Russian forces are now inside the besieged southern city of Mariupol, a senior US defence official said. Two “super-powerful bombs” rocked Mariupol on Tuesday even as rescue efforts were ongoing, local authorities said. More than 200,000 people are trapped in the city, where the situation has been described as a “freezing hellscape riddled with dead bodies and destroyed buildings”, Human Rights Watch said.
About 300,000 people in the occupied southern city of Kherson were running out of food and medical supplies, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s foreign ministry said. The city of Kherson was the first major Ukrainian city to fall into the hands of Russian troops after they invaded Ukraine on 24 February.
