New satellite photos appeared to show mass graves near the besieged city of Mariupol as the mayor warned that thousands could be buried in a village close to the port city.
The strategic city has been under constant shelling since early on in the war and evacuations have been difficult. Russian forces have now shifted their focus to the offensive in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine.Read the latest updates from Ukraine in our blog below and watch our TV coverage in the video player above.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the United States for the new package of $800 million in military aid, which he said was “just what we were waiting for.”
The latest military aid, announced Thursday by President Joe Biden, includes heavy artillery, ammunition and drones for the escalating battle in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
Zelenskyy has urged Western countries to speed up the deliveries of weapons to help Ukraine fend off the Russian offensive.
“The occupiers continue to do everything possible to give themselves a reason to speak about at least some kind of victory,” Zelenskyy said late Thursday in his nightly video address to the nation. “They are building up their forces, bringing in new tactical battalions and trying even to begin a so-called ‘mobilisation’ in the regions they occupy in Ukraine.”
Zelenskyy also warned Ukrainians living in areas of southern Ukraine under the control of Russia troops not to provide them with their IDs, which he said could be used “to falsify a so-called referendum on our land” to create a Moscow-friendly government.
Satellite images released Thursday showed what appeared to be mass graves near Mariupol, and local officials accused Russia of burying up to 9,000 Ukrainian
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