Kyiv, Ukraine (AP) – Outraged by so-called Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory and after the stunning loss of its Black Sea flagship, Moscow threatened renewed missile attacks on Kyiv, where authorities said the bodies of more than 900 civilians were outside Russian territory been found capital. Most were shot, police said, and likely “simply executed.”
Russian forces were preparing for a renewed offensive in eastern Ukraine, and fighting also continued in the devastated southern port city of Mariupol, where locals said they saw Russian troops digging up bodies. In the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, shelling in a residential area killed seven people, including a seven-month-old child, and wounded 34, according to regional governor Oleh Sinehubov.
Kyiv’s eastern Darnytskie district was hit early on Saturday, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in an online post. He said rescuers and paramedics were at the scene. He warned residents who fled the capital not to return for their safety.
In towns around Kyiv, said Andriy Nebytov, who heads the region’s police force, bodies were left on the streets or temporarily buried. He cited police data that 95% died from gunshot wounds.
“Thus, we understand that under the (Russian) occupation, people were simply executed in the streets,” Nebytov said.
More bodies were being found under rubble and in mass graves every day, he added, with the largest number found in Bucha, more than 350. According to Nebytov, utility workers gathered and buried bodies in the Kyiv suburb while it was under Russian control stayed. Russian troops, he added, had “tracked down” people who had expressed strong pro-Ukrainian views.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russian troops occupying parts of the southern Kherson and Zaporizhia regions of terrorizing civilians and hunting down anyone who served in Ukraine’s military or government.
“The occupiers believe that this will make it easier for them to control this area. But they are very wrong. You’re fooling yourself,” said Zelenskyy in his nightly video speech. “Russia’s problem is that it is not accepted by the entire Ukrainian people – and will never be accepted. Russia has lost Ukraine forever.”
Officials estimate that 2,500 to 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers died in the war, Zelenskyy said in an interview with CNN. He said about 10,000 were injured and it is “difficult to say how many will survive”.
More violence could be on the horizon for Kyiv after Russian authorities accused Ukraine of injuring seven people and damaging about 100 residential buildings in airstrikes in Bryansk, a region bordering Ukraine. Authorities in another border region of Russia also reported Ukrainian shelling on Thursday.
“The number and scale of rocket attacks on objects in Kyiv are increasing in response to the nationalist Kiev regime carrying out terrorist attacks or diversions on Russian territory,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
Russia used missiles to destroy a missile systems repair and production facility in Kyiv, Konashenkov said. Ukrainian state arms manufacturer Ukroboronprom said Russian forces attacked one of the missile workshops at the Vizar plant near Kiev’s Zhulyany airport.
Ukrainian officials have not confirmed targets in Russia, and the reports have not been independently verified.
However, Ukrainian officials said the armed forces had launched missile attacks on a key Russian warship. A senior US defense official backed the claim, saying the US now believes the Moscow River was hit by at least one Neptun anti-ship missile and probably two. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an intelligence assessment.
The Moscow River, named after the Russian capital, sank on Thursday after being badly damaged while being towed into port. Moscow did not concede an attack, saying only that a fire detonated ammunition on board. The loss of the ship is a major victory for Ukraine and a symbolic defeat for Russia.
The sinking reduced Russia’s firepower in the Black Sea and appeared to symbolize Moscow’s fortunes in an eight-week invasion widely viewed as a historic blunder following Russia’s withdrawal from the Kyiv region and much of northern Ukraine.
“A Russian ‘showpiece warship’ is a worthy dive site. We now have another dive site in the Black Sea. We will definitely visit the wreck after our victory in the war,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov tweeted on Friday.
Russia’s warning of renewed airstrikes didn’t stop Kievans taking advantage of a sunny and slightly warmer spring Friday as the weekend approached. More people than usual were out on the streets, walking dogs, riding electric scooters and walking hand in hand.
Such tentative signs of pre-war life have resurfaced in the capital after Russian troops failed to take the city and retreated to eastern Ukraine, leaving behind evidence of possible war crimes. But renewed bombardment could mean a return to the steady wailing of air-raid sirens heard in the early days of the invasion and anxious nights hiding in subway stations.
In Mariupol, the city council said on Friday that locals reported that Russian troops had dug up bodies buried in courtyards and not allowed new burials of “people they killed.”
“Why the exhumation is being carried out and where the bodies are being taken is unknown,” the council said via news app Telegram.
Fighting continued in the industrial areas and in the port, and Russia used the Tu-22М3 long-range bomber for the first time to attack the city, said Oleksandr Motuzyanyk, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Defense Ministry.
Mariupol has been blockaded by Russian forces since the early days of the invasion, and a dwindling number of Ukrainian defenders have held out against a siege that has come at a terrible cost in trapped and starving civilians.
The mayor said this week the death toll in the city could top 20,000. Other Ukrainian officials have said they expect to find evidence of atrocities in Mariupol, like those found in Bucha and other towns outside of Kyiv.
The capture of Mariupol would allow Russian forces in the south, advancing via the annexed Crimean Peninsula, to fully ally with troops in the Donbass region, Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland and the target of the forthcoming offensive.
It is not certain when Russia will launch a full-scale campaign.
Also on Friday, a Russian missile hit an airport in downtown Oleksandriia at night, Mayor Serhiy Kuzmenko said via Facebook. He didn’t mention any casualties.
And a regional Ukrainian official said seven people were killed and 27 injured when Russian forces fired on buses carrying civilians in the village of Borovaya, near Kharkiv. The claim could not be independently verified.
Dmytro Chubenko, a spokesman for the regional prosecutor’s office, told the Suspilne news website that the authorities had opened a criminal case related to an alleged “violation of the laws and customs of war, combined with premeditated murder.”
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Fisch reported from Kramatorsk. Burns reported from Washington. Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report.
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