THE BULLETIN • THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 2022 A13
War in Ukraine
Mariupol’s dead put at 5,000 as Ukraine braces in east
BY ADAM SCHRECK
AND ANDREA ROSA
Associated Press
ANDRIIVKA, Ukraine — The
mayor of the besieged port city of
Mariupol put the number of civil-
ians killed there at more than 5,000
Wednesday, as Ukraine collected ev-
idence of Russian atrocities on the
ruined outskirts of Kyiv and braced
for what could become a climactic
battle for control of the country’s in-
dustrial east.
Ukrainian authorities continued
gathering up the dead in shattered
towns outside the capital amid telltale
signs Moscow’s troops killed civilians
indiscriminately before retreating
over the past several days.
In other developments, the U.S.
and its Western allies moved to
impose new sanctions against the
Kremlin over what they branded war
crimes.
And Russia completed the pullout
of all of its estimated 24,000 or more
troops from the Kyiv and Chernihiv
areas in the north, sending them into
Belarus or Russia to resupply and re-
organize, probably to return to the
fight in the east, a U.S. defense offi-
cial speaking on condition of ano-
nymity said.
In his nightly address, Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
warned that the Russian military
continues to build up its forces in
preparation for the new offensive in
the east, where the Kremlin has said
its goal is to “liberate” the Donbas,
Ukraine’s mostly Russian-speak-
ing industrial heartland. He said
Ukraine, too, was preparing for bat-
tle.
“We will fight and we will not re-
treat,” he said. “We will seek all possi-
ble options to defend ourselves until
Russia begins to seriously seek peace.
This is our land. This is our future.
And we won’t give them up.”
Ukrainian authorities urged peo-
ple living in the Donbas to evacuate
now, ahead of an impending Russian
offensive, while there is still time.
“Later, people will come under
fire,” Deputy Prime Minister Iryna
Vereshchuk said, “and we won’t be
able to do anything to help them.”
A Western official, speaking on
condition of anonymity to discuss
Felipe Dana/AP
A Ukrainian soldier walks amid destroyed Russian tanks in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Wednesday.
intelligence estimates, said it will
take Russia’s battle-damaged forces
as much as a month to regroup for a
major push on eastern Ukraine.
Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boi-
chenko said that of the more than
5,000 civilians killed during weeks
of Russian bombardment and street
fighting, 210 were children. He said
Russian forces bombed hospitals, in-
cluding one where 50 people burned
to death.
Boichenko said more than 90% of
the city’s infrastructure has been de-
stroyed. The attacks on the strategic
southern city on the Sea of Azov have
cut off food, water, fuel and medi-
cine and pulverized homes and busi-
nesses.
British defense officials said
160,000 people remained trapped in
the city, which had a prewar popula-
tion of 430,000. A humanitarian re-
lief convoy accompanied by the Red
Cross has been trying for days with-
out success to get into the city.
Capturing Mariupol would allow
Russia to secure a continuous land
corridor to the Crimean Peninsula,
which Moscow seized from Ukraine
in 2014.
In the north, Ukrainian authorities
said the bodies of least 410 civilians
have been found in towns around
Kyiv, victims of what Zelenskyy has
portrayed as a Russian campaign of
murder, rape, dismemberment and
torture. Some victims had apparently
been shot at close range. Some were
found with their hands bound.
At a cemetery in the town of Bu-
cha, northeast of Kyiv, workers began
to load more than 60 bodies appar-
ently collected over the past few days
into a grocery shipping truck for
transport to a facility for further in-
vestigation.
Zelenskyy accused Russia of inter-
fering with an international inves-
tigation into possible war crimes by
removing corpses and trying to hide
other evidence in Bucha.
“We have information that the
Russian troops have changed tactics
and are trying to remove the dead
people, the dead Ukrainians, from
the streets and cellars of territory
they occupied,” he said in his address.
“This is only an attempt to hide the
evidence and nothing more.”
Switching from Ukrainian into
Russian, Zelenskyy urged ordinary
Russians “to somehow confront the
Russian repressive machine” instead
of being “equated with the Nazis for
the rest of your life.”
He called on Russians to demand
an end to the war, “if you have even
a little shame about what the Russian
military is doing in Ukraine.”
More bodies were yet to be col-
lected in Bucha. The Associated Press
saw two in a house in a silent neigh-
borhood. From time to time there
was the muffled boom of workers
clearing the town of mines and other
unexploded ordnance.
Police said they found at least 20
bodies in the Makariv area west of
Kyiv. In the village of Andriivka, res-
idents said the Russians arrived in
early March and took locals’ phones.
Some people were detained, then re-
leased. Others met unknown fates.
Some described sheltering for weeks
in cellars normally used for storing
vegetables for winter.
The soldiers were gone, and Rus-
sian armored personnel carriers, a
tank and other vehicles sat destroyed
on both ends of the road running
through the village. Several buildings
were reduced to mounds of bricks
and corrugated metal. Residents
struggled without heat, electricity or
cooking gas.
“First we were scared, now we are
hysterical,” said Valentyna Klymenko,
64. She said she, her husband and
two neighbors weathered the siege
by sleeping on stacks of potatoes cov-
ered with a mattress and blankets.
“We didn’t cry at first. Now we are
crying.”
To the north of the village, in the
town of Borodyanka, rescue work-
ers combed through the rubble of
apartment blocks, looking for bodies.
Mine-disposal units worked nearby.
The Kremlin has insisted its troops
have committed no war crimes,
charging that the images out of Bu-
cha were staged by the Ukrainians.
Thwarted in their efforts to swiftly
take the capital, increasing numbers
of President Vladimir Putin’s troops,
along with mercenaries, have been
reported moving into the Donbas.
At least five people were killed by
Russian shelling Wednesday in the
Donbas’ Donetsk region, according
to Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko, who urged
civilians to leave for safer areas.
In the Luhansk region of the Don-
bas, Russian bombardment set fire to
at least 10 multistory buildings and a
mall in the town of Sievierodonetsk,
the regional governor reported.
There was no immediate word on
deaths or injuries.
Russian forces also attacked a fuel
depot and a factory in the Dniprop-
etrovsk region, just west of the Don-
bas, authorities said.
Ukrainian forces have been fight-
ing Russia-backed separatists in the
Donbas since 2014. Ahead of its Feb.
24 invasion, Moscow recognized the
Luhansk and Donetsk regions as in-
dependent states.
In reaction to the alleged atroci-
ties outside Kyiv, the U.S. announced
sanctions against Putin’s two adult
daughters and said it is toughen-
ing penalties against Russian banks.
Britain banned investment in Russia
and pledged to end its dependence
on Russian coal and oil by the end of
the year.
The European Union is also ex-
pected to take additional punitive
measures, including an embargo on
coal.
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