Russian artillery pounds cities, towns and villages in eastern Ukraine

LVIV, Ukraine — Russian forces aimed a punishing artillery barrage Saturday at cities, towns and villages in eastern Ukraine, destroying electrical plants, fuel depots and other key infrastructure.

The onslaught came even as Western and Ukrainian military officials and analysts said Moscow’s much vaunted military offensive in the country’s industrial heartland was being slowed by troop casualties and logistical, supply and morale problems.

And in Mariupol, the southern port city that has become ground zero in Russia brutality and Ukrainian resistance, a small group of women and children was finally evacuated Saturday from a besieged steel plant, but hundreds, possibly thousands, of civilians, soldiers and wounded remained trapped.

Russia reported nearly 400 artillery strikes overnight and early Saturday, mainly in the eastern battle zone. It described the targets as military ones, but Ukraine says residential areas, including the northeastern city of Kharkiv, are being ravaged. Ukrainian officials said that among the targets