Fears are growing for hundreds of starving Ukrainian civilians and troops trapped in Mariupol’s vast Azovstal steel works.
Around 100 civilians were successfully evacuated during a brief ceasefire before Vladimir Putin ’s troops again blocked escape routes out of the ruined city with more shelling.
Ukraine ’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said: “The situation has become a sign of a real humanitarian catastrophe.”
National Guard commander Denys Shlega said several hundred civilians remain trapped alongside nearly 500 wounded soldiers and “numerous” dead bodies.
He added: “Several dozen small children are still in the bunkers underneath the plant.”
There are fears the troops may not be allowed to surrender.
During the ceasefire, old women and mums with small children climbed over rubble at the plant before boarding buses.
The civilians were driven to Ukrainian-controlled Zaporizhzhia, 140 miles north of Mariupol.
People who fled Russian-occupied areas say their vehicles were fired at.
An escapee at a UN-backed centre in Zaporizhzhia said: “Those without cars can’t leave. They’re desperate.”
As many as 100,000 people may still be in Mariupol.
Thousands have been killed in the port city which is running out of water, food and medicine.
Kyiv claims Russia is guilty of 9,000 war crimes including executions, rapes and abductions.
Ukraine’s SBU security service has traced the names of 900 Russian servicemen linked to war crimes against civilians in the Kyiv region. While 100 locals have been identified as “collaborators”.
As many as 219 Ukrainian children have been killed and 405 injured during the invasion which began in February, officials say.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky says Moscow is waging “a war of extermination”, adding Russian shelling has hit food and grain warehouses, as well as residential areas in Kharkiv, the Donbas and other regions.
A rocket strike in the Black Sea port city of Odesa killed a number of people last night, officials say.
Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne quoted military bosses saying the strike had damaged a religious building.
Phone calls involving Putin’s soldiers in Kharkiv have been intercepted by Ukrainian intelligence staff, and show troops have been forced at gunpoint to fight against their will.
Russia has lost close to 24,000 troops so far.
Putin has suffered another major blow as his top man in Ukraine, Valery Gerasimov, chief of Russia’s General Staff, has been sent home wounded.
Western officials say Russia is advancing slowly in its effort to gain complete control of the Donbas region in the east.
Boris Johnson is today set to become the first world leader to give a speech to Ukraine’s parliament since the invasion. Echoing Winston Churchill, he is expected to say via video link: “This is Ukraine’s finest hour.”
He is set to announce £300million of defensive military aid for Ukraine. Britain will also send drones that can airlift gear to troops.
There are increasing concerns Moscow now has its sights on Moldova, where controlling separatist Transnistria would forge a supply point for the invasion of southern Ukraine.
