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Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed “success” in Mariupol but ordered his forces not to storm the site where the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the besieged port city is holding out.
Ukrainian officials said Thursday that an apparent mass grave in a village outside the devastated city may contain as many as 9,000 bodies.
Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko compared the site to the Kyiv ravine where Nazi forces killed an estimated 33,000 Jews in 1941.
“The biggest war crime of the 21st century was committed in Mariupol,” he said. “This is the new Babi Yar. Hitler then killed Jews, Roma and Slavs. And now Putin is destroying Ukrainians.”
Ukrainian forces have held out under weeks of heavy bombardment that has devastated much of Mariupol and prompted international condemnation of Moscow's tactics. Kyiv has been desperately seeking ways to evacuate the soldiers and thousands of civilians still trapped in the city without much food or aid.
The fate of Mariupol and the broader Russian offensive in the east have prompted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to call again on his country’s allies for urgent supplies of weapons — an appeal the United States looks set to meet, with President Joe Biden announcing a new $800 million military aid package in remarks Thursday morning.
Zelenskyy: Nations need to prepare for ‘complete severance of any relations with Russia’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he told the World Bank that his country needs support and called for further isolation of Russia.
“Every country in the world needs to prepare now for the possible complete severance of any relations with Russia,” he said.
Zelenskyy said he told the World Bank, an international organization that mainly lends money to developing countries, that Ukraine needs five things.
Among them were support, as well as the exclusion of Russia from international financial institutions, a tax targeting Russia and transactions to help pay to rebuild Ukraine after the war. Zelenskyy said Russia is the aggressor and should pay for violating global stability.
World Bank President David Malpass said the physical damage to Ukraine's buildings and infrastructure from Russia's invasion is estimated at $60 billion and will increase as the war continues, Reuters reported.
Vice President Harris: Invasion of Ukraine will be ‘strategic failure for Russia’
Vice President Kamala Harris said Thursday that Russia’s attack on its neighbor Ukraine will prove to be a failure for Moscow.
The United States, the European Union and other countries have imposed tough sanctions on Russia in response to the Feb. 24 invasion, which many countries have condemned as unprovoked and unjustifiable. Russia has also been accused of committing war crimes in Ukraine.
“Let’s be very clear about where we stand in terms of Russia: As far as I’m concerned — and I think, objectively, many people will agree — that their invasion of Ukraine has not only been steeped in atrocities, but will prove to be a strategic failure for Russia,” Harris said in San Francisco.
On Thursday, President Joe Biden announced $800 million in new military assistance for Ukraine, including 72 more howitzers and 144,000 artillery rounds.
Russia has suffered setbacks in its attack, and it announced an offensive focused on Ukraine’s east this month.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday declared victory in the besieged and devastated city of Mariupol. Some Ukrainian soldiers — and civilians — are holed up in a steel plant there.
Harris made the comments the same day Russia's foreign ministry announced measures to ban her and some other U.S. officials from traveling to Russia. Biden was prohibited from entering Russia in March.
Russia, Ukraine argue at U.N. over blame for rising food prices
Russia and Ukraine squared off at the United Nations on Thursday over whether Russia’s war is to blame for rising food prices and hunger around the world.
Between them, the two countries account for nearly a third of global wheat and barley exports, and millions of people in the Middle East, Africa and parts of Asia depend on them for affordable bread and noodles. Ukraine also is a major corn supplier and the biggest exporter of sunflower oil.
“As long as Russia persists in its efforts to invade Ukraine, the threat of hunger will be looming over many countries throughout the globe,” Ukrainian counselor Natalia Mudrenko said Thursday at an informal U.N. Security Council meeting to discuss conflict and hunger.
Russian Deputy Ambassador Dmitry Chumakov argued that sanctions, trade wars, the coronavirus pandemic and Western economic policies were shaking up the global food, energy and financial markets.
Chumakov said Russia’s critics were trying to deflect focus from sanctions and the “economic egoism of the developed countries during the pandemic.”
Ukraine’s top prosecutor accuses Russia of paying Ukrainian children for military information
Ukraine’s top prosecutor accused Russian forces Thursday of paying teenagers and children for information about the Ukrainian military.
In a statement, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova said authorities had identified eight children who participated in the apparent scheme.
In Kharkiv, the prosecutor said, a 12-year-old provided details about the location of military equipment, checkpoints and personnel through Telegram and over the internet. Venediktova didn't say how much the child was paid.
Venediktova said a similar effort was documented in Luhansk.
Venediktova didn't provide other details about the alleged effort. She said it appeared to violate the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Russia rejects Easter truce, Zelenskyy says
Russia rejected a proposal for a truce during Orthodox Christian Easter, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday.
“This shows very well how the leaders of this state actually treat the Christian faith, one of the most joyful and important holidays,” he said in a video address.
“But we remain hopeful,” he said. “Hope for peace. Hope that life will overcome death.”
Russian officials did not immediately comment on the proposal.
In the address, Zelenskyy also thanked the U.S. after President Joe Biden pledged $800 million in heavy artillery weapons, ammunition, dozens of howitzers and 121 “ghost” drones.
The military aid is “all that we expected,” he said.
Officials warn of mass grave near Mariupol with as many as 9,000 bodies, calling it the 'new Babi Yar'
An apparent mass grave in a village outside the devastated city of Mariupol may contain as many as 9,000 bodies, Ukrainian officials said Thursday.
In a statement on its Telegram channel, the Mariupol City Council said satellite images captured by the U.S. defense contractor Maxar showed mass graves that were 20 times larger than a burial site discovered this month in the city of Bucha, outside Kyiv, according to an NBC News translation.
Seventy bodies were found in that grave, the council said. The officials said the site in the village of Mangush could hold 3,000 to 9,000.
In a statement, Maxar said the graves began to appear toward the end of March and continued to expand in April. The company said the apparent graves were dug in four rows, each about 280 feet long.
The City Council said the bodies may have been buried in layers.
NBC News could not immediately confirm the report, nor could it confirm local media reports cited by Maxar describing Russian soldiers taking bodies of people killed in Mariupol to the site.
In a Telegram post, Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko compared the site to the Kyiv ravine where Nazi forces killed an estimated 33,000 Jews in 1941.
“The biggest war crime of the 21st century was committed in Mariupol,” he said. “This is the new Babi Yar. Hitler then killed Jews, Roma and Slavs. And now Putin is destroying Ukrainians.”
Zelenskyy gets John F. Kennedy award for defending democracy
BOSTON — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is among five people named Thursday as recipients of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for acting to protect democracy.
Zelenskyy was chosen because of the way he has “marshaled the spirit, patriotism and untiring sacrifice of the Ukrainian people in a life-or-death fight for their country” as Russia pours in troops and assaults cities and towns, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation said.
The foundation said four U.S. officials were chosen for standing up for free and fair elections as the system is challenged in ways it has never been before.
They are: Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers and Fulton County, Georgia, elections worker Wandrea “Shaye” Moss.
