Russia-Ukraine live updates: Moscow digs in for protracted fight as war stretches into 50th day
Mariupol: Long the site of some of the most ferocious fighting, this key port city continued to endure heavy shelling in recent days. Russia said that more than 1,000 Ukrainian troops in the southeastern city had surrendered, but Mariupol’s deputy mayor denied the claims, telling the BBC that Ukrainian soldiers were fighting on. The city council said Wednesday that Russia has sought to “create a humanitarian catastrophe” by destroying the city’s food supply and essential infrastructure. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe determined Moscow broke international humanitarian law with its targeted attacks here, and a chemical weapons watchdog said it was monitoring the battle for treaty violations.
Bucha: This suburb northwest of Kyiv became a symbol for the brutality of the Kremlin invasion when images of atrocities there emerged in recent weeks. On Wednesday, more than a dozen bodies were unearthed from a Bucha mass grave, and investigators were examining them for signs of torture and execution. International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan called the area a “crime scene” during a visit on the same day.
Kharkiv: Ukraine’s second-largest city is only 25 miles from the Russian border, which has made it a vulnerable target since the beginning of the invasion. On Wednesday, the head of the regional administration reported that recent attacks have killed seven people and injured 22 more. Elsewhere in the region, Moscow has been amassing troops, military vehicles and equipment in preparation for its expected assault on Donbas to the east.
Luhansk Oblast: New video footage and images from this region — which is part of Donbas — showed burned bodies among the rubble of a nursing home that was destroyed last month. Ukrainian authorities say Russian shelling killed more than 50 people there. It has become the latest example of a catastrophe for which Ukrainian and Russian forces blame each other while offering little clear evidence. Controlling this region, along with neighboring Donetsk Oblast, is now one of Russia’s central objectives in the war.