More than 1,000 Ukrainian marines defending the besieged port city of Mariupol have surrendered, Moscow has claimed. In one of the most critical battles of the war, Russia’s defence ministry said on Wednesday 1,026 soldiers from Ukraine’s 36th marine brigade, including 162 officers, had “voluntarily laid down their arms” near the city’s Ilyich iron and steel works. There was no independent confirmation of the claim.
The presidents of four countries bordering Russia – Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia – have travelled to Kyiv in a show of support for their Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and his embattled troops. It follows Kyiv’s reported refusal to meet the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who visited Poland on Tuesday and said he had planned to go on to Ukraine but “was not wanted”. Steinmeier, who was formerly Germany’s foreign minister, is facing heavy criticism for his past policy of rapprochement with Moscow.
Zelenskiy told Estonian MPs, without providing evidence, that Russia was using phosphorus bombs in Ukraine. Ukrainian forces in Mariupol said a drone had dropped a poisonous substance on the city, but there has been no independent confirmation that Russia used banned chemical weapons.
Zelenskiy warned that the war will become an “endless bloodbath, spreading misery, suffering, and destruction” without additional weaponry. Speaking in English in a video published on Twitter, Zelenskiy said: “Freedom must be armed better than tyranny. Western countries have everything to make it happen.”
The Russian retreat from around Kyiv has led to the discovery of large numbers of apparently massacred civilians, drawing international condemnation and calls for a war crimes investigation. The Kyiv district police chief said the bodies of 765 civilians, including 30 children, had been found around the capital.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has declined to repeat Joe Biden’s accusation that Russia was carrying out “genocide” against Ukrainians, warning that verbal escalations would not help end the war. The US president said on Tuesday it had “become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being able to be a Ukrainian”. In response, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov described Biden’s comments as “unacceptable”.
Finland’s prime minister, Sanna Marin, said the country would decide on whether to apply for Nato membership “within weeks”. Speaking at a joint news conference with her Swedish counterpart, Marin said that as a Nato partner – but not a member – Finland was not covered under Article 5, which states that an attack on one member should be considered an attack on all.
The UK government has imposed sanctions on another 206 individuals in response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, including 178 people it said were involved in propping up the self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk. Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, said the latest sanctions were imposed in a direct response to the “horrific rocket attacks” on a train station in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, that killed dozens of civilians.
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said it was not possible to open any humanitarian corridors on Wednesday. She said the situation along the routes was “too dangerous”, and accused Russian forces of violating an agreement to halt shooting while people escape.
Vladimir Putin’s closest ally in Ukraine and the leader of Ukraine’s biggest opposition party, Viktor Medvedchuk, has been captured by Ukrainian law enforcement. Zelenskiy proposed releasing him to Russia in exchange for Ukrainians captured by Russian forces, warning Russia: “Let Medvedchuk be an example for you. Even the former oligarch did not escape, not to mention much more ordinary criminals from the Russian boondocks. We will get everyone.”
The BBC has warned that a video carrying its branding which claims that a missile attack on a railway station that killed dozens was carried out by Ukraine is fake. The video gives the false impression that the BBC has confirmed that Ukrainian armed forces were behind the recent attack on the Kramatorsk railway station. No such video has been produced by the BBC, the broadcaster said.
