Russian widens its Ukrainian offensive, striking airfields and major industrial city

Russia widened its offensive in Ukraine on Friday, striking airfields in the west and a major industrial city in the east, while the huge armoured column stalled for over a week outside Kyiv appeared to have spread out near the capital.

Military analysts were divided over whether the manoeuvring by the Russian convoy signalled the imminent start of a siege of Kyiv or was just an effort by the troops to disperse to more protected positions.

On the economic and political front, the U.S. and its allies moved to further isolate and sanction Russia. U.S. President Joe Biden announced the U.S. will dramatically downgrade its trade status with Russia and also ban imports of Russian seafood, alcohol and diamonds.

The move to revoke Russia's "most favoured nation" status was taken in co-ordination with the European Union and G7 countries.

"The free world is coming together to confront Putin," Biden said.

On the ground, Russian forces appeared to be trying to regroup and regain momentum after encountering heavier losses and stiffer resistance than anticipated over the past two weeks. Britain's Ministry of Defence said Russia is trying to "reset and re-posture" its troops, gearing up for operations against Kyiv.

"It's ugly already, but it's going to get worse," said Nick Reynolds, a land warfare analyst at Royal United Services Institute, a British think-tank.

With the invasion in its 16th day, Russian President Vladimir Putin said there had been "certain positive developments" in Russia-Ukraine talks, but gave no details.

For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian forces had "reached a strategic turning point," though he did not elaborate.

"It's impossible to say how many days we will still need to free our land, but it is possible to say that we will do it," Zelensky said via video from Kyiv.

He also said authorities were working on establishing 12 humanitarian corridors and trying to ensure food, medicine and other basics get to people across the country. Thousands of civilians and soldiers are believed to have been killed in the invasion.

So far, the Russians have made the biggest advances on cities in the east and south — including Mariupol, the heavily bombarded seaport where civilians scrounged for food and fuel amid a harrowing 10-day-old siege — while struggling in the north and around Kyiv.

On Friday, Putin's forces continued to launch airstrikes in urban areas such as Kyiv, Kharkiv and Mariupol, while also pounding targets away from the main battle zones. 

Russia said it used high-precision long-range weapons Friday to put military airfields in Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk in the west "out of action." The attack on Lutsk killed four Ukrainian servicemen, the city's mayor said.