Kyiv, Ukraine — Ukraine President Volodymr Zelenskyy called on people worldwide to gather in public Thursday to show support for his embattled country as he prepared to address U.S. President Joe Biden and other NATO leaders gathered in Brussels on the one-month anniversary of the Russian invasion.
“Come to your squares, your streets. Make yourselves visible and heard,” Zelenskyy said in English during an emotional video address late Wednesday. “Say that people matter. Freedom matters. Peace matters. Ukraine matters,” he urged in the message, recorded in the dark near the presidential offices in Kyiv.
Zelenskyy said he would ask in a video conference with NATO members that the alliance provide “effective and unrestricted” support to Ukraine, including any weapons the country needs to fend off the Russian onslaught.
Mr. Biden arrived Thursday morning at NATO headquarters to discuss new sanctions against Russia and how to coordinate such measures, along with more military aid for Ukraine, with fellow NATO leaders.
The president was to meet later with leaders of the G7 industrialized nations and then the European Council in a series of meetings on Thursday.
On the eve of a meeting with Mr. Biden, European Union nations signed off on another $550 million in military aid for Ukraine.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday as Mr. Biden and other leaders arrived that Russian President Vladimir Putin had “made a big mistake, and that is to launch a war against an independent sovereign nation. He has underestimated the strength of the Ukrainian people, the bravery of the Ukrainian people and their armed forces.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that the U.S. had assessed that Russian forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine, and he said Washington and its NATO allies would work to hold them accountable.
“We’ve seen numerous credible reports of indiscriminate attacks and attacks deliberately targeting civilians, as well as other atrocities,” Blinken said. “Russia’s forces have destroyed apartment buildings, schools, hospitals, critical infrastructure, civilian vehicles, shopping centers, and ambulances, leaving thousands of innocent civilians killed or wounded. Many of the sites Russia’s forces have hit have been clearly identifiable as in-use by civilians.”
Russia’s military still underperforming
When Russia unleashed its invasion in Europe’s biggest military offensive since World War II, a swift toppling of Ukraine’s government seemed possible. But a month into the fighting, Moscow is bogged down in a grinding military campaign of attrition.
In its last update, Russia said March 2 that nearly 500 soldiers had been killed and almost 1,600 wounded. NATO estimates, however, that between 7,000 to 15,000 Russian troops have been killed; the latter figure is about what Russia lost in a decade of fighting in Afghanistan.
A senior NATO military official said the alliance’s estimate was based on information from Ukrainian authorities, what Russia has released — intentionally or not — and intelligence gathered from open sources. The official spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by NATO.
Ukraine also claims to have killed six Russian generals. Russia acknowledges just one dead general.
Ukraine’s navy said Thursday that it had sunk the Russian ship Orsk in the Sea of Azov, near the port city of Berdyansk. It released photos and video of fire and thick smoke coming from the port area. Russia didn’t immediately comment on the claim.
Russia has held the port since Feb. 27, and the Orsk had debarked armored vehicles there on Monday for use in Moscow’s offensive, the Zvezda TV channel of the Russian Defense Ministry said earlier this week. According to the report, the Orsk was the first Russian warship to enter Berdyansk, which is about 50 miles west along the coast from the besieged city of Mariupol.
President Biden warned earlier this week that with Putin’s back “against the wall,” there had been a “clear sign” that the Russian leader is considering unleashing chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine.
Ukraine has released little information about its own military losses, and the West hasn’t given an estimate, but Zelenskyy said nearly two weeks ago that about 1,300 Ukrainian troops had been killed.
With its ground forces slowed or stopped by hit-and-run Ukrainian units armed with Western-supplied weapons, Putin’s troops are bombarding targets from afar, falling back on the tactics they used in reducing cities to rubble in Syria and Chechnya.
A senior U.S. defense official said Wednesday that Russian ground forces appear to be digging in and setting up defensive positions 9 to 12 miles outside Kyiv, the capital, as they make little to no progress toward the city center. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military assessments, said it appears the forces are no longer trying to advance into the city, and in some areas east of Kyiv, Ukrainian troops have pushed Russian soldiers farther away.
Instead, Russian troops appear to be prioritizing the fight in the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions in the Donbas, in what could be an effort to cut off Ukrainian troops and prevent them from moving west to defend other cities, the official said.
Moscow again raises nuclear specter
Despite evidence to the contrary, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted the military operation is going “strictly in accordance” with plans.
In an ominous sign that Moscow might consider using nuclear weapons, senior Russian official Dmitry Rogozin said the country’s nuclear arsenal would help deter the West from intervening in Ukraine.
“The Russian Federation is capable of physically destroying any aggressor or any aggressor group within minutes at any distance,” said Rogozin, who heads the state aerospace corporation, Roscosmos, and oversees missile-building facilities. He noted in his televised remarks that Moscow’s nuclear stockpiles include tactical nuclear weapons, designed for use on battlefields, along with far more powerful nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles.
U.S. officials long have warned that Russia’s military doctrine envisages an “escalate to deescalate” option of using battlefield nuclear weapons to force the enemy to back down in a situation when Russian forces face imminent defeat. Moscow has denied having such plans.
Rogozin, known for his bluster, didn’t make clear what actions by the West would be seen as meddling, but his comments almost certainly reflect thinking inside the Kremlin. Putin has warned the West that an attempt to introduce a no-fly zone over Ukraine would draw it into a conflict with Russia. Western nations have said they wouldn’t create a no-fly zone to protect Ukraine.
Zelenskyy noted in his national address that Ukraine hasn’t received the fighter jets or modern air-defense systems it requested. He said Ukraine also needs tanks and anti-ship systems.
“It has been a month of defending ourselves from attempts to destroy us, wipe us off the face of the Earth,” he said.
