LVIV, Ukraine — Amid a growing consensus that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is morphing into a bloody stalemate that could last months, Ukrainian officials on Sunday blamed the Kremlin for a new spate of deadly attacks on civilian targets, including the bombing of an art school where hundreds had taken shelter.
Ukrainian officials also accused Russian forces of kidnapping several thousand residents of the besieged port city of Mariupol and deporting them against their will to “remote cities in Russia.”
Ukraine’s human rights spokesperson, Lyudmyla Denisova, said on Telegram that residents were being transported across the border to a Russian city about 60 miles from Mariupol and then sent by train farther into the Russian interior.
Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko likened the alleged deportations to the expulsion and slaughter of millions of Jews by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. “What the occupiers are doing today is familiar to the older generation, who saw the horrific events of World War II,” Boychenko said.
The reports of forced removals could not be independently verified. Russia has not responded to the allegations, although Russian state media have reported that buses filled with what they described as refugees have been arriving from Ukraine in recent days.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told CNN on Sunday that she could not confirm the reports but added it would be “unconscionable for Russia to force Ukrainian citizens into Russia, and put them in what will basically be concentration and prisoner camps.”
Few journalists or humanitarian aid workers have been able to enter Mariupol, where machine-gun battles rage daily between Russian forces and Ukrainian defenders, and a relentless stream of bombardments has severed communication lines and left residents desperate for food, water and escape.
The strategic city of some 400,000 on the Sea of Azov has become a vivid symbol of the devastation wrought by the unprovoked invasion, with massive craters opened by bombs and artillery shells and officials reporting that 90% of the city’s buildings have been damaged or destroyed.
Early Sunday, the city council of Mariupol said Russia had bombed Art School Number 12 in the city’s left-bank district, were some 400 people, including women and children, were said to be sheltering.
“It is known that the building was demolished and there are still peaceful people under the rubble,” the city council said. Ukrainian authorities provided no immediate word on casualties.
The strike followed a similar bombing Wednesday of a large Mariupol theater where more than 1,000 people were apparently taking shelter. Some 130 people were rescued but hundreds of others were believed to be trapped under the debris, Ukrainian officials said. Four days later, there was no official word on their fate, with officials reporting that intense fighting in the area had hindered rescue efforts.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that Moscow’s relentless assault on the city “will go down in history” as a war crime.
“The terror the occupiers did to the peaceful city will be remembered for centuries to come,” Zelenskyy said in his daily address, marking the 25th day since Russia invaded Ukraine. “And the more Ukrainians tell the world about it, the more support we find. The more Russia uses terror against Ukraine, the worse the consequences will be for it.”
Despite reports of widespread destruction in Mariupol, there were growing signs that Moscow’s apparent hopes for a quick war and rapid Ukrainian capitulation have faded against unexpectedly fierce resistance and what many call miscalculations and missteps by Russian military planners.
In a new assessment of the war in Ukraine, the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said that the protracted siege on Mariupol, while devastating, “is costing the Russian military time, initiative, and combat power.”
It said Russia’s failures to quickly seize control of Kyiv and other major cities have created the conditions for a “bloody stalemate that could last for weeks or months.”
The U.K. Ministry of Defense has issued a similar statement, saying Russia, after failing to win control of Ukraine’s skies, has adopted a “strategy of attrition” aimed at wearing down Ukrainian forces to the point of collapse. The agency predicted an increase in Russia’s “indiscriminate use of firepower” and warned of civilian casualties, the destruction of key Ukrainian infrastructure and a growing humanitarian crisis.
The United Nations said at least 847 civilians have been killed in the war, although it says the real toll may be much higher given that many parts of Ukraine remain inaccessible.
More than 3.3 million people have fled the nation since the Russian invasion, according to U.N., and 6.5 million people are internally displaced.
Across the country, residents were desperately trying to escape a country that just a month ago was at peace.
In the brightly lit basement of a residential building in Kyiv, more than a dozen infants sat in cribs, waiting to be evacuated.
The babies, born to Ukrainian surrogate mothers and bound for U.S. families, have been stranded here since March 4, when a bombardment struck near the nursery where they were living. They have been looked after by a handful of caretakers who juggle feeding bottles and try to keep the distressed infants from fainting.
“My family and everyone I know was screaming and shouting at me to go home,” said Svetlana Stetsiuk, one of the caretakers. “I stayed because these little babies need mothers.”
On this cold afternoon, Stetsiuk was preparing to say goodbye to one of her favorite charges, a 3-week-old named Romeo. Two men armed with automatic rifles were preparing to take him and another baby to safety via an evacuating train.
Stetsiuk swaddled Romeo in a blanket and tucked him into an insulated carrier. She whispered something to him. He responded by touching her face. Then the men with guns took the infant away.
Negotiations to end the conflict have been ongoing, but there was no word on new progress this weekend as the war raged on for a fourth week. The two sides have had several rounds of talks, but the discussions have run aground amid differences on some key issues, among them Russian demands for Ukrainian demilitarization, and various Ukrainian demands for security guarantees.
In a video address early Saturday, Zelenskyy repeated his desire to hold personal negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“It’s time to meet, time to talk,” Zelenskyy said.
Kremlin officials have not responded to Zelenskyy’s requests for a summit with Putin.
Thomas-Greenfield said the U.S. supports Zelenskyy’s attempts, but tempered expectations. “I do use the word ‘attempted’ because the negotiations seem to be one-sided, and the Russians have not leaned into any possibility for a negotiated and diplomatic solution,” she told CNN. “But we’re still hopeful that the Ukrainian effort will end this brutal war.”
There was still no official statement Sunday on casualties from a reported Russian bombing of a military barracks in Mykolaiv, a major Black Sea port and shipbuilding center about 300 miles west of Mariupol.
Rescuers were using shovels and bare hands this weekend in search of survivors in the rubble of the barracks following a missile strike Friday. Various media organizations have reported dozens of casualties, which would make it among the deadliest Russian airstrikes to date on a military target.
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(McDonnell reported from Lviv, Yam from Kyiv and Linthicum from Mexico City. Los Angeles Times staff writers Jenny Jarvie in Atlanta and Erin B. Logan in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.)
