The Guardian - Russia-Ukraine war: what we know on day 57 of the invasion

Muristek

Russia-Ukraine war: what we know on day 57 of the invasion

Link [2022-04-22 01:53:36]

Putin orders forces not to storm last stronghold in Mariupol as US pledges further $800m in military assistance

Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates

Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has ordered his forces not to storm the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in the besieged city of Mariupol, after his defence minister admitted the Russian army was still fighting thousands of Ukrainian troops there. Putin called instead for Russian troops to blockade the area of the Azovstal steelworks “so that a fly can’t get through”.

The mayor of Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, has said it is under intense bombardment. Oleg Synegubov, the head of the Kharkiv regional state administration, said Russian forces shelled areas of Kharkiv with multiple systems. He claimed there were about 15 attacks and that five civilians were injured.

The bodies of 1,020 civilians are being stored in morgues in and around Kyiv after Russian troops withdrew from areas around the capital, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Olga Stefanishyna told AFP. Her comments came after police said they discovered the remains of nine civilians in the town of Borodianka, 34 miles from the capital, buried in communal graves and showing signs of torture.

The parliaments of Estonia and Latvia have recognised Russia’s actions in Ukraine as “genocide”. In a statement, the Estonian parliament said Russian troops in temporarily occupied territories had committed “acts of genocide” against the civilian population including “murders, enforced disappearances, deportations, imprisonment, torture, rape and desecration of corpses”.

The US president, Joe Biden, announced that the US will provide another $800m military assistance package to Ukraine to “to further augment Ukraine’s ability to fight in the east, in the Donbas region”. The package will include heavy artillery weapons, dozens of Howitzers and 144,000 rounds of ammunition and tactical drones. Biden also announced that the US will accept up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees under a new programme.