US warns of ‘massive loss of human life’ in Ukraine, as Putin denies targeting cities, clamps down on dissent

WASHINGTON DC (Kurdistan 24) – US officials are warning of heavy civilian casualties as Russia presses its assault on Ukraine, while Russian President Vladimir Putin, who appears to be living in some parallel reality, has denied that his forces are attacking Ukrainian cities.

“A senior Western intelligence official,” told the Washington Post on Friday that “people should brace for ‘massive loss of human life, especially civilians,’ in the coming days and weeks as the war in Ukraine enters a new stage.”

The Post report echoes the warning issued on Thursday by a French official, following a 90-minute conversation French President Emmanuel Macron had with Putin that day.

Read More: ‘Worst is yet to come,’ Macron concludes, after speaking with Putin

Also, on Friday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke with Putin, who denied that Russian forces were bombing Ukrainian cities. The Russian President even dismissed such reports as “fake.”

The assault on Ukraine has provoked rare and widespread protest within Russia, and the regime has responded with increased repression. 

The Duma, Russia’s parliament, passed new legislation on Friday providing draconian punishments for such protests and media that broadcasts or publishes reports that cast the Russian military in a negative light.

Increasingly Dire Humanitarian Crisis

The US warning about large-scale civilian casualties came after Russian troops took the first large Ukrainian city, Kherson, a Black Sea port. They are now pushing west toward Odessa, another Black Sea port, although their immediate target is Mykolaiv, which came under fire from Russian naval ships on Friday.

Russian forces are also pressing eastward from Kherson toward Mariupol, a port city of 450,000 people on the Sea of Azov. If they reach Mariupol, they will cut Ukraine off from the Sea of Asov. Similarly, the capture of Odessa would deny Ukraine access to the Black Sea and leave the country land-locked and cut off from international shipping.

Those movements, if successful, would also create a land bridge to the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014. 

In addition, areas north of Kiev came under air and artillery strikes on Friday, as a massive Russian column remains largely stalled north of the Ukrainian capital.

“Panicked residents” in Kiev swarmed its main train station on Friday, The New York Times reported, “to flee the city, before the window closes.”

“The fear is that Russian forces will follow the same script as their assaults on Kharkiv and Mariupol, encircling the city, cutting its inhabitants off from supplies of food and medicine, depriving them of water, electricity and heat, and shelling neighborhoods,” the Times explained.

Indeed, as NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned on Friday, following an emergency meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers, “The days to come are likely to be worse, with more death, more suffering, and more destruction.”

“As Ukraine’s war intensifies and spreads into multiple cities, the casualties are mounting,” the Post said, even as precise numbers are hard to come by.

On Thursday, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reported that at least 227 Ukrainian civilians have been killed since the conflict began, and another 525 have been wounded. Ukrainian officials, however, give a much higher figure: over 2,000 civilian fatalities.

Such is the concern in Europe about Russia’s aggression that the traditionally neutral countries of Finland and Sweden now seek closer ties with NATO, as Stoltenberg also explained on Friday. He stated that NATO has agreed to include both Finland and Sweden in all its meetings and consultations.

Indeed, the President of Finland is visiting Washington, and he met with US President Joe Biden on Friday. The two leaders “committed to start a process that would strengthen U.S.-Finnish security cooperation,” according to a White House statement.

Putin Denies Targeting Cities; Clamps down on Criticism

Putin told the German Chancellor in their hour-long conversation that “the alleged ongoing airstrikes of Kiev and other large cities are gross propaganda fakes,” a Kremlin statement said.

According to the Russian regime, there is no war in Ukraine. Rather it is a “special operation.” Media outlets have been ordered not to use the word “war” but stick to the official terminology.

New legislation, passed by the Duma on Friday and already signed into law by Putin, prohibits disseminating “fake” information on the Russian military.

The penalty is up to 15 years in prison. 

The effect of the new legislation is to close what remained of independent media in Russia. In addition, the regime has blocked Facebook, along with access to Western media organizations, including the BBC, Deutsche Welle, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the Voice of America.