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Russia loses top warship, ramps up attacks on Kyiv
Russian strikes pounded a military factory near Kyiv that makes the missiles Ukraine claims it used to sink the Moskva naval flagship, with Moscow on Friday vowing renewed attacks on the capital region.
Powerful explosions were heard in Kyiv on Friday and fighting raged in the east after Ukraine claimed responsibility for the sinking of the Russian navy’s Black Sea flagship in what would be one of the heaviest blows of the war.
Russian strikes pounded a military factory near Kyiv that makes the missiles Ukraine claims it used to sink the Moskva naval flagship, with Moscow on Friday vowing renewed attacks on the capital region.
The explosions appeared to be among the most significant in Ukraine’s capital region since Russian troops pulled back from the area earlier this month in preparation for battles in the south and east.
The Soviet-era ship sank on Thursday as it was being towed to port following a fire and explosions, Russia’s defence ministry said.
Over 500 crew were evacuated, the ministry said, without acknowledging an attack.
The ship’s loss comes as Russia’s navy continues its bombardment of Ukrainian cities on the Black Sea nearly 50 days after it invaded the country to root out what it calls far-right nationalists.
There were no immediate reports of damage following the explosions reported in Kyiv, Kherson in the south, the eastern city of Kharkiv and the town of Ivano-Frankivsk in the west.
Fighting rages around Mariupol: Ukraine
Ukraine said on Friday it was trying to break Russian forces’ siege of Mariupol and that fighting was raging around the city’s Illich steel works and port.
“The situation in Mariupol is difficult and hard. Fighting is happening right now. The Russian army is constantly calling on additional units to storm the city,” defence ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said.
“But as of now the Russians haven’t managed to completely capture it,” he told a televised briefing.
Motuzyanyk said Russia had used long-range bombers to attack Mariupol for the first time since its February 24 invasion, and that elsewhere Russian forces were concentrating efforts on seizing the cities of Rubizhne and Popasna in Ukraine’s east.
More than 900 bodies found in Kyiv region
More than 900 civilian bodies have been discovered in the region surrounding the Ukrainian capital following the withdrawal of Russian forces - most of them fatally shot, police said on Friday, an indication that people were “simply executed”.
Andriy Nebytov, the head of Kyiv’s regional police force, said the bodies were abandoned in the streets or given temporary burials. The head of Kyiv’s regional police force cited police data indicating that 95% died from gunshot wounds.
“Consequently, we understand that under the (Russian) occupation, people were simply executed in the streets,” Nebytov said.
More bodies are being found every day, under rubble and in mass graves, he added.
“The most victims were found in Bucha, where there are more than 350 corpses,” he said.
The Hague-based International Criminal Court, which deals with rights abuses, has investigators in Ukraine and its chief has described the country as a “crime scene”.
Five million people have fled war in Ukraine: UN
More than five million people have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion on February 24.
UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, said 4,796,245 million Ukrainians had fled across the borders, while the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) says nearly 215,000 third-country nationals have also escaped to neighbouring countries.
The Washington Post reported that Moscow had sent a diplomatic note to the United States warning of “unpredictable consequences” unless Washington halts weapons shipments to Ukraine.
Russia said it had expelled 18 employees of the European Union’s delegation to Moscow in retaliation over Brussels’ expulsion of 19 Russians earlier this month.
