LAST UPDATE | 12 Apr 2022

UKRAINIAN TROOPS ARE trying to hold back Russian efforts to take control of the city of Mariupol, part of an anticipated onslaught across eastern Ukraine.

Russia is believed to be trying to connect occupied Crimea with Moscow-backed separatist territories Donetsk and Lugansk in Donbas and has laid siege to the strategically located city, once home to more than 400,000 people.

Ukrainian forces were “surrounded and blocked”, tweeted Myhaylo Podolyak, an official from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office.

Yesterday, the Ukrainian army insisted that “the defence of Mariupol continues”.

“The connection with the units of the defence forces that heroically hold the city is stable and maintained,” the Land Forces of Ukraine wrote on Telegram.

In his nightly address, Zelenskyy made another plea to his allies for more weapons to boost the defence of the city.

“We are not getting as much as we need to end this war sooner. To completely destroy the enemy on our land… in particular, to unblock Mariupol,” he said.

He made a similar appeal for military assistance to South Korea’s National Assembly earlier in the day, telling lawmakers Russia had “completely destroyed Mariupol and burned it to ashes”.

“At least tens of thousands of Mariupol citizens must have been killed,” he added.

The mayor of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol has said that more than 10,000 civilians have died in the Russian siege of his city, and that the death toll could surpass 20,000.

Speaking by phone to The Associated Press, Mayor Vadym Boychenko also said Russian forces brought mobile cremation equipment to the city to dispose of the bodies, and he accused Russian forces of refusing to allow humanitarian convoys into the city in an attempt to conceal the carnage.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says he is still open to negotiating with Moscow.

“If sitting down with the Russians will help me to prevent at least one massacre like in Bucha, or at least another attack like in Kramatorsk, I have to take that opportunity,” he told US broadcaster NBC.  

Chemical weapons allegations

Late yesterday, Britain said it was trying to verify reports that Russia had used chemical weapons in the city.

Western officials have previously expressed concerns that, as the conflict drags into its seventh week, Russia could resort to such extreme measures.

Ukrainian lawmaker Ivanna Klympush said Russia had used an “unknown substance” and that people were suffering from respiratory failure.

But on messaging app Telegram, Petro Andryushchenko, an aide to the city’s mayor, wrote that a chemical attack was not confirmed and that they were “waiting for official information from the military”.

Britain’s armed forces minister James Heappey tells Sky News that if evidence of chemical weapons use emerges, “all options are on the table” as a response.

“There are some things that are beyond the pale, and the use of chemical weapons will get a response,” he says. 

Elsewhere in the east, heavy bombardment continued as civilians were urged to flee ahead of an expected Russian troop surge in the region.

Eight people were killed by shelling in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, the head of the regional state administration, Oleg Synegubov said.

“Our Armed Forces firmly hold the defensive positions of Kharkiv and the region,” he wrote on his Telegram channel.

“That is why the Russian enemy continues to ‘fight’ with the civilian population due to its powerlessness.”

Russian forces are reinforcing around the Donbas region, notably near the town of Izyum, but have not yet launched a full offensive, Pentagon officials said yesterday.

They reported a Russian convoy had been observed heading for Izyum, an hour’s drive north of Kramatorsk, saying it appeared to be a mix of personnel-carriers, armored vehicles and possible artillery.

Ukraine’s defence ministry said it believed a major assault would happen soon.

“We don’t know precisely when, but the preparation is almost over,” spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk told a briefing on Monday.

Such signs of a build-up in Donbas suggest hopes of an imminent diplomatic solution remain slim.

After a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said he was “rather pessimistic” of such efforts succeeding as Putin had “massively entered into a logic of war”.

Ukraine’s allies are trying instead to increase economic and diplomatic pressure on Moscow — but EU foreign ministers’ discussions on a sixth round of sanctions yesterday ended without a consensus.

“Nothing is off the table, including sanctions on oil and gas,” Josep Borrell, the European Union’s top diplomat, told reporters after the meeting. “But today, no decision was taken.”

The European police agency Europol, meanwhile, said it had launched an operation targeting the assets of Russian individuals and companies sanctioned over the war.

In an effort to shore up wider international support for Kyiv, US President Joe Biden held virtual talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi just weeks after saying New Delhi had been “shaky” in its response to the invasion.

“There were conversations about how to mitigate the destabilising impacts of Putin’s war, including on food supply, where India is in a position to assist,” a US official said.

And the UN Security Council — which held a session on the plight of women and children in Ukraine yesterday — will hold another meeting next week on the humanitarian situation there, in a bid to keep pressure on Russia despite its veto power over the body, diplomats said.

At yesterday’s UNSC meeting, officials called for an investigation into violence against women during the conflict.

“This war must stop. Now,” Sima Bahous, director of the UN women’s agency, told the meeting.

“We are increasingly hearing of rape and sexual violence. These allegations must be independently investigated to ensure justice and accountability.”

Civilians’ lives

More than 4.5 million Ukrainian refugees have now fled their country, the United Nations refugee agency said — 90% of them women and children.

The UN children’s agency said nearly two-thirds of all Ukrainian children have fled their homes in the six weeks since Russia’s invasion began.

The United Nations has verified 142 children have been killed and 229 injured, though the actual numbers are likely to be much higher.

Russian troops have been accused of widespread atrocities across the country, particularly in areas around Kyiv from which they have now withdrawn, allegations Moscow categorically denies.

Ukraine says more than 1,200 bodies have been found around the capital, with authorities pursuing “500 suspects” including Putin and other top Russian officials.

Seven bodies were found yesterday under the rubble of two multi-storey buildings in the town of Borodyanka, the state emergency service said, bringing the total to 19.

Lithuania’s prime minister, who was touring the town, said she had “no words” to describe the devastation and accused Russia of war crimes.

“The images  of the ruined Ukrainian towns and cities, and the testimonies of the survivors, reveal the real  face of Russia,” Ingrida Simonyte said.

- © AFP 2022

Additional reporting by Press Association