The bodies of more than 900 civilians were found in the area around the Ukrainian capital after Russia withdrew – most of them were shot dead, police said on Friday, indicating that many people had “simply been executed”. The alarming number came shortly after the Russian Defense Ministry promised to intensify the missile attacks in Kyiv in response to the alleged Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory. This ominous warning followed the astonishing loss of Moscow’s flagship in the Black Sea, which a senior US defense official said on Friday had been hit by at least one Ukrainian missile. Amid its threats, Moscow has continued preparations for a new offensive in eastern Ukraine. Fighting also continued in the southern port city of Mariupol, where locals said they saw Russian troops digging up bodies. 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. RUSSIA INVASES UKRAINE: LIVE UPDATES A cat rests inside the grave of Lyudmyla Kononuchenko, 51, who was buried by family and friends after being hit by a rocket on March 23 during the war with Russia in Irpin, on the outskirts of Kiev, Ukraine, on Friday. April 15, 2022. Kononuchenko’s body was exhumed from her yard and taken to the morgue for analysis. (AP Photo / Rodrigo Abd) Around Kyiv, Andriy Nebytov, head of the capital’s regional police force, said the bodies had been abandoned on the streets or temporarily buried. He cited police figures showing that 95% had died from gunfire. “Consequently, we understand that under (Russian) occupation, people were simply 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 in Buha, where there were more than 350. According to Nebytov, employees of utilities collected and buried corpses in the suburbs of Kiev while remaining 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. Relatives mourn the death of Oleksandr Mozheiko, 31, a territorial defense soldier who was killed by the Russian army on March 5, during his funeral in Irpin, on the outskirts of Kiev, Ukraine, on Friday, April 15, 2022. (AP Photo / Rodrigo Abd) “The occupiers believe that this will make it easier for them to control this territory. But they are very wrong. They are making fun of themselves,” Zelensky said. “Russia’s problem is that it is not accepted – and will never be accepted – by the entire Ukrainian people. Russia has lost Ukraine forever.” In his overnight video address to the nation, Zelensky also said he discussed the fate of Mariupol with top military and intelligence officials. He said he could not give details, “but we are doing everything we can to save our people.” Zelensky said peace and “how many more Ukrainians have time to kill the occupiers” depend on whether Ukraine receives more external support and echoes calls for more and faster military aid, as well as an oil embargo on Russia. Armed soldiers of the Donetsk People’s Republic militia look at a photographer as they carry weapons in an area controlled by the Russian-backed separatist forces in Mariupol, Ukraine, Friday, April 15, 2022. Mariupol, a strategic port in Alasha, was besieged by Russian troops and forces from the self-proclaimed separatist regions of eastern Ukraine for more than six weeks. (AP Photo / Alexei Alexandrov) 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 territory,” 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. RUSSIA IMPLEMENTS “CONFIGURATION OPERATION” TO PREPARE FOR LARGE GROUND ATTACK IN DONBAS: SENIOR DEFENSE OFFICER 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. Although Moscow did not recognize any attack, saying only that a fire caused the ship to explode ammunition, the loss of the ship represents a major victory for Ukraine and a symbolic defeat for Russia. The sinking reduces Russia’s firepower in the Black Sea, although military analysts have disagreed on the significance of the event for the course of the war. Either way, the loss was seen as emblematic of Moscow’s fate in an eight-week invasion that was widely seen as a historic blunder after the withdrawal from the Kiev region and much of northern Ukraine. “A ‘flagship’ Russian warship is a worthy diving site. We have another diving point in the Black Sea now. We 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. In a central park, a small group of people, including a woman dressed in a Ukrainian flag, danced to the music of a portable speaker. 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 Friday that locals said they saw Russian troops digging corpses buried in backyards and not allowing new burials of “the 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. Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces in Donbas since 2014, the same year Russia occupied Crimea from Ukraine. Russia has recognized the independence of two rebel-held areas of the region. 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 launched criminal proceedings in connection with a suspected “breach of the laws and customs of war, combined with premeditated murder”. CLICK HERE TO RECEIVE THE FOX NEWS APPLICATION Russia’s Defense Ministry said the strikes in the Kharkiv region “cleared a group of mercenaries from a Polish private military company” of up to 30 people and “liberated” an iron and steel plant in Mariupol. The claims could not be independently verified.
