Vladimir Putin is using famine tactics to starve Ukraine into a surrender, the UK Ministry of Defence has said.
British defence chiefs warned that Putin’s troops are deliberately inflicting a “worsening” humanitarian disaster on 160,000 people in the besieged city of Mariupol to force a Ukrainian surrender.
Ministry of Defence officials warned of the appalling conditions in the southern port city on the Azov Sea where residents are struggling to survive with “no light, communication, medicine, heat or water”.
Some civilians are feared to have starved to death, and thousands to have been killed by Russian shelling and air strikes.
“The humanitarian situation in the city is worsening,” the Ministry of Defence said.
“Most of the 160,000 remaining residents have no light, communication, medicine, heat or water.
“Russian forces have prevented humanitarian access, likely to pressure defenders to surrender.”
Ukraine ’s President Volodymyr Zelensky also told the Irish Parliament that Russia is using hunger as a weapon of war.
Raising the spectre of Ireland’s famine history, he said: “For them hunger is a weapon against us, ordinary people as an instrument of domination.”
“Ukraine is one of the leading food-supplying country in the world with exports. This is not just about the deficit and the threat of hunger.”
“There will be a shortage of food and the prices will go up, and this is reality for the millions of people who are hungry, and it will be more difficult for them to feed their families.”
After the horrors of executions, torture and rape revealed in Bucha, near Kyiv, Ukrainian authorities are expecting to discover more atrocities having been committed by Russian troops in other towns and cities.
The UK, American and European Union are set to impose further sanctions on Russia in response to the atrocities committed during the invasion of Ukraine.
A further package of economic measures targeting Vladimir Putin ’s allies and the industries funding the war will be announced later on Wednesday, while Nato foreign ministers will also consider how to support Ukraine’s resistance to Moscow.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss will announce the measures targeted at Russia’s strategic industries with a focus on energy.
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