In this photo taken from video released by the Russian Presidential Press Service, Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a meeting on measures of socio-economic support of the regions via vid
In this photo taken from video released by the Russian Presidential Press Service, Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a meeting on measures of socio-economic support of the regions via vid
Western countries are ramping up their criticism of Vladimir Putin, with six countries now accusing the Russian President of war crimes.
The UK, the US, France, Albania, Ireland and Norway have all accused Russia, with British foreign secretary Liz Truss saying there is "very, very strong evidence" of war crimes being committed by Russian soldiers.
"Vladimir Putin is behind them," she said.
"It is ultimately a matter for the international criminal court to decide who is or isn't a war criminal and for us to bring the evidence."
The death toll is still not known after a theatre sheltering civilians, including children, was reduced to rubble in Mariupol.
Moscow troops have also increased attacks on residential areas outside of Kyiv as they continue to face tough resistance from Ukrainian forces protecting the capital.
This comes after US President Joe Biden told reporters in Washington that he thinks Putin "is a war criminal", citing Russia's attacks on "hospitals, maternity wards, apartment buildings" in Ukraine.
His comments prompted a furious response from the Kremlin, with a spokesperson branding the comment "unforgivable".
"We consider unacceptable and unforgivable such rhetoric of the head of the state, whose bombs killed hundreds of thousands of people around the world," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, according to Russian news agency Tass.
Search for survivors in smashed Mariupol theater
Rescuers searched for survivors today in the ruins of a theatre blown apart by a Russian airstrike in the besieged city of Mariupol, while a ferocious bombardment left dozens dead in a northern city over the past day, authorities said.
Hundreds of civilians had been taking shelter in the grand, columned theatre in central Mariupol after their homes were destroyed in three weeks of fighting in the southern port city.
Nearly a day after the airstrike, there were no reports of deaths. With much of the city cut off from the flow of information, there were also conflicting reports on whether anyone had emerged from the rubble.
People clear debris outside a medical center damaged after parts of a Russian missile, shot down by Ukrainian air defense, landed on a nearby apartment block. Photo / AP
"We hope and we think that some people who stayed in the shelter under the theatre could survive," Petro Andrushchenko, an official with the mayor's office, told The Associated Press.
He said the building had a relatively modern basement bomb shelter designed to withstand airstrikes.
Other officials had said earlier that some people had gotten out. Ukraine's ombudswoman, Ludmyla Denisova, said on the Telegram messaging app that the shelter had held up.
Satellite imagery from Maxar technology showed huge white letters on the pavement in front of and behind the theatre spelling out "CHILDREN" in Russian - "DETI" - to alert warplanes to those inside.
Russia's military denied bombing the theatre or anyplace else in Mariupol on Wednesday.The strike against the theatre was part of a furious bombardment of civilian sites in multiple cities over the past few days.
Satellite imagery showed huge white letters on the pavement in front of and behind the theatre spelling out "CHILDREN" in Russian - "DETI" - to alert warplanes to those inside. Photo / AP
In the northern city of Chernihiv, at least 53 people had been brought to morgues over the past 24 hours, killed amid heavy Russian air attacks and ground fire, the local governor, Viacheslav Chaus, told Ukrainian TV today.
Ukraine's emergency services said a mother, father and three of their children, including three-year-old twins, were killed when a Chernihiv hostel was shelled. Civilians were hiding in basements and shelters across the embattled city of 280,000.
"The city has never known such nightmarish, colossal losses and destruction," Chaus said.
At least 21 people were killed when Russian artillery destroyed a school and a community center before dawn in Merefa, near the northeast city of Kharkiv, according to Mayor Veniamin Sitov.
The region has seen heavy bombardment in a bid by stalled Russian forces to advance.
In eastern Ukraine, a municipal pool complex where pregnant women and women with children were taking shelter was also hit, according to Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional administration. There was no word on casualties in that strike.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for more help for his country in a video address to German lawmakers, saying thousands of people have been killed, including 108 children. He also referred to the dire situation in Mariupol, saying: "Everything is a target for them".
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, shakes hands with a wounded Kateryna Vlasenko, 16, a refugee. Photo / AP
The address began with a delay because of a technical problem caused by an attack close to where Zelenskyy was speaking, Bundestag deputy speaker Katrin Goering-Eckardt said.
Zelenskyy's office said Russian airstrikes hit the Kalynivka and Brovary suburbs of the capital, Kyiv. Emergency authorities in Kyiv said a fire broke out in a 16-story apartment building hit by remnants of a downed Russian rocket, and one person was killed.
The UN Security Council planned to meet today on the crisis.
"Russia is committing war crimes and targeting civilians," Britain's UN delegation tweeted.
"Russia's illegal war on Ukraine is a threat to us all."
Russian President Vladimir Putin went on television yesterday to excoriate Russians who don't back him.
A woman and children shield from shelling in a school bomb shelter in Sartana village northeast of Mariupol. Photo / AP
Russians "will always be able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traitors and will simply spit them out like a gnat that accidentally flew into their mouths," said Putin, using language reminiscent of the Stalinist era.
"I am convinced that such a natural and necessary self-purification of society will only strengthen our country."
He said the West is using a "fifth column" of traitorous Russians to create civil unrest.
In this photo taken from video released by the Russian Presidential Press Service, Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a meeting on measures of socio-economic support of the regions via vid
"And there is only one goal, I have already spoken about it - the destruction of Russia," he said.
The speech appeared to be a warning that his authoritarian rule, which had already grown tighter since the invasion began on February 24, could grow even more repressive.
In a sign of that, Russian law enforcement announced the first known criminal cases under a new law that allows for 15-year prison terms for posting what is deemed to be "false information" about the war.
Among those charged was Veronika Belotserkovskaya, a Russian-language cookbook author and blogger living abroad. Both Ukraine and Russia this week reported some progress in negotiations. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said today some negotiators were breaking into working groups, "but there should be contacts today".
A man injured in a bombing lies on a stretcher at a hospital hallway during an air raid alarm in Brovary, north of Kyiv. Photo / AP
Talks were held by video Yesterday. An official in Zelenskyy's office told the AP that the main subject under discussion was whether Russian troops would remain in separatist regions in eastern Ukraine after the war and where the borders would be.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks, said Ukraine was insisting on the inclusion of one or more Western nuclear powers in the negotiations and on legally binding security guarantees for Ukraine.
In exchange, the official said, Ukraine was ready to discuss a neutral military status.Russia has demanded that NATO pledge never to admit Ukraine to the alliance or station forces there.
The fighting has led more than three million people to flee Ukraine, the UN estimates.
The death toll remains unknown, though Ukraine has said thousands of civilians have died.
