Kyiv, Ukraine (AP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin declared victory in the battle of Mariupol on Thursday, although some 2,000 Ukrainian fighters are still hiding in a giant steel plant, ordering troops not to storm the fortress but to seal it. so not even a fly passes. “
Putin expressed concern for the lives of Russian troops, deciding not to send them to clear the vast Azovstal plant, where sworn defenders hid in a maze of underground passages.
Putin’s comments came when satellite imagery provider Maxar Technologies released photos showing more than 200 of his so-called mass graves in a city where Ukrainian authorities say Russians are burying Mariupol residents killed in the fighting. The images show long rows of graves stretching far from an existing cemetery in the town of Manchush, outside Mariupol.
Mariupol Mayor Vadim Boychenko accused the Russians of “hiding their war crimes” by taking the bodies of civilians out of the city and burying them in Manhush.
Up to 9,000 civilians could be buried in mass graves in Manchus, Mariupol City Council said in a statement on Thursday.
Boychenko called Russia’s actions in the city “the new Babi Yar”, a reference to the site of numerous Nazi massacres in which nearly 34,000 Ukrainian Jews were killed in 1941.
In a statement, Maxar said a review of previous images showed that the new graves had been excavated in late March and expanded over the past few weeks.
After nearly two deadly months of bombing that have largely turned Mariupol into a smoldering ruin, Russian forces appear to control the rest of the strategic southern city, including its vital but now badly damaged port.
But several thousand Ukrainian troops, according to Moscow’s estimates, have persisted for weeks at the steel plant, despite strikes by Russian forces and repeated demands for their surrender. About 1,000 civilians were also trapped, according to Ukrainian authorities.
Instead of sending troops to finish off the defenders in a potentially bloody frontal attack, Russia apparently intends to maintain the siege and wait for the fighters to surrender when they run out of food or ammunition.
Boychenko rejected any notion that Mariupol had fallen into Russian hands.
“The city was, is and remains Ukrainian,” he said. “Today, our brave warriors, our heroes, are defending our city.
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.
Speaking jointly with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Putin said: “Completion of the military work on the liberation of Mariupol is successful” and congratulated Shoigu.
Shoigu predicted that the steel plant could be taken over in three to four days, but Putin said it would be “pointless” and would risk the lives of Russians.
“There is no need to climb into these catacombs and crawl underground through these industrial facilities,” the Russian leader said. “Block this industrial zone so that not even a fly can penetrate.”
The plant covers 11 square kilometers (4 square miles) and is covered with about 24 kilometers (15 miles) of tunnels and bunkers.
“Russia’s program now is not to take over these really difficult places where Ukrainians can stay in urban centers, but to try to take over territory, as well as to encircle Ukrainian forces and declare a huge victory,” retired British Rear Admiral Chris said. Money.
Elsewhere, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk said Russian troops had abducted a local official leading a humanitarian convoy in the southern Kherson region. She said the Russians had offered to release him in exchange for Russian prisoners of war, but she described it as unacceptable.
Vereshchuk also said efforts to create three humanitarian corridors in the Kherson region failed on Thursday because Russian troops did not hold back fire.
Russian authorities have been claiming for weeks that the capture of the predominantly Russian-speaking Donbass is the main goal of the war. Moscow forces have opened a new phase of fighting this week on a 300-mile (480-kilometer) front from the northeastern city of Kharkov to the Sea of Azov.
As Russia continues heavy air and artillery attacks in those areas, it does not appear to have gained significant positions in the past few days, according to military analysts, who say Moscow’s forces are still stepping up the offensive.
A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the Pentagon’s assessment, said Ukrainians were hindering Russian efforts to push south of Izyum.
The rockets hit a neighborhood in Kharkiv on Thursday, killing at least two civilians in their car. A school and a residential building were also damaged, and firefighters tried to put out the fire and search for those trapped.
Western nations, meanwhile, have rushed to dump heavy weapons on Ukraine to help it resist the offensive in the east.
US President Joe Biden has announced additional $ 800 million in military aid, including heavy artillery, 144,000 rounds of ammunition and drones. But he also warned that $ 13.6 billion in military and humanitarian aid approved by Congress last month was “almost exhausted” and more would be needed.
It is estimated that more than 100,000 people are trapped with little or no food, water, heat or medicine in Mariupol, which had a pre-war population of about 430,000. More than 20,000 people were killed in the siege, according to Ukrainian authorities.
The city has attracted worldwide attention as a scene of some of the worst suffering of the war, including deadly air strikes on a maternity hospital and theater.
Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russia of launching attacks to block the evacuation of civilians from the city. On Thursday, at least two Russian attacks hit the city of Zaporozhye, an intermediate station for people fleeing Mariupol. No one was injured, the district governor said.
Britain’s defense ministry says Russia probably wants to show significant success ahead of Victory Day on May 9, the proudest day in Russia’s calendar of Nazi Germany’s defeat in World War II.
“This could affect how quickly and violently they try to carry out operations on the eve of this date,” the ministry said.
In other events, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Ukrainians living in Russian-controlled areas of southern Ukraine not to provide Russians with personal documents that he said could be used “to falsify the so-called referendum on our land.” Moscow – a friendly government.
“This is a real opportunity,” he said in his evening video address to the nation. “Watch out.”
In the ongoing war of sanctions and counter-sanctions between Russia and the West, Moscow has announced it has banned US Vice President Kamala Harris, technology billionaire Mark Zuckerberg and 27 other prominent Americans, including foreign commentators, from entering Russia.
The move is a response to “growing anti-Russian sanctions” from the Biden administration, the ministry said in a statement, aimed at people who it said formed a “Russophobic narrative.”
Similar restrictions were imposed on 61 Canadians.
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Associated Press journalists Mstislav Chernov and Felipe Dana in Kharkiv, Ukraine; Yesica Fisch in Kramatorsk, Ukraine; Danica Kirk in London; and Robert Burns and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report, as did other PA officials around the world.
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