Kyiv Rocked by Explosions as Russia Steps Up Attacks

Russia hit targets in Kyiv on Friday as its forces threatened to escalate attacks on Ukrainian command centers in response to alleged strikes inside Russian territory, with both sides gearing up for a new stage in the ground war in the country’s east.  

As Moscow stepped up pressure on Ukraine’s capital, the fate of Mariupol in the country’s southeast hung in the balance, with Russian forces pressing their campaign to take control of the strategic port city that serves as a potential link between Russia’s mainland and the Crimean Peninsula it seized from Ukraine in 2014.

The latest Russian strikes on the Kyiv area come as Russian and Ukrainian forces girded themselves for what officials and military analysts say will be a new stage of the ground war, in the Donbas region in the east of Ukraine, after Moscow’s initial attempt to take Kyiv failed. The area is home to two Russian-backed regions that broke away from Ukrainian government control in 2014, the same year Moscow annexed the strategic Crimea region.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said it struck a factory near Kyiv that produces long- and medium-range missiles as well as antiship missiles. The strike came a day after Ukraine said it hit the Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, with a cruise-missile attack.

A senior U.S. defense official said Friday the ship was hit and sunk by two Ukrainian Neptune missiles, a claim also made by Ukraine. There was no independent confirmation of the use of Neptune missiles, which have thus far been under development. Russia has said the vessel sank from damage suffered from a fire that caused ammunition stores to explode. It said the source of the fire was unknown and that the Moskva sank in stormy weather as it was towed to port.

The loss of the warship nonetheless represents a significant blow that could compromise the security of Russia’s entire Black Sea Fleet. During the war that began on Feb. 24, Russian ships in the Black Sea have fired cruise missiles at Ukrainian cities, targeting infrastructure, fuel depots, military bases and civilian administrative buildings.

“It is a significant loss,” the U.S. official said. “It’s going to be a blow to their pride, and we would expect it will be a blow to their morale.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it used antiaircraft systems to down a Ukrainian helicopter that had fired on a settlement in Russia’s Bryansk region, close to the Ukrainian border. Ukraine hasn’t commented on the allegations.

The ministry also said it had thwarted a Ukrainian missile attack on a hydroelectric power plant in the Russian-controlled Kherson region in Ukraine’s south. Local authorities in Kakhovka, the town next to the power plant, said two people were killed and three injured as a result of shrapnel. Doctors cited by the municipality said the shrapnel came from a rocket intercepted over the nearby town of Plodove.

 “In response to acts of sabotage by Ukrainian forces on Russian territory, the number and scale of missile attacks on objects in Kyiv will increase,” said Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov.

Residents in the Russian city of Belgorod, near the Ukrainian border, reported twin explosions Friday. Video emerged of Russian air defenses hitting an object over the city, where Russia two weeks ago accused Ukraine of striking an oil depot. Two days ago, a key Belgorod railway bridge was destroyed, damaging Russia’s ability to supply forces deployed in eastern Ukraine.

Mr. Konashenkov said Russia had destroyed a unit of Polish mercenaries and downed a Ukrainian jet fighter in the Kharkiv region.

He also said Russia had captured the Ilyich iron and steel works complex in the besieged city of Mariupol, along the Azov Sea coast. Russia claimed to have taken over control of the city from Ukrainian forces after weeks of heavy bombardment and what local authorities say is a significant civilian death toll.

Encircled in Mariupol, the commander of Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade, Serhiy Volyna, implored the Ukrainian military to break the siege of the city.

The Mariupol city council said on social media that Russia had forcibly deported several thousand local residents to camps within Russia and redirected them to remote cities.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said nine humanitarian corridors opened on Friday had been successfully used by 2,864 people fleeing from Russian-controlled areas in the southeast to areas under Ukrainian government control. Most people evacuated using private transport.

Meanwhile, Anatoliy Fedoruk, the mayor of Bucha, where a Russian retreat revealed more than 400 civilian deaths, said 85% of the bodies recently recovered had bullet wounds. “Premeditated murder took place in Bucha,” he said.

Moscow has denied targeting civilians in its military assault on Ukraine.

The Donbas region of eastern Ukraine has been a coveted prize in President Vladimir Putin’s military offensive in Ukraine. Capturing the parts of Donbas that it doesn’t already control would allow Russia to claim it has defended the predominantly Russian-speaking part of the country from oppression by the nationalists it says control the government in Kyiv.

Before the Feb. 24 invasion, Mr. Putin said Russia was recognizing the independence of the two self-declared republics that control parts of the Donbas, and Russian forces have since been consolidating their positions there in advance of what is expected to be a fresh offensive. Mr. Putin said this past week that peace talks with Ukraine had reached a dead end, and the Kremlin has insisted that the military operation is going to plan.

 “The operation continues,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday. “The goals set are well known, they should and will be completed. There should be no doubt whatsoever.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address that “in the occupied districts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, the Russian military continues to terrorize civilian residents of our country. They are looking for anyone who has ever been associated with the Ukrainian army or government agencies.’’

Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns reiterated U.S. concerns Thursday that Mr. Putin might resort to using tactical nuclear weapons if he felt Russia was facing a catastrophic loss in its invasion of Ukraine.

 “Given the potential desperation of President Putin and the Russian leadership, given the setbacks that they’ve faced so far militarily, none of us can take lightly the threat posed by a potential resort to tactical nuclear weapons or low-yield nuclear weapons,” Mr. Burns said during an appearance at Georgia Institute of Technology.

Russia, meanwhile, denounced plans by Sweden and Finland to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization amid fears of a possible spillover of Russia’s war in Ukraine. The two countries, which have a long tradition of military neutrality, are considering joining the bloc and will make a decision in the coming weeks.

Russia on Thursday warned that it could station nuclear forces in and around the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad in Northern Europe and bolster its military presence there if Finland and Sweden join NATO.

In an ominous sign for the country’s economy, Russia is also facing the possibility of defaulting on foreign debt for the first time since the aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. Moody’s Corp. said the country may be in default after trying to service two sovereign bonds in rubles rather than U.S. dollars, which changes the payment terms in the original bond contracts.

Russia could avoid default, the ratings agency said, if it switches its payments to dollars by May 4. That may not be easy as sanctions from the U.S. and Europe on its central bank and finance ministry have hemmed in what it can do with its funds.