuate civilians failed on Saturday, an aide to Mariupol’s mayor said.
In the Black Sea port of Odesa, at least eight people were killed, Zelenskiy said. Two missiles struck a military facility and two residential buildings and two more were destroyed on Saturday, the Ukrainian armed forces said.
The death toll could not be independently verified. The last big strike on or near Odesa was in early April.
Air raid sirens were heard in Odesa and Mykolaiv, a city near the Black Sea, before dawn on Sunday, but there were no immediate reports of fresh attacks.
‘MISSILE TERROR’
Zelenskiy said Russia had already fired most of its missile arsenal at Ukraine. “Of course, they still have missiles left. Of course, they can still continue the missile terror against our people,” he said.
“But what they have already done is a powerful enough argument for the world to finally recognise Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism and the Russian army as a terrorist organization.”
Russia has denied targeting civilians in its “special military operation” that began on Feb. 24.
The Russian defence ministry said it used high-precision missiles to destroy a logistics terminal in Odesa containing weapons supplied by the United States and European nations.
It also said Russian forces had killed up to 200 Ukrainian troops and destroyed more than 30 vehicles on Saturday.
Russian General Rustam Minnekayev said on Friday Moscow wanted control of the whole of southern Ukraine, comments Ukraine said indicated Russia had wider goals than its declared aim of demilitarising and “denazifying” the country. Kyiv and the West call the invasion an unjustified war of aggression.
Russia’s defence ministry on Friday said Mariupol’s last fighters had been “securely blockaded” at the steel plant. On Thursday, President Vladimir Putin had declared the city “liberated,” declaring that troops would not storm Azovstal.
Oleksiy Arestovych, a political adviser to Zelenskiy, said Ukrainian troops in the steel complex were holding out and attempting counterattacks. More than 1,000 civilians are also in the plant, according to Ukrainian authorities.
‘I WANT TO SEE THE SUN’
The Azov battalion, a militia prominent in the defence of Mariupol, released a video it said showed women and children sheltering in the complex. Reuters could not independently verify where or when the video was shot.
One woman holding a young child said food was running out, while a boy said he was desperate to get out after two months in the bunker.
“I want to see the sun because in here it’s dim, not like outside. When our houses are rebuilt we can live in peace. Let Ukraine win because Ukraine is our native home,” he said.
Russia’s current offensive is focussed on the Donbas, which includes the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai said Ukrainian forces were pulling back to preserve their units in the face of an intensifying barrage on all cities in the region.
Ukrainian forces fighting in Luhansk and Donetsk said in a Facebook post they had repelled 12 Russian attacks on Saturday, destroying four tanks and 16 other armoured vehicles as well as five artillery systems.
Reuters could not independently verify that statement.
Three people were killed and seven wounded by Russian shelling in the eastern region of Kharkiv on Saturday, the region’s governor said.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk and Natalia Zinets; Additional reporting by Maria Starkova, Alessandra Prentice and other Reuters journalists; Writing Patricia Zengerle and Kim Coghill; Editing by Daniel Wallis and William Mallard)
