The British Defense Ministry said that Russian forces continue to withdraw from Belarus to support operations in eastern Ukraine, focusing on the Donbass region, where Russia’s separatist allies have claimed independence. “Fighting in eastern Ukraine will intensify over the next two to three weeks as Russia continues to refocus its efforts there,” the ministry tweeted. “Russian attacks remain focused on Ukrainian positions near Donetsk and Luhansk with further battles around Kherson and Mykolaiv and a new impetus towards Kramatorsk.” The southeastern port of Mariupol has seen some of the heaviest attacks and civilian suffering in the six-week war, but ground, sea and air strikes by Russian forces fighting to seize it have increasingly limited information on conditions. in the city. Speaking by telephone to the Associated Press on Monday, Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko accused Russian forces of blocking weeks of humanitarian convoys in the city, in part to cover up the massacre. Boichenko said the death toll in Mariupol alone could exceed 20,000. Boichenko also gave new details about the claims of Ukrainian officials that Russian forces have brought mobile incineration equipment to Mariupol to dispose of the bodies of the victims of the siege. Russian forces transported many bodies to a huge shopping mall with storage facilities and refrigerators, Boychenko said. “Mobile crematoria have arrived in the form of trucks: You open it and there is a pipe inside and these bodies are burning,” he said. Boichenko spoke from a location on Ukrainian-controlled territory but outside Mariupol. The mayor said he had many sources for his description of the alleged methodical burning of corpses by Russian forces in the city, but did not further specify the sources of his information. The discovery of a large number of seemingly executed civilians following the withdrawal of Russian forces from cities and towns around the capital, Kyiv, has already sparked widespread condemnation and allegations that Russia is committing war crimes in Ukraine. U.S. officials also point to further evidence that the Russian military is preparing for a major offensive in Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region, shifting its focus after Russian forces failed in their initial attempt to occupy Kyiv. Donbass has been torn apart by fighting between Russia’s separatist allies and Ukrainian forces since 2014, and Russia has acknowledged the separatists’ claims of independence. Military generals say Russian leaders seem to be hoping that local support, logistics and ground in Donbass favor Russia’s largest and best-armed army, possibly allowing Russian troops to gain more ground and weaken its military presence. Of Ukraine. Russia has appointed an experienced general to lead its renewed push in the eastern Donbass region. A senior U.S. defense official on Monday described a long-running Russian convoy now heading to the eastern city of Izyum with artillery, air and infantry support as part of a reshuffle for what appears to be the upcoming Russian campaign. More artillery is being deployed near the city of Donetsk, while ground combat units withdrawn from the Kiev and Chernihiv regions appear to be intended for reconstruction and refueling before being deployed in Donbas, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. discuss the interior of the US. military assessments. With their offensive in many parts of the country being thwarted, Russian forces are increasingly relying on city bombing – a strategy that leveled many urban areas and killed thousands. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says nearly two-thirds of all Ukrainian children have fled their homes in the six weeks since the Russian-led invasion began. The United Nations has confirmed that 142 children were killed and 229 injured, although the actual number is probably much higher. Ukrainian authorities accuse Russian forces of committing atrocities, including the massacre in the city of Bukha, outside Kyiv, airstrikes on hospitals and a rocket attack that killed at least 57 people at a train station last week. In Bucha, exhumation work from a mass grave in a churchyard has resumed. Galyna Feoktistova waited for hours in the cold and rain hoping to recognize her 50-year-old son, who was shot and killed more than a month ago but eventually went home for some warmth. “She is still there,” said her surviving son, Andriy. In Mariupol, about 120,000 citizens are in dire need of food, water, warmth and communications, the mayor said. Only those residents who have passed the Russian “filter camps” are liberated from the city, Boychenko said. Ukrainian officials say Russian troops have seized passports from Ukrainian citizens and then taken them to camps in separatist-controlled eastern Ukraine before sending them to remote, economically disadvantaged areas in Russia. Bojchenko said on Monday that those who did not pass the “filtering” were transferred to makeshift prisons. He said 33,000 or more people had been transferred to Russia or to separatist territories in Ukraine. The Russians refused to move people against their will. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Ukrainians that Russia could use chemical weapons in Mariupol. “We are taking it as seriously as possible,” Zelensky said in his nightly speech Monday. Western leaders warned even before Russian troops entered Ukraine that Russia could resort to unconventional weapons there, especially chemical agents. A pro-Russian separatist official, Eduard Basurin, appeared to urge their use on Monday, telling Russian state television that Russian-backed forces would have to seize a giant metal plant in Mariupol from the Ukrainians first. all exits from the factory. “And then we will use chemical troops to smoke them from there,” he said. An unnamed Ukrainian constitution also claimed Monday that a drone had dropped a poisonous substance on Mariupol. He said there were no serious injuries. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement that the United States could not confirm the drone report from Mariupol. But Kirby noted the government’s persistent concerns “about Russia’s ability to use a variety of riot control agents, including tear gas canisters, in Ukraine.” Western military analysts say Russia’s attack is increasingly focused on an arc of land extending from Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, in the north to Kherson in the south. Questions remain about the ability of the exhausted and discouraged Russian forces to conquer large swathes of territory, however, as determined Ukrainian defenders repulsed their advance on Kyiv.
Karmanau reported from Lviv, Ukraine. Anna reported from Bukha, Ukraine. Associated Press writer Robert Burns in Washington and AP reporters around the world contributed to this report.
Follow the AP coverage for the war at
