Zelensky says Russia’s Mariupol ‘terror’ will be remembered for centuries

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that Russia was committing war crimes in its siege of the port city of Mariupol, and that it would be remembered for “centuries to come” for the violence unleashed on its civilians.

“To do this to a peaceful city, what the occupiers did, is a terror that will be remembered for centuries to come,” Mr Zelensky said in a video address to the nation.

The city council said in a statement on Telegram that over the last week, several thousand Mariupol residents were deported into Russian territory.

“It is known that the captured Mariupol residents were taken to filtration camps, where the occupiers checked people’s phones and documents. After the inspection, some Mariupol residents were redirected to remote cities in Russia, the fate of others remains unknown,” a statement from the Mariupol City Council noted.

The Ukrainian president said peace talks with Russia were needed although they were “not easy and pleasant.”

Australia has announced an additional $30m in emergency humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, focused on protecting women and children.

“This contribution will focus on protecting women, children, the elderly and the disabled, and takes the total we have so far committed to $65 million,” the country’s top ministers noted in a joint statement.

The country has also imposed an immediate ban on Australian exports of alumina and aluminium ores to Russia.

According to Australia’s foreign ministry, Russia relies on Australia for nearly 20 per cent of its alumina needs – a mineral that is vital for auto, aerospace, packaging, machinery and construction sectors, and a critical input into armaments industries.

“Overnight, I have imposed an immediate ban on Australian exports of alumina & aluminium ores (including bauxite) to Russia under Australia’s autonomous sanctions against Russia. This will limit Russia’s capacity to produce aluminium – a critical export for Russia,” Marise Payne, Australia’s foreign minister and minister for women, tweeted on Sunday.

“Australia will continue to impose high costs on Russia. We have so far imposed a total of 476 sanctions on 443 individuals, including many oligarchs close to President Putin, and 33 entities, including most of Russia’s banking sector and all entities responsible for Russia’s sovereign debt,” the joint statement noted.

The Ukrainian Air Force is continuing to “effectively defend” the country’s air space against invading Russian forces, according to the UK government’s defence intelligence update late on Saturday.

“Russia has failed to gain control of the air and is largely relying on stand-off weapons launched from the relative safety of Russian airspace to strike targets within Ukraine,” the UK defence ministry tweeted from its official account.

Russia’s “continued failure” to gain control of Ukrainian air space has “significantly blunted” their operational progress, it said.

In Kyiv, at least 20 babies born to surrogate mothers are stuck at a makeshift bomb shelter, waiting for their parents to travel to the besieged city and take them home.

Before Russia’s invasion began on 24 February, Ukraine was home to a thriving surrogacy industry, as one of the few countries where foreigners could get Ukrainian women to carry their pregnancies.

But now, the babies – some just a few days old – are sheltering underground along with the surrogacy centre’s nurses as the war rages on in the capital.

The parents of these babies live in Europe, Latin America, and China, according to the Associated Press, which visited the shelter.

“Now we are staying here to preserve our and the babies’ lives. We are hiding here from the bombing and this horrible misery,” said Lyudmilia Yashchenko, a 51-year-old nurse.

While the nurses say food and baby supplies are available at the shelter, they are left waiting for the infants to be picked up, and for the war to end.

Swiss president Ignazio Cassis said on Saturday that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is driven by “devastating madness” and that Switzerland is prepared to pay the price for defending freedom and democracy.

Mr Cassis said Switzerland has decided to impose the same sanctions on Russia as the European Union, and could not remain neutral in the “confrontation between democracy and barbarism”.

He added that the country was prepared to take an economic hit.

“We must valiantly and tirelessly defend freedom and democracy. This has a price. A price that Switzerland is ready to assume”, he wrote in the Swiss French-language newspaper Le Temps.

Ukraine says thousands of its civilians fleeing the besieged city of Mariupol to the suburbs are dying of hunger.

“Right now, thousands of Mariupol residents who managed to escape from Russian bombs are starving to death in the occupied Mangushi and Melekin. This is a crime against humanity!” Donetsk military-civil administration head Pavlo Kyrylenko said.

The military-civil administration head reportedly said the Russian occupying forces do not agree on a “green corridor” for the fleeing civilians to provide food, water and safe passage.

“We demand from the occupation administration to follow the rules of warfare and provide civilians with water and food, as well as to enable them to leave the combat zone!” Mr Kyrylenko said.

In its latest update of civilian casualties, the UN noted on Saturday that 847 people have been killed and 1,399 injured since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February.

There have been 968 casualties in the territories of Donetsk and Luhansk, and 1,278 reported casualties in other regions under Ukrainian government control, the report noted.

“Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes,” the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said.

The actual figures could be considerably higher since officials have not been able to verify information in places witnessing intense battles, the UN agency noted.

Ukraine says Russia is conscripting civilians living in the occupied separatist regions of Donbas to deploy on the front lines of the war.

“This is a gross violation of international law, including Geneva Convention. Russian officials’ list of war crimes continues to expand. They will be held accountable,” Oleg Nikolenko, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s foreign ministry, tweeted.

The rebel-occupied regions in eastern Ukraine of Donetsk and Luhansk were declared “independent entities” by Russian president Vladimir Putin last month, before he ordered an invasion to — in his terms — protect them from Kyiv.

In the days leading up to the war, Russian-backed militants in the area reportedly escalated hostilities in Donbas as the west warned that Russia was preparing a pretext to invade.

Speaking to a local resident, the Kyiv Independent reported that civilians from occupied parts of the region are being forced to fight in front-line positions.

Western nations must never “renormalise” relations with Vladimir Putin, Boris Johnson has said, warning that Russia’s war in Ukraine has created a moment of choice for the world between freedom and oppression (Andrew Woodcock writes).

Victory for the Russian leader would usher in a “new age of intimidation” across eastern Europe and give a green light to autocrats around the globe, he said.

Addressing the Conservative spring conference in Blackpool on Saturday, Mr Johnson described the war as a “turning point for the world”.

Thousands of residents of the besieged city of Mariupol in Ukraine are reportedly being taken against their will to Russia, the city council said on Saturday.

“It is known that the captured Mariupol residents were taken to filtration camps, where the occupiers checked people’s phones and documents. After the inspection, some Mariupol residents were redirected to remote cities in Russia, the fate of others remains unknown,” a statement from the Mariupol City Council noted.

Russian forces reportedly took people from the Livoberezhny district and from a shelter where more than a thousand people, “mostly women and children,” were hiding from the bombing.

“What the occupiers are doing today is familiar to the older generation, who saw the horrific events of World War II, when the Nazis forcibly captured people,” Mariupol mayor Vadym Boychenko said.

“It is difficult to imagine that in the 21st century people will be forcibly deported to another country. Not only are Russian troops destroying our peaceful Mariupol, they have gone even further and started deporting Mariupol residents,” Mr Boychenko added.