Eastern Ukraine braces for new assault as Russia regroups

The continued violence came amid new reports of human rights atrocities in Ukrainian cities and towns that had been under Russian control. Accounts of rapes and summary executions of civilians by Russian occupiers prompted the United States and several allies to announce new economic sanctions, including measures targeting two of Russia’s largest banks and Putin’s adult children.

“We are going to further increase the economic isolation of Russia,” President Biden said in a speech announcing the sanctions at a meeting of North American construction unions. “The United States will continue to stand with the Ukrainian people in their fight for freedom.”

Biden again accused Russia of committing “major war crimes” and said additional measures would further hit its economy. “Civilians executed in cold blood, bodies dumped in mass graves,” he said, ticking off a list of suspected war crimes. “A sense of brutality and inhumanity was left for the whole world to see unapologetically.”

The speech came as NATO and European Union leaders met to consider further steps to punish Moscow and support Ukraine. A possible European ban on Russian coal is expected to be approved on Thursday, along with additional military aid for kyiv from the NATO alliance.

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Pentagon officials confirmed Wednesday that Russia, in the past 24 hours, has completed an evacuation of all forces around kyiv and Chernihiv, two cities it had unsuccessfully tried to capture in the early days of the invasion, now in its sixth week.

While US analysts have not seen a tangible buildup of troops and tanks in Donbas, the energy-rich region near the Russian border that includes Donetsk and Luhansk, the Pentagon believes retreating units are regrouping for a concentrated attack. in the eastern provinces. Some of the recently withdrawn troops are now in neighboring Belarus, where the pro-Moscow government allows Russia to resupply its depleted battalions. Few, if any, have re-entered Ukraine so far, a senior Defense Department official told reporters.

“Our assessment is that they will not want to spend too much overhaul and resupply because they have made a very public show of saying they are going to prioritize their efforts in the Donbas region,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity under rules set by the the Pentagon.

For its part, Ukrainian forces are “absolutely adapting and adjusting in real time to Russian efforts now to increase their activities” in eastern Ukraine, the official said. “As they have pushed the Russians back or as the Russians have left, they are reoccupying that ground and making their own assessments of what their force posture should be going forward.”

Increased shelling in the eastern provinces claimed more victims on Wednesday, including the five people reportedly killed in Donetsk. Provincial Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said four people were killed by Russian artillery fire in the town of Vuhledar while waiting to receive humanitarian aid. The fifth victim, also a civilian, was killed during an attack in the town of Ocheretyn, he said, and six houses and a kindergarten were destroyed.

A regional military officer in Luhansk reported “massive shelling” in Severodonetsk. The number of victims was unclear. Video posted on Facebook and verified by The Washington Post shows townspeople struggling for cover as shells explode on a residential street.

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Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk urged residents of the Lugansk, Donetsk and Kharkiv regions to start preparing for the expected Russian attack. While the Kremlin described the troop withdrawal from kyiv as a “goodwill” gesture to facilitate peace talks, she said it was clear more attacks were coming. Moscow has stronger support in the east, where Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists have been locked in a grueling conflict for many years.

“We have to evacuate,” he said. “We have to do it because then people will catch fire, they will be shot… and we will not be able to help them.”

Elsewhere in Ukraine, rescuers searched for survivors in rubble-strewn neighborhoods recently cleared of Russian troops. Washington Post reporters witnessed scenes of devastation in Borodyanka, a community northwest of kyiv that had been hit by airstrikes that ripped out huge chunks of residential buildings.

In the courtyard of a school that became a garrison while Borodyanka was occupied, the Russians had dug a trench through a playground and built a sandbag wall along the perimeter fence, with openings for emplacements. weapons.

In a dilapidated apartment a few blocks away, Katia Palivshenko, 34, said she feared some of her neighbors were still trapped, and likely dead, in the basements of nearby bombed-out buildings. Cell phone service had failed when the city was attacked and she hadn’t heard from some of her friends since.

“They were underground, but then messages stopped coming,” he said. “We don’t know what happened to them.”

In Bucha, a town associated with some of the war’s most disturbing attacks on Ukrainian civilians, soldiers and police continued the harrowing work of removing and burying bodies, dozens of whom still lay in the streets and open fields. Some bodies were caught by the departing Russians, authorities said.

The town remained almost completely deserted, as demining teams methodically searched for hidden bombs. On Vokzalna Street, near the train station, the blackened hulls of Russian tanks, all destroyed in a fierce counterattack by Ukrainian forces, sat in eerie silence broken only by the barking of stray dogs.

Bucha’s pictures they have sparked shock and condemnation around the world, including at the United Nations, where dozens of countries have backed an effort to expel Moscow from the body’s Human Rights Council, a move reserved for countries that have repeatedly violated human rights. The 193-nation body’s vote could take place Thursday morning at UN headquarters in New York.

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The US sanctions announced on Wednesday targeted Sberbank and Alfa Bank, two of Russia’s largest financial institutions, and two daughters of the Russian president, Katerina Tikhonova and Mariya Putina. US officials say much of the Putin family’s enormous wealth is held in accounts held by family members. The White House is also seeking new economic sanctions against Russian state-owned companies involved in shipbuilding and aircraft manufacturing, as well as relatives of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Members of the 27-nation European Union were preparing to decide Thursday on a measure banning all imports of Russian coal, a key source of income for Moscow, even as NATO leaders discuss ways to further isolate Russia. while bolstering Ukraine’s ability to defend itself.

“Today, tomorrow, we will continue to talk not only about how we can sustain these efforts, but how we can build on them,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters. He was flanked by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who earlier in the day warned that the conflict could drag on despite increased Western military support for Ukrainian forces.

“We have to be realistic and realize that this can go on for a long time, many months, even years,” Stoltenberg said. “And that’s why we have to be prepared for the long term as well.”

Britain launched additional sanctions against eight Russian oligarchs and two banks and he promised to end all dependence on Russian coal and oil by the end of 2022. “We are showing the Russian elite that they cannot wash their hands of atrocities committed on Putin’s orders,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said. .

In Washington, the Justice Department announced indictments against Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev, whom US officials have accused of illegally supporting pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine. Speaking at a news conference, Attorney General Merrick Garland also announced the successful disruption of a global “botnet,” or network of hacked computers, that he said was controlled by the Russian military intelligence agency known as the GRU. Moscow has used similar networks to attack Ukrainian targets, Garland said.

“It doesn’t matter how far you sail your yacht. It doesn’t matter how well you hide your assets. It doesn’t matter how cleverly they write their malware or hide their online activity,” Garland said. “The Justice Department will use every tool available to find him, disrupt his plans and hold him accountable.”

Stern reported from Mukachevo, Ukraine; Loveluck from Borodyanka, Ukraine; and Bearak from Bucha, Ukraine. Warrick reported from Washington. Missy Ryan in Brussels, William Booth in London, and Dan Lamothe, Jeff Stein, John Hudson, Devlin Barrett, Matt Zapotosky, Amy B Wang, and Meryl Kornfield in Washington contributed to this report.