Russian convoy appears to be encircling Kyiv as onslaught widens to western Ukraine

Russia widened its military offensive in Ukraine on Friday, striking near airports in the west of the country for the first time, as observers and satellite photos indicated that its troops, long stalled in a convoy outside the capital Kyiv, were maneuvering in an attempt to encircle the city.

With the invasion now in its third week, the new moves on the ground pointed to Russian forces trying to regroup, bombarding new cities as they tightened their 10-day-old siege on the key Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, where tens of thousands took cover and struggled to find food.

In a potentially ominous movement, new satellite photos appeared to show that the massive Russian convoy outside the Ukrainian capital had fanned out into nearby towns and forests.

Howitzers were towed into positions to open fire, and armored units were seen in towns near the Antonov Airport north of the city, according to Maxar Technologies, the company that produced the images.

The 40-mile (64-kilometer) line of vehicles, tanks, and artillery had massed outside Kyiv early last week. But its advance had appeared to stall amid reports of food and fuel shortages while Ukrainian troops targeted it with anti-tank missiles.

The new moves suggest the convoy forces were now moving west around the city, making their way south to encircle it, according to Jack Watling, a research fellow at British defense think tank Royal United Services Institute.

“They’re about halfway around now,” he told BBC radio. He said they were likely preparing for a “siege rather than assault” on Kyiv because of continuing low morale and logistical problems.

The British Ministry of Defense said Friday that after making “limited progress,” Russian forces were trying to “re-set and re-posture” their troops, gearing up for operations against Kyiv.

NEW: The Russian military has put seeming multiple rocket launchers in firing positions less than 30 mi from Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv.

Resupply trucks likely from Russia’s dispersed 40-mi long convoy that stalled last week, are also seen in Berestyanka.

????:@Maxar pic.twitter.com/cwg2uFb0VC

— Jack Detsch (@JackDetsch) March 11, 2022

Western and Ukrainian officials have said the Russian forces have struggled in the face of heavier-than-expected resistance and supply and morale problems.

So far, they have made the most advances on cities in the south and east while stalling in the north and around Kyiv.

Meanwhile, new airstrikes in western Ukraine were likely a message from Russia that no area was safe.

A care home for people with disabilities near Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine was hit by Russian airstrikes, a local official said, without confirming casualty figures.

“The enemy today hit a specialized establishment for disabled people near Oskil,” regional official Oleg Sinegubov wrote on Telegram.

There were 330 people in the building at the time of the attack, he said, including 10 who required wheelchairs and 50 with reduced mobility.

He added that 63 had since been evacuated, without giving details on the others. “The Russians have again carried out a brutal attack against civilians,” said Sinegubov.

Strikes on the western Lutsk airfield killed four Ukrainian servicemen and wounded six, according to Lutsk Mayor Ihor Polishchuk. In Ivano-Frankivsk, residents were ordered to shelters after an air raid alert, Mayor Ruslan Martsinkiv said.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Russia used high-precision long-range weapons Friday to put military airfields in Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk “out of action.” He did not provide details.

A missile Friday hit the town of Baryshivka, on Kyiv’s eastern perimeter, significantly damaging buildings, according to the regional administration.

Russian airstrikes Friday targeted for the first time the eastern city of Dnipro, a major industrial hub and Ukraine’s fourth-largest city in a strategic position on the Dnieper River. Three strikes hit, killing at least one person, according to Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Anton Heraschenko.

In images of the strikes’ aftermath, firefighters doused a flaming building, and scattered ash fell on bloodied rubble. Smoke billowed over shattered concrete and collapsed sidings where buildings once stood.

The Ukrainian general staff said Friday that the attacks in the west and in Dnipro were launched because the Russians were “unable to succeed” on other fronts.

It said Russian efforts Friday remain concentrated around Kyiv and Mariupol, and that Russian forces are regrouping in the north and around the eastern cities of Sumy and Kharkiv.

‘EU must do more’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday pleaded for more help from Europe against the onslaught, as the UN confirmed scores more civilian deaths and refugees continued to pour out of the country.

“The European Union should do more. It must do more for us, for Ukraine,” Zelensky said. “The decisions of politicians must coincide with the mood of their people.”

“In the Sumy, Kyiv, and Donetsk regions, there is no more electricity. Yes, there are problems with heating. There is no gas, no water,” he said. “It’s a humanitarian catastrophe.”

The plea came as the US and its allies prepared to step up their efforts to isolate and sanction Russia by revoking its most favored trading status.

Revoking Russia’s “most favored nation” trade status by the US and other nations would allow higher tariffs to be imposed on some Russian imports. Western sanctions have already dealt a severe blow to Russia, causing the ruble to plunge, foreign businesses to flee, and prices to rise sharply.

Putin has insisted Russia can endure sanctions. After meeting in Moscow with the president of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, Putin said there have been “certain positive developments” in Russia-Ukraine negotiations. But he offered no details.

Death toll rising

The UN human rights office said it has documented 549 civilian deaths and 957 injuries so far, saying the toll and “general human suffering” are rising. The true figures are assumed to be far, far higher, as the fog of war makes confirming casualties difficult.

“Civilians are being killed and maimed in what appear to be indiscriminate attacks, with Russian forces using explosive weapons with wide-area effects in or near populated areas,” spokeswoman Liz Throssell said.

The World Health Organization said it has verified 29 attacks on health care facilities, workers, and ambulances that have killed 12 people and injured 34, WHO spokesperson Dr. Margaret Harris said.

Temperatures plummet

Temperatures sank below freezing across most of Ukraine and were forecast to hit -13 degrees Celsius (8 degrees Fahrenheit) in Kharkiv, which has come under heavy bombardment.

Some 400 apartment buildings were cut off from heating supplies, and Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov appealed to remaining residents to descend into the subway system or other underground shelters where authorities and volunteers were distributing blankets and hot food.

Mariupol residents said bombardment continued Friday.

Konashenkov, the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, said Russian-backed fighters have advanced up to 800 meters (2,624 feet) from Mariupol from the east, north, and west, further squeezing the city which has the Azov Sea to its south.

He said the advance was being conducted by fighters from the separatist-held Donetsk region, the standard Russian line for fighting in the east.

Ukrainian authorities are planning to send aid to Mariupol, home to some 430,000, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a video message.

Repeated previous attempts have failed as aid and rescue convoys were targeted by Russian shelling, even as residents have grown more desperate, scrounging for food and fuel.

More than 1,300 people have died in the siege, Vereshchuk said. “They want to destroy the people of Mariupol. They want to make them starve,” she added. “It’s a war crime.”

Residents have no heat or phone service. Bodies are being buried in mass graves. Grocery stores and pharmacies were emptied days ago by people breaking in to get supplies, according to a local official with the Red Cross, Sacha Volkov.

Residents, Volkov said, are turning on one another: “People started to attack each other for food.”

Vereshchuk also announced efforts to create new humanitarian corridors to bring aid to people in areas occupied or under Russian attack around the cities of Kherson in the south, Chernihiv in the north, and Kharkiv in the east.

Some 2.5 million people have fled Ukraine since the invasion began, the International Organization for Migration said Friday. Millions more have been driven from their homes. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said about 2 million people, half the metropolitan area’s population, have left the capital.