MONDAY, APRIL 25 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ SU A
war in ukraineWashington have emphasized
that they continue to seek weap-
ons and ammunition, more eco-
nomic sanctions against Russia,
and financial assistance to prop
up the Ukrainian economy.
Ukrainian Prime Minister De-
nys Shmyhal said the visit by
Biden administration officials on
Sunday is a significant step that
reflects the unity of the coalition
of countries opposed to the Rus-
sian invasion.
“It’s a very important political
symbol and a symbol of uniting
for the countries and politicians
and nations when our partners go
to Ukraine to see by their own
eyes what’s happened,” Shmyhal
said, appearing on CBS’s “Face
the Nation” on Sunday.
Zelensky also said over the
weekend that he would be press-
ing Blinken and Austin for addi-
tional military assistance.
“They should not come here
with empty hands,” Zelensky said
Saturday during a news confer-
ence in a subway station in Kyiv.
“We are expecting specific things
and specific weapons.”
U.S. officials emphasized that
they have been stepping up in
providing assistance.
“In terms of ‘empty hands,’ I
would point to the last two weeks
and, really, the last 10 days, when
the United States has announced
$1.6 billion in additional security
assistance that is having a signifi-
cant effect on the ground in terms
of enabling Ukraine to continue
to hold off and push back Russian
forces,” Deputy National Security
Adviser Jon Finer said on “Meet
the Press,” hinting that more aid
announcements would be com-
ing this week.
The former U.S. ambassador to
NATO, Douglas Lute, said that in
some ways, the stock of Ukraini-
an weaponry may be gaining
ground on that of the invaders.
By some estimates, Lute said,
Ukraine will have as many tanks
on the battlefield as the Russians.Miriam Berger, Julian Duplain, Amy B
Wang, Annabelle Timsit, Meryl
Kornfield, Erin Cunningham, Lisa
Rein, Kostiantyn Khudov, Isabelle
Khurshudyan, Sammy Westfall,
Annabelle Chapman and Robert
Klemko contributed to this report.The most important thing the
United Nations can do, Veresh-
chuk said, referring to Guterres
by name, is to help open a human-
itarian corridor.
“The longer we wait, more lives
will be at risk,” said Amin Awad,
the U.N. crisis coordinator for
Ukraine. “They must be allowed
to safely evacuate now, today.
Tomorrow could be too late.”
Guterres last week also called
for a four-day pause in the fight-
ing for Orthodox Easter to allow
civilians to be evacuated from the
conflict areas and for humanitar-
ian aid to be delivered. The pause
was to start on Thursday, but it
did not happen.
Ukrainian officials who met
with their U.S. counterparts inwas considering an invitation
from Zelensky and Kyiv Mayor
Vitali Klitschko to visit the capi-
tal. The pope told a reporter on
April 2 that the trip was “on the
table,” the Guardian newspaper
reported.
Vereshchuk urged the United
Nations to push for a cease-fire
and to “ensure” that there is a
humanitarian corridor from Mar-
iupol in general, and specifically
on from Azovstal, where she said
1,000 women and children are
holed up. She added that 500
people, and perhaps more, are
injured there, she added, with
dozens requiring immediate
medical attention. The Washing-
ton Post was unable to confirm
those numbers Sunday.plans of establishing a land
bridge from Ukraine’s breakaway
regions in the east to the Crimean
Peninsula, which Moscow an-
nexed by force in 2014.
Palamar has vowed not to sur-
render, even though Putin last
week had declared victory in
Mariupol.
According to Ukrainian offi-
cials, up to 20,000 civilians may
have been killed in Mariupol
since the start of the invasion —
in a city where the prewar popu-
lation numbered about 450,000.
An estimated 100,000 civilians
remain in the city, according to
the United Nations.
Mariupol is “almost wiped
out,” Zhovkva said on “Meet the
Press.”
“People are living without el-
ementary conditions, without
food, without water supply, with-
out electricity,” he said. “That’s
why we need the attention of the
international community.”
Mayor Vadym Boychenko
called Mariupol a “new Babyn
Yar” — a reference to the mass
graves near Kyiv where the Nazis
massacred at least 33,000 Jews.
“The biggest war crime of the
21st century was committed in
Mariupol,” Boychenko said.
Amid the devastation, there
were rising pleas to allow civil-
ians to escape the city.
On ABC News’s “This Week,”
Yevheniia Kravchuk, a member of
the Ukrainian parliament, said
Russian soldiers were not allow-
ing civilians to evacuate and in-
stead were trying to forcibly
move Ukrainians to Russian ter-
ritory.
Efforts to evacuate civilians on
Saturday had to be abandoned
because of the dangers, Ukraini-
ans officials said, and despite
renewed efforts on Sunday there
were still no working humanitari-
an corridors from Mariupol,
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minis-
ter Iryna Vereshchuk said in tele-
vised remarks, blaming Russia
for the failures.
During a Saturday news con-
ference, Zelensky proposed that
Pope Francis help with negotia-
tions to try “to unblock the hu-
manitarian corridors” into and
out of the city, renewing a propos-
al for the pontiff to visit the
war-torn country.
Francis said this month that hees stood in stark contrast with the
fierce battles in Ukraine as resi-
dents nationwide emerged from
an overnight curfew.
Five people were killed in the
Donetsk region in the east on
Sunday, including children ages 5
and 14, according to Pavlo
Kyrylenko, head of the military
administration there.
In Luhansk, also in the eastern
region of Ukraine, eight people
were killed this weekend and at
least seven buildings and a police
station were destroyed by recent
shelling, regional governor Ser-
hiy Haidai said Sunday. Russia
has escalated its attacks in east-
ern Ukraine in recent days in its
attempt to capture the region.
The Russian defense ministry
claimed Sunday that its air force
“hit 26 military assets of
Ukraine,” while its missiles and
artillery destroyed numerous
sites containing Ukrainian forces
and military equipment.
On Saturday, missile strikes
killed at least eight people in the
Black Sea port city of Odessa,
prompting Zelensky to comment
with disgust: “What a great Eas-
ter holiday we’re having.” He re-
ferred to Russian soldiers as
“scumbags.”
And in Mariupol, the bombard-
ment by Russian forces contin-
ued, according to Ukrainian
fighters.
Russia attacked the sprawling
Azovstal Iron and Steel Works,
where Ukrainian forces and civil-
ians remain trapped as Russian
forces deny humanitarian corri-
dors, according to a deputy com-
mander of the last remaining
Ukrainian forces fighting for
Ukraine in Mariupol.
Svyatoslav Palamar, deputy
commander of the Azov Regi-
ment, a nationalist group that is
part of the Ukraine national
guard, called for public support
via a message on the Telegram
app.
“This Easter Sunday, I call on
the entire civilized world to do
everything” to help the soldiers
and civilians in Mariupol, he said.
“I want, on this day — whether at
the front, or at one’s home, or in
displacement — everyone to
think about values.”
The siege of Mariupol, which
echoes Russian tactics in Aleppo,
Syria, is part of Moscow’s largerUkraine weeks ago to witness
firsthand evidence of atrocities
committed by Russian soldiers.
But until Sunday, top U.S. officials
had not visited the country since
the invasion.
Top Biden administration
leaders also are aiming to step up
diplomatic efforts in support of
Ukraine this week. Austin is con-
vening a meeting at Ramstein Air
Base in Germany on Tuesday with
at least 20 countries to focus on
the short- and long-term military
and security needs of Ukraine,
according to the Pentagon.
Exactly what the United States
ought to provide to the Ukrainian
war effort has remained a point of
contention, however. Officials in
Kyiv have strenuously argued
that more must be done, while
U.S. representatives have said
that they have made ample con-
tributions in what they describe
as a winning effort.
State Department spokesman
Ned Price said Sunday that the
United States has provided “pre-
cisely what our Ukrainian part-
ners need to fend off this Russian
aggression.”
Appearing on BBC’s “Sunday
Morning” television program,
Price praised Ukraine’s war ef-
fort, saying its military has
achieved “nothing short of victo-
ry on the battlefield.”
In assessing the Ukrainians’
position in the war, Price cited
President Biden’s recent pledge of
$800 million in military assis-
tance to Kyiv, which will include
howitzers, ammunition and tacti-
cal drones.
“Right now, they are winning
the battle for Ukraine,” Price said.
U.N. Secretary General
António Guterres, meanwhile, is
planning a trip to Russia to meet
with President Vladimir Putin on
Tuesday and to Ukraine on
Thursday to meet with Zelensky.
“He hopes to talk about what
can be done to bring peace to
Ukraine urgently,” Guterres
spokesman Eri Kaneko said.
But several Ukrainian officials
are denouncing Guterres’s deci-
sion to meet with Putin, however,
noting the reported crimes com-
mitted by Russian forces.
“We did not understand his
intention to travel to Moscow and
to talk to President Putin,” Igor
Zhovkva, a top adviser to Zel-
ensky, said on NBC’s “Meet the
Press.”
With the Russian invasion of
Ukraine entering its third month,
the presidents of both countries
somberly marked one of the most
sacred holidays on the Christian
calendar. Orthodox Easter is
widely celebrated in both coun-
tries, and the war has divided its
adherents, too.
In Kyiv, Zelensky issued an
Easter message to the nation
from St. Sophia Cathedral, a na-
tional landmark.
“We are enduring dark times,”
said Zelensky, dressed in drab
green military garb and standing
before a glittering altar.
“And on this bright day, most of
us are not in bright clothes. But
we are fighting for a bright idea.
On the bright side. And the truth,
people, the Lord and the holy
heavenly light are on our side.”
In Moscow, Putin appeared at
Christ the Savior Cathedral for a
midnight service. He was dressed
in a dark blue suit, a white shirt
and dark purple tie, and he was
holding a red candle.
Putin crossed himself several
times during the ceremony. After
Patriarch Kirill, the top Russian
Orthodox bishop, intoned “Christ
has risen,” Putin replied along
with the congregation by saying,
“Truly he is risen,” according to
Reuters. He did not speak further.
The solemn Easter observanc-
UKRAINE FROM A
Amid urgent calls for world’s support, Blinken and Austin meet with Zelensky
NICOLE TUNG FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
Worshipers light candles after Mass at the Church of St. Andrew in Bucha, Ukraine, on Sunday. The solemn Easter observances stood in
stark contrast with the fierce battles in Ukraine as residents nationwide emerged from an overnight curfew.JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGESUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv for a news conference on Saturday. Zelensky said he
would press U.S. officials for aid. “We are expecting specific things and specific weapons,” he said.
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