ALMOST 100,000 PEOPLE are trapped among the ruins of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, facing starvation, thirst and relentless Russian bombardment, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.

Tens of thousands of residents have already fled the besieged southern port city, bringing harrowing testimony of a “freezing hellscape riddled with dead bodies and destroyed buildings”, according to Human Rights Watch.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has denied that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has stalled.

Asked on CNN what Russian President Vladimir Putin has achieved in Ukraine, he said: “Well, first of all not yet. He hasn’t achieved yet.”

But he insisted the military operation was going “strictly in accordance with the plans and purposes that were established beforehand”.

In his latest video address, Zelenskyy said more than 7,000 people had escaped Mariupol in the previous 24 hours alone, but one group travelling along an agreed humanitarian route west of the city were “simply captured by the occupiers.”

He warned that many thousands more were unable to leave as the humanitarian situation worsens.

“Today, the city still has nearly 100,000 people in inhumane conditions. In a total siege. Without food, water, medication, under constant shelling and under constant bombing,” he said, renewing calls for Russia to allow safe humanitarian corridors for civilians to escape.

Satellite images of Mariupol released by private company Maxar showed a charred landscape, with several buildings ablaze and smoke billowing from the city.

The Pentagon has said Russia is now pummelling Mariupol using artillery, long-range missiles and from naval ships deployed in the nearby Sea of Azov.

Local Ukrainian forces also report “heavy” ground fighting with Russian “infantry storming the city” after they rejected a Monday ultimatum to surrender.

UN relief agencies estimate there have been around 20,000 civilian casualties in the city, and perhaps 3,000 killed, but they stress “the actual figure remains unknown.”

The almost month-long siege of Mariupol has brought ever-harsher international condemnation. 

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres on Tuesday called for Russia to end its “absurd war.”

“Even if Mariupol falls, Ukraine cannot be conquered city by city, street by street, house by house,” he said.

“This war is unwinnable. Sooner or later, it will have to move from the battlefield to the peace table. That is inevitable.”

Mariupol is a pivotal target in President Vladimir Putin’s war — providing a land bridge between Russian forces in Crimea to the southwest and Russian-controlled territory to the north and east.

As US President Joe Biden readied to visit allies in Europe, he warned that with Russia’s offensive stalling, Putin was considering using chemical and biological weapons.

“Now Putin’s back is against the wall,” Biden said. “And the more his back is against the wall, the greater the severity of the tactics he may employ.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has stated that Russia would use nuclear weapons if under “existential threat.”

Biden is due to travel to Brussels tomorrow for a series of summits gathering Nato, EU and G7 leaders, before heading to Poland, which has received the bulk of more than 3.5 million Ukrainians fleeing war in their country.

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the United States would consult with allies about Russia’s G20 membership.

“We believe that it cannot be business as usual for Russia in international institutions and in the international community,” he told a press briefing.

Washington has also not observed any Chinese arms shipments to Russia since Biden held a call with President Xi Jinping last week in which he raised concerns about Beijing’s support for Moscow, Sullivan said.

“We have not seen… the provision of military equipment by China to Russia. But of course, this is something we are monitoring closely,” he said.

On the ground, Russia’s defence ministry has reported some advances in the southeast of Ukraine and boasted of strikes against “military infrastructure” across the country.

But Ukraine and its allies have claimed Russian forces are severely depleted, poorly supplied and still unable to carry out complex operations.

In the face of intense Ukrainian resistance, the Pentagon believes as much as 10 percent of Russian forces committed to Ukraine may have been knocked out of the war in just four weeks of fighting.

Ukraine’s army command said it believes Russian troops now had enough ammunition, food and fuel to last just three days and there are reports of hundreds of Russian soldiers defecting.

For the first time, there are signs that Ukrainian forces are going on the offensive, retaking a town near Kyiv and attacking Russian forces in the south of the country.

In the southern city of Mykolaiv, one bulwark of the fierce fightback, residents said they were determined to stay and defend it despite incessant bombardment.

At the burial of soldier Igor Dundukov, 46, his brother Sergei wept as he kissed his sibling’s swollen, blood-stained face.

“We supported his commitment to defending our homeland,” Sergei told AFP. “This is our land. We live here. Where would we run to? We grew up here.”

Amid the bloodshed, Moscow and Kyiv have begun holding peace negotiations remotely after in-person talks between delegations meeting on the border of Belarus and Ukraine made little progress.

Russia has said it wants “more substantial” discussion and Zelensky has said all issues would be on the table if Putin agreed to direct talks.

Since Russia launched its invasion on February 24, at least 117 children have been killed in the war, Ukraine’s federal prosecutor said.

Some 548 schools have been damaged and 72 destroyed.

Russia has pushed on with its assaults, in the face of unprecedented Western sanctions that have led international companies to pull out of the country.

More sanctions against Russia and tightening of existing measures are expected to be announced tomorrow when Biden meets European allies in Brussels.

© AFP 2022

Additional reporting by the Press Association