The mayor of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol told the Associated Press that more than 10,000 civilians had died in the southeastern port city since the February 24 Russian invasion.
Mayor Vadim Boychenko told the Associated Press by telephone Monday that the bodies were “carpeted on the streets of our city” and that the death toll could be over 20,000.
Boychenko also said Russian forces had brought mobile crematoria into the city to dispose of the bodies, and accused Russian forces of refusing to allow humanitarian convoys into the city in an attempt to cover up the massacre.
Thousands of residents are still trapped in the city, with limited access to food, water and electricity since Russian forces surrounded the city. Efforts to evacuate the Red Cross to rescue those trapped in the city have been thwarted, with each side blaming the other.
The city on the Sea of Azov has suffered some of the heaviest bombings in the war. The capture of the city will give Russia a land bridge from Donbass, an eastern region of Ukraine partially held by Moscow-backed separatists, to the Crimean peninsula, a southern region that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
A resident sits in front of a destroyed building in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, on Sunday. (Alexander Ermochenko / Reuters)
The Donbass offensive is intensifying, the United States says
The latest assessment of the US Pentagon is that Russia is preparing for an intensified offensive in Donbass, but has not yet begun.
A senior U.S. defense official said the Russians were moving more troops and materials to the area and focusing many of their missile strikes there. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss US internal military assessments.
The officer said a long convoy of vehicles heading south to the eastern city of Izjum contained artillery, as well as air and infantry support, plus battlefield command and control elements and other materials.
The official said the convoy appears to have originated in the Belgorod and Valuyki regions of Russia, which are emerging as key venues for the Russian base in Donbass.
The official said the Russians were also stepping up their presence in Donbass, deploying more artillery southwest of Donetsk in recent days.
Russia is focused on air defense supplies
The spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Defense, Major General. Igor Konashenkov said on Monday that Russia had destroyed a shipment of anti-aircraft missile systems provided by the West.
Konashenkov said the military used naval-caliber cruise missiles to destroy four S-300 air defense launchers on the southern outskirts of the Dnieper city. He said about 25 Ukrainian soldiers were also affected by Sunday’s strike.
Konashenkov said in a statement Monday that Ukraine had received air defense systems from a European country he did not specify. Slovakia said last week that it had handed over its S-300 air defense systems, designed by the Soviet Union, to Ukraine.
Later Monday, Slovakia denied that its S-300 air defense missile system, which it was transporting to Ukraine, had been destroyed by Russian forces.
“Our S-300 system has not been destroyed,” said Ljubica Janikova, a spokeswoman for Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger, in a statement to the Associated Press.
She said that every other statement was not true.
Millions of refugees
The UN Children’s Agency says nearly two-thirds of all Ukrainian children have fled their homes in the six weeks since the Russian invasion, and the UN has confirmed that 142 children have been killed and 229 injured, although those numbers are probably much higher. -high.
Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF’s director of emergency programs, who returned from Ukraine last week, told the UN Security Council on Monday that of the 3.2 million children believed to have remained at home, “almost half may be at risk of food shortages “and attacks on water system infrastructure and power outages have left about 1.4 million people in the country without access to water.
People fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine are boarding a train to Lviv at a train station in Slavyansk, Ukraine, on Monday. (Marco Jurica / Reuters)
He said the situation was worse in cities such as Mariupol and Kherson in the south, which had been besieged by Russian forces and where children and their families had spent weeks without running water, sanitation or regular food supplies.
“Hundreds of schools and educational facilities have been attacked or used for military purposes,” Fontaine said. “Others serve as shelters for civilians.”
He said school closures affected the education of 5.7 million school-age children and 1.5 million higher education students.
The Austrian leader is having “difficult” talks with Putin
Also Monday, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nechamer said his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow was “very direct, open and difficult”.
In a statement issued by his office after the meeting, Nehamer said his main message to Putin was “that this war must end, because in the war both sides can only lose.”
Nehamer was the first European leader to meet with Putin in Moscow after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.
The Austrian leader emphasized that Monday’s trip was “not a friendly visit” but rather his “obligation” to exhaust any possibility of ending the violence in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky welcomed Austrian Chancellor Karl Nechamer ahead of a meeting in Kyiv on Saturday. Nehamer traveled to Moscow on Monday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Press office of the President of Ukraine / Distribution / Reuters)
Nehamer’s visit to Moscow comes after a trip to Kyiv on Saturday, where he met with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.
In a conversation with Putin, Nehamer said he had raised the issue of “serious war crimes” committed by the Russian military in the Ukrainian city of Bucha and others. “Everyone who is responsible will be held accountable,” he said.
Austria is a member of the European Union and has backed sanctions against the 27-nation bloc against Russia, although it has so far opposed a halt to Russian gas supplies. The country is militarily neutral and not a member of NATO.
Russian diplomats expelled
Croatia has expelled 24 Russian diplomats and other embassy staff, joining other European countries that have done so.
The Croatian Foreign Ministry said on Monday that it had summoned Russia’s ambassador to Zagreb and delivered “the strongest condemnation of the brutal aggression against Ukraine and the many crimes committed”.
Russia has been called upon to suspend military activities, withdraw its troops and ensure the evacuation of civilians and the delivery of humanitarian aid, the Croatian ministry said.
Ukrainian troops maintain their position in a trench on the front line with Russian troops in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine on Monday. (Anatoly Stepanov / AFP / Getty Images)
Croatia expects those responsible for the crimes to be brought to justice, the statement said.
Several EU countries have expelled Russian diplomats after the killings in Bucha and other Ukrainian cities around Kyiv.
Graphic evidence of civilian killings emerged after the Russians withdrew from the area. Russia is falsely claiming that the scenes in Bucha were staged.
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