The port city of Mariupol in the south of Ukraine is surrounded by Russian forces. Its population of more than 400,000 is besieged by heavy shelling. “There has been no light, no heat, and no water now for two full days and we have hardly any food left,” one resident told the BBC.
Their plight comes as the Russian army has seized control of Kherson, also in the south, the first major city to fall. In Kyiv, air raid sirens blare every 15 minutes while the huge armoured column threatening the capital appears to be stalled.
The UN Refugee Agency reports that one million people have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion, the swiftest exodus of refugees this century.
As we report in today’s paper, ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan said he was “jump-starting” an inquiry into war crimes as Russian troops were increasingly adopting tactics used in Chechnya and Syria, which saw parts of cities reduced to rubble by indiscriminate bombardments, after failing to seize control of the country in a planned lightning advance.
I’m afraid what follows below is a series of grim news stories, but we mustn’t look away:
- A children’s nurse who was attempting to recover her 14-year-old nephew’s body has been killed in an ambush by Russian forces
- This devastating photo shows before and after of an attack on the town of Irpin on the outskirts of Kyiv
- ‘Kyiv will be Putin’s Stalingrad’: Dispatch from Ukraine’s capital on eighth day of the war
- China asked Russia to delay its invasion until after the Olympics, according to US officials
- Four sailors are feared dead after a cargo ship was reportedly hit with a mine and sank off the coast of Ukraine
- Two superyachts have been seized as Europe cracks down on oligarchs (Britain appears to be going far slower)
- Oil prices have reached a 10-year high, gas is soaring and the price of a bushel of wheat has risen above $11 a bushel for the first time since 2008, leading to fears of a recession
- London councils have given Kremlin-owned gas giant Gazprom nearly £2m in just over a year
The Evening Standard has launched its Ukraine Appeal, with proceeds going to the Red Cross and Save the Children. If you are able, please do donate here.
My colleague Katie Strick has also put together an extremely helpful guide for how you can help Ukrainians from whichever part of London (and beyond) you live. There is something everyone can do in this piece.
In the comment pages, blood, death and kindness: Ukrainian journalist Maria Romanenko on her escape from Kyiv and how she hopes Britain will Poland’s lead.
Meanwhile, former Chief of the General Staff Lord Richard Dannatt says the best hope for an end to the violence is that President Xi Jinping will put an arm around Vladimir Putin and sit him down to face reality.
Elsewhere in the paper – and there’s no way to pull off this tonal shift without going full BBC’s The One Show – ’Help! I forgot it’s World Book Day‘. Emily Bryce-Perkins speak for the parents who love their children just as much as those with better memories/last-minute costume design facilities.
Plus streaming is booming in Britain – but how is it impacting independent film? Katie Rosseinsky speaks with insiders for this fascinating piece.
And finally, the Tower of London is to install a slide into a moat as part of the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations. It’s what William the Conquerer would have wanted.
