Russia strikes Ukraine fuel and rail facilities in attacks beyond enemy lines
ITV News Correspondent Peter Smith reports on Russia's latest attacks in Ukraine
Russia has unleashed a string of attacks against Ukrainian rail and fuel installations, striking crucial infrastructure far from the front line of its eastern offensive.
Meanwhile, two fires were reported at oil facilities in western Russia, not far from the Ukrainian border. It was not clear what caused the blazes.
As both sides in the two-month-old war brace for what could be a grinding battle of attrition in Ukraine's east, top US envoys said Russia is failing in its war aims, while "Ukraine is succeeding".
It is thought the attacks on Ukrainian rail facilities are part of Russia's bid to slow the movement of Ukrainian supplies towards the east and disrupt the flow of fuel needed by the country’s forces.
The state-run Ukrainian Railways, said five railway facilities in central and western Ukraine were hit early on Monday. That included a missile attack near the western city of Lviv.
Following a report from authorities in the central Vynnytsia region that Russian missiles had hit "critical infrastructure" on Monday, the area's prosecutors said at least five people had been killed by Russian strikes.
Russia also destroyed an oil refinery in Kremenchuk in central Ukraine, along with fuel depots there, the Russian Defence Ministry said.
The officials made the declaration during the first high level US trip to Kyiv during which Washington promised Ukraine hundreds of millions of dollars in new aid.
Global Security Editor Rohit Kachroo explains how the Ukrainian defence is holding up against Russia
In a meeting with Ukraine president Volodomyr Zelenskyy, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the United States had approved a $165 million sale of ammunition for Ukraine’s war effort, along with more than $300 million in foreign military financing.
In footage of the meeting later released by the Ukrainian presidency, Mr Blinken praised the “extraordinary courage and leadership and success that you’ve had in pushing back this horrific Russian aggression.”
Speaking at the Poland-Ukraine border about his meeting in Kyiv with Mr Zelenskyy and foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba, Mr Blinken said: "When it comes to Russia’s war aims, Russia is failing, Ukraine is succeeding."
Mr Blinken's comments are seemingly reinforced by intelligence from the Ministry of Defence, which said on Monday that Moscow has yet to achieve a significant breakthrough in its offensive in the eastern part of the country.
"Since failing to capture Kyiv, the Russians have aimed to gain full control over Donbas, the eastern industrial heartland, where Moscow-backed separatists controlled some territory before the war," the ministry said.
With Moscow’s forces seeking to dislodge the last Ukrainian troops in the battered port of Mariupol, they cannot be added to the offensive elsewhere in Donbas. Ukrainian troops holed up in the Azovstal steel factory “means many Russian units remain fixed in the city and cannot be redeployed”. The ministry added that, so far, Russia has only made “minor advances in some areas since shifting its focus to fully occupying the Donbas.” “Without sufficient logistical and combat support enablers in place, Russia has yet to achieve a significant breakthrough,” the ministry said. Mr Zelenskyy’s meeting with US officials is his first face-to-face talks with a top American official since a February 19 meeting, where he met in Munich with vice president Kamala Harris.
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Mariupol has endured fierce fighting since the start of the war because of its location on the Sea of Azov. Its capture would deprive Ukraine of a vital port, free up Russian troops to fight elsewhere, and allow Moscow to establish a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014. Over the weekend, Russian forces launched fresh airstrikes on the steel plant in an attempt to dislodge the estimated 2,000 fighters inside. Around 1,000 civilians are reported to be holed up in the sprawling steelworks. The Russian military said it would open a humanitarian corridor for civilians to evacuate from the besieged steel plant in Mariupol on Monday.
New satellite images by Planet Labs PBC, taken on Sunday, show destroyed buildings across the steelworks and smoke rising from one part of the facility. Roofs have gaping holes; a football field is cratered from incoming fire. More than 100,000 people — down from a pre-war population of about 430,000 — are believed to remain in Mariupol with scant food, water or heating. Ukrainian authorities estimate more than 20,000 civilians have been killed. Recent satellite images showed what appeared to be mass graves to the west and east of Mariupol.