Ukrainian forces are “repulsing” Vladimir Putin’s attempts to seize the city of Mariupol despite “heavy fighting,” British defence chiefs said on Tuesday.
They stressed that Russian forces, on Day 27 of the invasion, were “largely stalled” in other parts of Ukraine.
They also highlighted the scale of the refugee crisis, with estimates that more than 10 million Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes.
In its latest intelligence update, the Ministry of Defence said: “Despite heavy fighting, Ukrainian forces continue to repulse Russian attempts to occupy the southern city of Mariupol.
“Russian forces elsewhere in Ukraine have endured yet another day of limited progress with most forces largely stalled in place.”
The MoD added: “Several Ukrainian cities continue to suffer heavy Russian air and artillery bombardment with the UN reporting that more than 10 million Ukrainians are now internally displaced as a result of Russia’s invasion.”
The US Embassy in Kyiv highlighted a report by Anastasiia Lapatina, a journalist with the Kyiv Independent.
She stressed: “Mariupol is now a ghost city – 80 per cent of its infrastructure is damaged or destroyed, 40 per cent of which cannot be rebuilt, authorities say. One of the largest in the country, a beautiful, developed city razed to the ground.”
The Kremlin gave people in Mariupol until 5am on Monday to leave the city in southern Ukraine, through evacuation corridors, or face military tribunals.
However, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, civil chiefs and military commanders in the city rejected the ultimatum.
As Russian troops get bogged down in battles to seize cities, concerns are growing in the West that Mr Putin may resort to even more barbaric methods, possibly using chemical weapons.
Mariupol has been cut off from electricity and running water from early in the invasion, and later from food supplies, with more and more reports of atrocities having been carried out by Russian forces, with some local residents having to bury neighbours in roadside graves.
A theatre housing more than 1,000 people, including children, was hit by a huge bomb, with 130 having been pulled alive from the rubble, but the fate of many of the others still not clear.
A school, where 400 people were sheltering, was also hit as Mr Putin targets cities with increasingly indiscriminate attacks.
The Kremlin denies Russian troops are shelling towns and cities, which flies in the face of the reality on the ground.
