Images of pro-Russian troops in Mariupol have surfaced after Ukraine’s deputy prime minister warned that at least 50,000 people remain trapped in the besieged city.
Irina Vereshchuk told Sky News that only some of those expected to be evacuated on Thursday succeeded.
“At least 50,000 people want to leave Mariupol,” she said.
“The mission has not been accomplished. We have opened a green corridor for thousands of people. And we expected at least 5,000 people. But we only have 79 people. That’s what Russia is doing.”
Putin can still win the war – latest updates
Meanwhile, recently released satellite images show what appear to be mass graves excavated around the southern port city, containing the bodies of thousands of civilians.
The images, taken by satellite imagery firm Maxar Technologies, reportedly show more than 200 mass graves dug in long rows stretching from an existing cemetery in the town of Manchus, about 20km west of Mariupol.
Image: A satellite image shows an overview of the cemetery and the expansion of the new graves in Manchus, near Mariupol. Photo: Maxar
Key developments:
• Ukrainian troops are trained in the UK on how to use armored vehicles Britain supplies to repel Putin’s forces. • UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Canadian counterpart Christia Freeland have left the International Monetary Fund meeting in Washington to protest the invasion of Ukraine when the Russian delegate speaks • Djokovic called Wimbledon’s ban on Russian and Belarusian players “crazy” • Captive British fighters “need help”, Russia said
Locals accuse the Russians of burying up to 9,000 civilians there, in an attempt, they say, to cover up the massacre.
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3:25 Refugees describe the hell of Mariupol
Mariupol Mayor Vadim Boychenko called Russia’s actions in the city “the new Babi Yar”, a reference to the site of numerous Nazi massacres that killed nearly 34,000 Ukrainian Jews in 1941.
“The bodies of the dead were brought with a load and were in fact simply dumped in mounds,” said Boychenko’s aide Piotr Andryushchenko in the Telegram’s news service.
The photos came just hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared victory in the Battle of Mariupol, despite the presence of about 2,000 Ukrainian fighters hiding in the steel plant.
Mr Putin ordered his troops to seal the fortress “so that not a fly would pass” instead of storming it.
The Russian leader’s decision to block the Azovstal steel plant probably shows a desire to limit Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol and release Russian forces stationed elsewhere in eastern Ukraine, according to the UK Ministry of Defense.
Read more “Everything is destroyed” – the hell of the Mariupol attack Why is Mariupol so important for both countries?
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5:21 Why does Mariupol matter?
The capture of Mariupol would be the Kremlin’s biggest victory since the war in Ukraine.
This would help Moscow secure more than the coastline, complete the land bridge between Russia and the Crimean peninsula that Russia seized in 2014, and free up more forces to join the larger and potentially more consistent battle. , which is now the eastern industrial center of Ukraine, Donbass.
And on Friday, the Russian military said gaining control of Ukraine’s southern region would give them another door to Transnistria in Moldova.
Reports from Russia’s TASS news agency came just weeks after Ukraine’s General Staff said it believed Russian troops were gathering in the self-proclaimed Transnistrian republic and preparing to carry out “provocations” along the border.
Ukraine fears that Russian troops in Transnistria, estimated at about 1,300, could find another front in the war.
But both Moldova and separatist authorities in the breakaway region have rejected the claim.
In other events, the UN Office of Human Rights on Friday warned of growing evidence of war crimes in Ukraine.
He called on both Moscow and Kyiv to order the fighters to abide by international law.
“The Russian armed forces indiscriminately shelled and bombed populated areas, killing civilians and destroying hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure, actions that could amount to war crimes,” said the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Michelle Bachelet.
Observers in Ukraine have also documented what appears to be the use of indiscriminate weapons causing civilian casualties by the Ukrainian armed forces in the eastern part of the country, the HCCP said in a statement.
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And Pope Francis has stopped plans to meet with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church and longtime ally of President Vladimir Putin, according to the Argentine newspaper La Nacion.
The 85-year-old pontiff was considering a meeting with Patriarch Kirill in Jerusalem on June 14, Reuters reported earlier this month.
However, the pope told La Nacion that he regretted that the plan should have been “suspended”, as Vatican diplomats advised that such a meeting “could lead to great confusion at the moment”.
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