Russian forces prepared for a new offensive in eastern Ukraine, and fighting also continued in the southern port city of Mariupol, where locals said they saw Russian troops digging up corpses. In the northeastern city of Kharkiv, a residential bombing killed seven people, including a 7-month-old child, and injured 34, according to regional governor Oleh Sinehubov. Early Saturday, the eastern Darnytskie district of Kiev was hit, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in an online post. He said rescuers and ambulances were at the scene. He warned residents who have left the capital not to return for safety. In the cities around Kyiv, said Andriy Nebytov, who heads the district police force, the bodies were abandoned on the streets or temporarily buried. He cited police figures showing that 95% had died from gunfire. “So we understand that under the (Russian) occupation, people were just executed on the streets,” Nebitov said. More bodies are being found every day under rubble and in mass graves, he added, with the largest number found in Bhutan, more than 350. under Russian control. The Russian troops, he added, “locate” people who expressed strong pro-Ukrainian views. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russian troops occupying parts of the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of terrorizing civilians and chasing anyone serving in the Ukrainian army or government. “The conquerors believe that this will make it easier for them to control this land. But they are very wrong. “They are making fun of themselves,” Zelensky said in a video overnight. “Russia’s problem is that it is not accepted – and will never be accepted – by the entire Ukrainian people. “Russia has lost Ukraine forever.” Officials believe 2,500 to 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in the war, Zelensky said in an interview with CNN. He said about 10,000 had been injured and it was “difficult to say how many will survive”. More violence could be inflicted on Kyiv after Russian authorities accused Ukraine of injuring seven people and damaging about 100 apartment buildings in airstrikes in Bryansk, an area bordering Ukraine. Authorities in another Russian border area also reported Ukrainian bombing on Thursday. “The number and scale of rocket attacks on objects in Kyiv will increase in response to the nationalist regime in Kiev committing terrorist attacks or diversions on Russian soil,” said Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov. Russia has used missiles to destroy a facility for repairing and manufacturing missile systems in Kyiv, Konashenkov said. Ukrainian state arms maker Ukroboronprom said Russian forces had hit one of the missile labs at the Vizar plant near Kiev’s Zhuliany airport. Ukrainian officials have not confirmed targets in Russia and the reports could not be verified by an independent. However, Ukrainian officials said the forces had hit a key Russian warship with missiles. A senior U.S. defense official has denied the allegations, saying the United States now believes Moskva was hit by at least one Neptune anti-ship missile, and possibly two. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an evaluation of information. The Moskva, named after the Russian capital, sank while being towed to the port on Thursday after severe damage. Moscow did not recognize any attack, saying only that a fire had exploded on the ship. The loss of the ship represents a significant victory for Ukraine and a symbolic defeat for Russia. The sinking reduces Russia’s firepower in the Black Sea and seemed to symbolize Moscow’s fortunes in an eight-week invasion widely seen as a historic blunder following Russia’s withdrawal from the Kiev region and much of northern Ukraine. “A ‘flagship’ Russian warship is a remarkable diving site. We have another diving spot in the Black Sea now. “I will definitely visit the wreck after our victory in the war,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov wrote on Twitter on Friday. Russia’s warning of new airstrikes did not prevent Kiev residents from taking advantage of a sunny and slightly warmer spring Friday as the weekend approached. More people than usual took to the streets, walked dogs, rode electric scooters and walked hand in hand. Such signs of pre-war life reappeared in the capital after Russian troops failed to occupy the city and retreated to focus on eastern Ukraine, leaving behind evidence of possible war crimes. But a new bombing could mean a return to the constant mourning of air raid sirens heard in the early days of the invasion and terrible nights housed in subway stations. In Mariupol, city council said on Friday that locals said they saw Russian troops digging corpses buried in backyards and not allowing new burials of “people killed by them”. “Why the exhumation is taking place and where the bodies will be transported is unknown,” the council told the Telegram messaging app. Fighting continued in industrial areas and in the port, and Russia used the Tu-22M3 long-range bomber for the first time to attack the city, said Oleksandr Motuzyanyk, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. Mariupol has been under siege by Russian forces since the early days of the invasion, and the declining number of Ukrainian defenders is resisting a siege that has cost the trapped and starving civilians dearly. The mayor said this week that the death toll in the city could exceed 20,000. Other Ukrainian officials said they expected to find evidence in Mariupol of atrocities such as those discovered in Bukha and other cities outside Kyiv. The capture of Mariupol will allow Russian forces in the south, which arrived through the annexed Crimean peninsula, to fully connect with troops in the Donbas region, the eastern industrial heart of Ukraine, and the target of the impending attack. It is uncertain when Russia will launch a full-scale campaign. Also Friday, a Russian rocket hit an airport overnight in the central city of Alexandria, Mayor Serhiy Kuzmenko said via Facebook. He made no mention of casualties. And a Ukrainian regional official said seven people had been killed and 27 wounded when Russian forces opened fire on buses carrying civilians to the village of Borovaya near Kharkov. The claim could not be independently verified. Dmitry Tsubenko, a spokesman for the regional prosecutor’s office, told the Suspilne news website that authorities had opened criminal proceedings in connection with a suspected “breach of the laws and customs of war, combined with premeditated murder”.
Fisch reported from Kramatorsk. Burns was mentioned by Washington. Associated Press reporters around the world contributed to this report.
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