Putin Vows to Continue Bloody Attacks on Ukraine Until Russia’s Goals Are Reached –

Kiev, Ukraine (AP) – Russia vowed to resume bloody attacks on Ukraine Wednesday near the seventh week of the war as President Vladimir Putin insisted the campaign was going according to plan, despite heavy withdrawals and losses. .

Following the blockade of the capital Kiev, Russian troops focused on the eastern region of Donbass, where Ukraine said it was investigating allegations of dropping a toxic substance on its troops. It is currently unknown what he will do after he leaves office, but Western officials warn that any use of Russia’s chemical weapons could lead to a serious escalation of the conflict. It is already a devastating war.

Russia invaded on February 24 with the aim, according to Western officials, to take Kiev, overthrow the government and establish a pro-Moscow regime. Six weeks later, advances on the ground stopped and Russian forces possibly lost thousands of fighters and the killing of civilians and other atrocities were blamed.

Putin said on Tuesday that Moscow had “no other choice” and that the invasion was intended to protect people in parts of eastern Ukraine and “ensure Russia’s security”. He promised that “it will continue until its complete completion and the completion of the prescribed tasks.”

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to receive the presidents of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, his strongest allies in Europe.

“We are visiting Ukraine to show strong support for the Ukrainian people, we will meet our dear friend President Zelenski,” wrote Estonian President Alar Karis.

Right now, Putin’s forces are preparing for a major offensive in the Donbas, where Russia’s separatist allies and Ukrainian forces have been fighting since 2014 and where Russia has recognized the separatists ’claims to freedom. . Military strategists say Moscow believes local support, logistics and relief efforts in the region will contribute to its larger and better armed army, possibly allowing Russia to finally turn the tide. water in its favor.

In Mariupol, a strategic port city in the Donbas, a Ukrainian regiment guarding a steel mill said a plane had dropped poison on the city. The accusation of the Azov regime, a most right-wing group that is now part of the Ukrainian army, has not been independently substantiated. The regiment noted no serious injuries.

Zelensky said that before experts can try to determine what the substance might be, “the world needs to react now.”

The allegations came after a Russian allied separatist official called for the use of chemical weapons and on Monday told Russian state television that separatist forces should take over the plant, largely blocking all exits. . “And then we will use chemical weapons to get them out of there,” officer Eduard Basurin said. On Tuesday, he denied that separatists used chemical weapons in Mariupol.

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said officers were investigating and possibly phosphorus bullets – which cause horrific burns but are not classified as chemical weapons – were used in Mariupol, which were destroyed by attack by Russia in a few weeks. .

Western leaders have warned that if the use of chemical weapons turns out to be a serious violation of international law.

The Pentagon said it could not confirm the drone report, but reiterated U.S. concerns about Russia’s use of chemicals. Meanwhile, Britain warned that Russia could use phosphorus bombs, which are banned by civil law under international law, in Mariupol.

Most troops use phosphor ammunition to illuminate targets or to create smoke screens. Their intentional firing indoors to expose people to gas could violate the Chemical Weapons Convention, said Mark-Michael Bloom, former head of the Netherlands-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

“Once you start using the properties of white phosphorus, the toxic properties specifically and intentionally, it will be banned,” he said.

In Washington, a senior U.S. defense official said the Biden administration was preparing another package of military aid to Ukraine, to be announced in the coming days, worth perhaps $ 750 million. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, discussing plans that have not yet been made public. The $ 800 million in military aid Biden approved last month is expected to end this week.

Amid intense resistance by Ukrainian forces powered by Western weapons, Russian forces increasingly relied on bombing the city, destroying many urban areas and killing thousands. The war has pushed more than 10 million Ukrainians into their homes, including nearly two-thirds of the country’s children.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk said the humanitarian corridors used to evacuate people from cities under Russian attack would not work on Wednesday due to poor security.

He said Russian troops blocked evacuation buses in the southeastern region of Zaporizhia as they violated the ceasefire in the Lugansk region. “The occupiers not only ignored the standards of international humanitarian law, they also failed to control their people on the ground.” All this creates such a danger to the routes that we are now forced to prevent the opening of humane corridors “.

Zelensky said evidence of “inhumane cruelty” against women and children in Bucha and other suburbs of Kiev is still emerging, including alleged rape.

“Not all serial harassers will achieve the brutality of Russian soldiers,” Zelensky said.

More than 720 people have been killed outside Kiev, occupied by Russian troops, and more than 200 are missing, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday morning.

In Bucha alone, Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk said 403 bodies were found and the number could rise as mortars clear the area.

In the Chernigov district, villagers reported that more than 300 people were trapped during the occupation by Russian troops in the basement of the school for nearly a month and could only go to the bathroom or eat over the open fire.

Valentina Saroyan told The Associated Press that she saw at least five people killed in Yahidne, 140 kilometers (86 miles) north of Kiev. Residents of one of the rooms wrote down the names of those who died during the trial – there were 18 people on the list.

The villagers say they do not know the cause of death. Russian soldiers allowed them to occasionally remove corpses to be buried in a mass grave in a local cemetery.

Julia Suripak said the Russians only allowed some people to go home on short trips if they sang Russia’s national anthem. Another resident, Svitlana Baguta, said she was given a drink by a Russian soldier from a flask with a pointed gun in her face.

The Attorney General’s Office of Ukraine said on Tuesday that it is also investigating events in the Brovary district, located in the northeast of the country. He said the bodies of six civilians were found with bullet wounds in the basement of the village of Shevchenkov and likely the responsibility of Russian forces.

Prosecutors are also investigating allegations that Russian forces fired on a convoy of civilians trying to overtake the village of Peremoha in the Brovar district, killing four people, including a 13-year-old child. male. Another attack near Bucha killed five people, including two children, when a car caught fire, prosecutors said.

Putting the False Argument on Tuesday, Ukraine’s allegation that hundreds of civilians were killed by Russian troops in the city of Bucha is “false”. Associated Press reporters saw dozens of corpses in and around the city, some with their hands tied and apparently shot at close range.

Reported by Karmanau from Lviv, Ukraine. Associated Press writer Robert Burns in Washington and AP reporters from around the world contributed to this report.