INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Russian troops on Tuesday intensified their campaign to take the port city of Mariupol, part of an anticipated massive onslaught across
occupied Crimea with Russian-backed separatist territories Donetsk and Lugansk in Donbas, and has laid siege to the strategically located
city, once home to more than 400,000 people.Civilians were struggling to flee targeted zones, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
condemning alleged mass rapes in areas previously occupied by Russian troops, including sexual assaults of small children.As the fighting
dragged toward its seventh week, the Ukrainian army fought desperately to defend Mariupol against the Russian offensive."The connection with
the units of the defense forces that heroically hold the city is stable and maintained," the Land Forces of Ukraine wrote on
Telegram.However, the Russian Defense Ministry said its army had thwarted an attempt to break the siege with "airstrikes and artillery fire"
at a factory in a northern district of the city.AFP journalists in Mariupol, as part of a Russian military embed, witnessed the charred
remains of the city, including the theater where 300 people were feared killed in Russian bombardment last month.In his nightly address,
Zelensky on Monday made another plea to his allies for more weapons to boost the defense of the city.Zelensky has also said he
pledged Moscow would proceed on its own timetable with its military operation, rebuffing repeated international calls for a ceasefire."Our
task is to fulfil and achieve all the goals set, minimising losses
And we will act rhythmically, calmly, according to the plan originally proposed by the General Staff," Putin said during a televised press
conference with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.He also dismissed as "fake" reports of the discovery of hundreds of dead civilian
bodies in the town of Bucha outside the Ukrainian capital Kyiv after the withdrawal of Moscow's forces.Images taken by journalists on the
ground, including AFP reporters, of bodies littering the streets of Bucha sparked worldwide outrage and calls for an investigation into
possible war crimes.Bucha Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk said on Tuesday that more than 400 people had been found dead so far and 25 women reported
being raped, as the town prepares for the return of residents who fled the fighting."What people will find in their homes is shocking, and
they will remember the Russian occupiers for a very long time," he said.Around 400 civilians were buried in the town of Severodonetsk near
the frontline in eastern Ukraine since the conflict began, the governor of the Lugansk region, Sergiy Gaiday, said on Tuesday.'Helping
US Pentagon officials said Monday.They reported a Russian convoy had been observed heading for Izyum, an hour's drive north of Kramatorsk,
traditional tactics of public pressure on the negotiation process, including through certain public statements," Ukrainian presidential
adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak said in written comments to reporters.In the war-torn eastern Ukrainian town of Volnovakha, now under Moscow's
control, a school reopened with children listening to a recording of the Russian anthem, watched by armed soldiers.After two weeks of
bombardment, many houses, shops and public buildings are now semi-ruined, windowless or burnt-out.Meanwhile, the toll on towns previously
occupied by Russian forces during their month-long offensive to take Kyiv was still coming to light.Ukrainian prosecutors said on Tuesday
six people had been found shot dead in the basement of a building outside the capital, the latest discovery fuelling allegations of Russian
said.'Rape and sexual violence'Officials called for a probe into assaults against women during the conflict."We are increasingly hearing of
rape and sexual violence," Sima Bahous, director of the UN women's agency, told the Security Council
"These allegations must be independently investigated to ensure justice and accountability."Zelensky on Tuesday voiced anger about the
repeated accounts of sexual violence against Ukrainians."Hundreds of cases of rape have been recorded, including those of young girls and
Even of a baby!" he told Lithuanian lawmakers via video link.More than 4.6 million Ukrainian refugees have now fled their country, the UN
on Tuesday that more than 870,000 people who fled abroad since the start of the war had returned to the country, including a growing number
distribution point in the western city of Lviv
who drove with her husband all the way from Mykolaiv to escape Russian shelling
could force more than a quarter of a billion people into extreme poverty this year.
