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There was no immediate word on deaths or injuries, though a local official said the fate of “several hundred” people remained unknown.
The strikes in Mariupol and other cities served as a vivid reminder of international concerns about whether Russia would hold to any negotiated truce, and of the immense toll that will be taken as each day passes without a deal. Further cutting against the idea of an imminent end to the war, Russia is deliberating reinforcement of its troops and supplies, the Pentagon said Wednesday, as naval forces bombarded towns outside Odessa, a key port city on the Black Sea. A defense official said the Russians may be softening defenses before invading on the ground.
Ukraine did not announce humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians out of its most vulnerable cities Wednesday because it was not safe to do so, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in her daily briefing — a departure from a precedent set in recent days.
Vereshchuk accused Russian forces of “firing at humanitarian columns of buses” and at “gathering points where the evacuation of peaceful civilians had been planned from, and also taking accompanying people hostage.” According to the latest figures from a U.N. office tracking casualties, 726 civilians have been confirmed killed and 1,174 injured since the fighting began last month — though the actual toll is probably far higher.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a Russian TV channel that there is “hope for reaching a compromise” in negotiations, echoing comments by Ukrainian officials that the parties were inching closer to a breakthrough. However, both sides stressed that the talks were difficult, with differences remaining over security guarantees for Ukraine and other thorny issues.
U.S. and Western officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, expressed skepticism about the optimistic statements from the Ukrainian delegation about the talks. Some officials said they suspect Zelensky is trying to keep up momentum, even if negotiations are progressing poorly. Others say the Ukrainian leader may not be sharing a full account of closed-door discussions. Many diplomats fear that Moscow is only using the talks to buy time and replenish its forces.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan spoke with his Russian counterpart, Nikolai Patrushev, on Wednesday, emphasizing that if the Kremlin is serious about diplomacy, it should “stop attacking Ukrainian cities and towns,” the White House said in a statement. The discussion appears to be the highest-level engagement between Moscow and Washington since Russia’s invasion began.
The White House announced $800 million more in security assistance, part of a government spending bill that President Biden signed this week to provide $13.6 billion in new aid to Ukraine. Biden also called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” for the first time publicly.
The Kremlin reacted swiftly to Biden’s words. “We consider unacceptable and unforgivable such rhetoric from the head of the country, whose bombs killed hundreds of thousands of people,” said Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov.
Biden is scheduled to travel to Europe next week to join a NATO summit on the Russian invasion. In preparation, NATO defense ministers gathered Wednesday to explore an ambitious new plan for the expansion of the alliance’s forces in Europe, part of a special meeting held in Brussels on how to respond to the threat posed by Russia’s attacks without getting drawn into a wider conflict.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the ministers discussed the long-term deployment of additional troops, warships and planes to the alliance’s eastern flank, which would be funded by major increases in defense spending by NATO member governments. The defense ministers of non-NATO members Finland, Sweden, Georgia and Ukraine notably attended the meeting, underscoring how worried those in proximity to Russia are by the Kremlin’s aggression.
The ministers emphasized arming and funding Ukraine, which would maintain pressure on Russia to make concessions at the negotiating table, Stoltenberg said. But he reiterated that NATO should not deploy forces on the ground or in Ukrainian airspace to prevent a wider war.
“NATO has a responsibility to ensure that this does not escalate beyond Ukraine,” he said.
In the past two days, Ukrainian officials have announced a series of devastating attacks, including a rocket barrage near a botanical garden in southeastern Ukraine and a suspected missile strike on a Kyiv apartment building that led to a frenzied effort to rescue people on the top floors. No deaths were reported in the rocket attack; local officials say at least four people died in the apartment strike in Kyiv, which is under a 36-hour curfew that lifts Thursday.
In Kharkiv, home to 1.4 million people, shelling has destroyed residences, art museums, libraries and government buildings in a city known for its architecture. U.N. agencies and humanitarian groups say even incomplete casualty counts so far show alarming effects on Ukraine’s youngest population: Dozens of children are listed among the dead, and minors make up half of the 3 million Ukrainians who have left the country.
Pope Francis led students in Italy in a prayer Wednesday for children in Ukraine, asking them to think of the “little ones” fleeing bombs and their homes, the Catholic News Service reported.
The strike in Mariupol was particularly horrific.
The Mariupol City Council said in a Telegram post that a Russian plane “dropped a bomb” on the Drama Theater. Videos verified by The Washington Post show extensive damage, as well as flames and plumes of smoke rising up from a large indentation in the middle of the building.
“It is still impossible to estimate the scale of this horrific and inhumane act,” the City Council said, adding that at least the central part of the theater and the entrance were destroyed.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter that Russia must have known that civilians were using the theater as a shelter, calling the incident “another horrific war crime.”
Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional administration, where Mariupol is located, said in a Facebook post that the fate of the “several hundred” residents is “unknown,” as the entrance to the building is blocked by rubble. Kyrylenko posted images on Facebook, stating that the destruction was caused by a Russian airstrike targeting civilians.
The Russian Defense Ministry denied any involvement. “Russian aviation did not carry out any tasks related to strikes against ground targets in the city of Mariupol,” the ministry said in a statement. Instead, Russian defense officials asserted — without evidence — that “reliable data” showed that militants with the Azov Battalion, a far-right nationalist Ukrainian paramilitary group, “committed a new bloody provocation by blowing up the theater building.”
Vereshchuk, the Ukrainian deputy prime minister, said that in Mariupol, Russian forces also seized an intensive care hospital on Tuesday and took “400 peaceful people” hostage, including medical personnel, and were launching attacks from the hospital. Across the city, conditions are deteriorating amid a Russian blockade, with food and water dwindling and bodies going into mass graves.
Russian forces and equipment remain stalled in many areas, Western officials insisted. About 10 percent of the forces Russia brought into Ukraine are out of the fight, the Pentagon said, including those killed, wounded, captured or missing. Though Russia is deliberating reinforcement of its troops and supplies, the Pentagon has not seen evidence that such reinforcements are moving toward Ukraine, according to a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Biden administration.
“Every day they’re experiencing losses of equipment, of aircraft, of people,” the official said.
Ukrainian air defense forces also continue to prevent Russia’s modern combat aircraft from achieving air superiority, a senior NATO intelligence official said Wednesday, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by NATO.
“Russian forces are struggling to overcome the challenges posed by Ukraine’s terrain,” the official said, adding that their advance has been slowed by a reluctance to conduct off-road maneuvers and the destruction of bridges by Ukrainian forces.
Nonetheless, the official said, “Putin is unlikely to be deterred, and may instead escalate.”
“He likely remains confident that Russia can militarily defeat Ukraine,” the official said, adding that it was unclear whether Putin will pursue “a maximalist plan” to capture all or most of the country.
Allam and Villegas reported from Washington. Stern reported from Mukachevo, Ukraine. Emily Rauhala in Brussels; Liz Sly in London; Paul Sonne in Riga, Latvia; and Alex Horton and Ellen Nakashima in Washington contributed to this report.
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