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Moscow has threatened to mount renewed missile attacks on Kyiv, where authorities said the bodies of more than 900 civilians have now been found outside the capital of Kyiv.
Russian forces continued preparations for a renewed offensive in eastern Ukraine, and fighting also went on in the pummelled southern port city of Mariupol, where locals reported seeing Russian troops digging up bodies.
In the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, the shelling of a residential area killed seven people, including a seven-month-old child, and wounded 34, according to regional governor Oleh Sinehubov.
Early on Saturday, Kyiv’s eastern district of Darnytskie was also struck. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said rescuers and paramedics were on the scene, and warned residents who have fled the capital not to return for their own safety.
Ukrainian police have found 900 civilians killed in areas near Kyiv previously occupied by Russian troops, said Andriy Niebytov, the head of police in the capital region.
The most deaths were registered in town of Bucha, where more than 350 bodies have been collected, he said. Police are also documenting other Russian troops’ actions, including sexual assaults, Niebytov said.
Of the dead, he said the bodies were generally abandoned in the streets or given temporary burials. He cited police data indicating 95 per cent 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.
According to Mr Nebytov, utility workers gathered and buried bodies in the Kyiv suburb while it remained under Russian control. Russian troops, he added, had been “tracking down” people who expressed strong pro-Ukrainian views.
Russia’s foreign ministry said on Saturday that it had barred entry to the country for British prime minister Boris Johnson, foreign secretary Liz Truss, defence secretary Ben Wallace and 10 other British government members and politicians.
The move was taken “in view of the unprecedented hostile action by the British Government, in particular the imposition of sanctions against senior Russian officials,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that it would expand the list soon.
Meanwhile, Ukraine deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said nine humanitarian corridors had been agreed for Saturday to evacuate civilians, including from the besieged city of Mariupol by private cars.
Vereshchuk said in a statement that five of the nine evacuation corridors were from Ukraine’s Luhansk region in the east of the country, which local officials have said is under heavy shelling.
Troops
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russian troops occupying parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in the south of terrorising civilians and hunting for anyone who served in Ukraine’s military or government.
“The occupiers think this will make it easier for them to control this territory. But they are very wrong. They are fooling themselves,” Mr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
“Russia’s problem is that it is not accepted – and never will be accepted – by the entire Ukrainian people. Russia has lost Ukraine forever.”
Mr Zelenskiy said about 2,500 to 3,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed in seven weeks of war with Russia and about 10,000 injured, but there was no count of civilian casualties.
He told CNN on Friday 19,000 to 20,000 Russian soldiers had been killed in the war. Moscow said last month that 1,351 Russian soldiers had been killed and 3,825 wounded. Reuters could not independently verify either side’s numbers.
Russia pledged on Friday to launch more strikes on Kyiv and said it had used cruise missiles to the Vizar factory on the edge of Kyiv, which it said made and repaired missiles, including anti-ship missiles.
Airstrikes
More violence could be in store for Kyiv after Russian authorities accused Ukraine of wounding seven people and damaging about 100 residential buildings with airstrikes in Bryansk, a region bordering Ukraine. Authorities in another border region of Russia also reported Ukrainian shelling on Thursday.
“The number and the scale of missile attacks on objects in Kyiv will be ramped up in response to the Kyiv nationalist regime committing any terrorist attacks or diversions on the Russian territory,” Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
Russia used missiles to destroy a facility for the repair and production of missile systems in Kyiv.
Ukrainian officials have not confirmed striking targets in Russia, and the reports could not be independently verified.
However, Ukrainian officials said forces did strike a key Russian warship with missiles. A senior US defence official backed up the claim, anonymously saying the US now believes the Moskva was hit by at least one Neptune anti-ship missile and probably two.
The Moskva, named for the Russian capital, sank while being towed to port on Thursday after taking heavy damage.
Moscow did not acknowledge any attack, saying only that a fire had detonated ammunition on board. The loss of the ship represents an important victory for Ukraine and a symbolic defeat for Russia.
The sinking reduces Russia’s firepower in the Black Sea and seemed to symbolise Moscow’s fortunes in an eight-week invasion widely seen as a historic blunder following the Russian retreat from the Kyiv region and much of northern Ukraine. – AP with additional reporting: Reuters and Bloomberg