On April 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin met in the Kremlin with Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu to discuss the Russian army’s assault on the Ukrainian port of Mariupol.
Russian forces launched a massive ground and air attack there in early March. The city on the Sea of Azov had a pre-invasion population of more than 400,000. Geographically, it is key to the Kremlin’s goal of establishing a land bridge to the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014.
At the meeting, Putin and Shoigu made false or misleading claims.
On the one hand, Putin prematurely claimed victory even as Ukrainian forces continued to fight and work to free civilians trapped in the sprawling Azovstal steel complex.
“The work of the armed forces to liberate Mariupol has been successful. Congratulations,” Putin said.
ukrainian authorities disputed Putin’s claim of victory, while acknowledging a dire situation with the city surrounded. Later, US President Joe Biden also noted that “there is still no evidence that Mariupol has completely fallen.”
“We would tell them this morning that we still assess that Mariupol is disputed, that the Russians have not taken it, and that there is still active Ukrainian resistance.” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby he told CNN on April 22. “So they continue to fight for that city.”
The damage to Mariupol of Russian missiles, bombs and shells is undeniably extensive. Speaking before the Greek parliament on April 7, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the city had been “reduced to ashes, completely destroyed. The Russian army destroyed everything.” The mayor of the city has said that while there is no definitive count, the number of civilians killed could be higher than 20,000. Satellite images released on April 21 show what Ukrainian officials said is likely a Common pit holding thousands.
Shoigu told Putin: “The Russian army and the DPR people’s militia units took all precautions to save civilian lives.” (DPR stands for Donetsk People’s Republic, one of two self-proclaimed Russian-backed breakaway provinces in eastern Ukraine, where Russia has fomented war since its 2014 invasion of Crimea.)
Vast amounts of evidence, from dead civilians to bombed-out residential buildings, medical facilities, theaters and more, contradict Shoigu’s claim.
Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations commissioner for human rights, said The Associated Press on April 22: “During these eight weeks, international humanitarian law has not only been ignored but apparently left aside.”
A statement released by his office said:
“The Russian armed forces have indiscriminately fired on and shelled populated areas, killing civilians and destroying hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure, actions that may amount to war crimes.”
Bachelet’s mission also “documented what appears to be the use of weapons with indiscriminate effect, causing civilian casualties and damage to civilian property, by the Ukrainian armed forces in the east of the country.”
Maxar Technologies said satellite images it released on April 21 also showed more than 200 mass graves in the city of Manhush on the outskirts of Mariupol.
On April 22, the Mariupol City Hall published on Telegram a satellite image it said shows another mass grave in the suburban town of Vinograndne. According to the city council, about 1,000 civilians killed by Russian troops could be buried there.
Shoigu also told Putin: “Over the last two days, again following your instructions, we declared a ceasefire between 2 pm and 4 pm, stopped all military actions and opened humanitarian corridors to allow civilians who may be in Azovstal go away. We prepared about 90 buses and 25 ambulances for them. No one left Azovstal.”
The claim of “humanitarian corridors” is misleading.
Ukrainian authorities said the Russians are deliberately targeting refugee corridors with artillery and missile strikes unless they provide a path into Russia. On April 8, for example, Russian rockets hit the Kramatorsk railway stationkilling 57 people and injuring more than 100.
Russia falsely denied responsibility.
What Shoigu described as humanitarian corridors are actually designated places where the Russians round up Ukrainian civilians to transport them to “filtration camps”, and then to the Russian provinces, all without consent or choice of destination.
More than 935,000 refugees from Ukraine have been brought to Russia since February 24, the Russian state agency TV channel 1 reported on April 22.
According to local media reports in the Russian regions, Ukrainian civilians are being placed in abandoned buildings that were previously used as hospitals and sanatoriums.
For example, Chuvashia, a region in Russia’s Volga River Basin, hosts 1,075 Ukrainian refugees. Some live with their Russian relatives, while most are in local sanatoriums, including “Chuvarleisky Bor”, a children’s tuberculosis sanatorium.
More than 500,000 Ukrainians have been “forcibly transferred” to Russia, including 121,000 children, Ukraine’s permanent representative to the United Nations said, Sergiy Kyslytsyasaid on April 19.
Reference-www.polygraph.info