Keys to Russia's war in Ukraine

The battle for Ukrainian cities continued on Tuesday. The Ukrainian army recovered a key neighborhood near Kiev and invading Russian troops increased their air strikes, causing an unknown number of casualties and causing more than 3.5 million people to flee.

The Ukrainian army said Tuesday morning that it had expelled Russian troops out of Makariv, a strategic suburb of Kiev. However, Russian forces fighting for Kiev had been able to retake part of other suburbs in the northwest that had been in dispute for weeks.

Civilians who made the dangerous escape from the besieged southern port of Mariupol described street to street fighting and how they had passed unburied corpses as constant Russian bombardments tried to break the city. There were no signs at first of diplomatic progress that could bring any relief.

Here are some keys to the conflict.

WHY HAVE THE SUBURBS BECOME BATTLEGROUNDS?

The suburbs could be a barrier to access Ukrainian cities or an access for Russian troops to reach the capital, Kiev, which is believed to be the main Russian military target in the war waged by Vladimir Putin.

Outside the devastated Mariupol, the Kremlin's ground offensive has proceeded slowly, weighed down by lethal rapid attacks by Ukrainian forces.

The recovered suburb in Kiev allowed the Ukrainian contingent to regain control of a major highway to the west and prevent the capital from being surrounded by the northwest.

But the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense pointed out that Russian forces fighting for Kiev had been able to retake part of other suburbs in the northwest: Bucha, Hostomel and Irpin, some of which have been under attack almost since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24.

Russian troops are increasingly concentrating their air power and artillery on Ukrainian cities and civilians living there.

A US Defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to comment on the army's analysis, said that Russia had increased flights in the previous two days, to 300 in the past 24 hours, and had fired more than 1,100 missiles into Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion.

WHAT'S NEW ABOUT MARIUPOL?

The Russian offensive has turned life in Mariupol into a struggle for survival.

Electricity, water and food supplies have been cut off, as well as communication with the outside world. It was not clear how many people were left in the city, which before the war had about 430,000 inhabitants. It is believed that about a quarter left the city in the early days of the conflict and that tens of thousands escaped during the last week through a humanitarian corridor. The Mariupol City Council says that thousands of people were transferred to Russia against their will.

Previous evacuation attempts were thwarted by continued fighting, with which Russia was trying to break the city. In that, Moscow has not been successful, according to the British Ministry of Defense on social media on Tuesday. But for now Russia controls the land connection with Crimea, the peninsula that was annexed in 2014, and blocks Ukraine's access to the Sea of Azov.

The United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday that more than 3.5 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded the country.

Those who made it out of Mariupol described a bleak landscape.

“It no longer has buildings,” said Maria Fiodorova, 77, after crossing the Polish border on Monday after five days of travel.

WHAT HAVE YOU WITNESSED DIRECTLY OR CONFIRMED AP?

In the Russian-occupied southern city of Kherson, Russian forces fired into the air on Tuesday and threw stun grenades at protesters chanting “Go Home!” At the beginning of the month, Kherson became the first big city to fall to the Russian offensive.

In Kiev, a shopping mall in the populous Podil district, near the city center, was reduced to ruins after being hit on Sunday night by shells that killed eight people, according to emergency personnel. The attack blew out all the windows of a neighboring skyscraper.

WHERE IS THE WHEAT?

Russia's war in Ukraine has jeopardized grain deliveries from a region known as “the granary of the world,” forcing farmers and governments to revise their crop plans to compensate for losses from conflict, drought and rising prices.

Ukraine and Russia produce one-third of the world's wheat and barley exports, on which countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East depend to feed millions of people with few resources. About half of the grain purchased by the World Food Programme to feed 125 million people worldwide comes from Ukraine. The double blow of rising prices and reduced wheat exports due to the war is a recipe for “catastrophe, not only in Ukraine, but possibly global,” warned the head of the United Nations food aid agency.

There is a great deal of attention on large grain producers such as the United States, Canada, France, Australia and Argentina to see if they can rapidly increase their output to cover the shortfall of lost deliveries from Ukraine and Russia.

WHAT ABOUT DIPLOMACY?

The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told the Ukrainian television station on Monday night that he was willing to resign from joining NATO, an important demand from Russia, in exchange for a ceasefire, the withdrawal of Russian troops and guarantees about Ukraine's security.

“It is a concession from all sides: For the West, which does not know what to do with us about NATO; for Ukraine, which wants security guarantees, and for Russia, which does not want further expansion of NATO,” Zelenskyy declared.

He also reiterated his call to speak directly with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Unless he meets with Putin, it is impossible to even understand whether Russia wants to end the war, Zelenskyy commented.

The Ukrainian president said that Kiev would be willing to discuss the status of Crimea and the eastern Donbas region, under the control of pro-Russian separatists following a ceasefire and that measures have been taken to provide security guarantees.

The Kremlin calls for Ukraine to disarm and declare itself neutral.

US President Joe Biden plans to travel to Europe this week, where he will attend a summit of NATO leaders that will look for ways to strengthen the bloc's defence and deterrent measures to address a now openly confrontational Putin.

The Kremlin has received American statements with indignation. The Russian Foreign Ministry has warned that its relations with Washington are “on the verge of rupture” and withdrew its ambassador to the United States.

Biden has added a visit to Poland on his trip, to approach a crucial ally of Ukraine that has received more than two million Ukrainian refugees.

TAKE MY NOBEL

Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov wants to auction off his 2021 Nobel Peace Prize medal to raise funds for Ukrainian refugees.

Through the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, of which he is the director, Muratov called on Tuesday for people to “share with refugees, the wounded and children in urgent need of treatment what is dear to them and that is of value to others”.

The reporter asked the auction houses about the possibility of organizing the sale.

Last year, Muratov said he would allocate his share of the Nobel prize money to causes such as independent media, a hospice in Moscow and to care for children with spinal problems, noting that he would not keep that money.