Ukraine tells Russian mums
Prime Minister Boris Johnson again accused Putin of being a war criminal for bombing innocent Ukrainian civilians with more than 2,000 estimated to have died.
The UN confirmed yesterday that 227 civilians had been killed and 525 injured in
Ukraine during the conflict by midnight on Tuesday but it said the true figure is likely to be far higher. Mr Johnson told the Commons bombing civilians “already fully qualifies as a war crime.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told his citizens “the Russians have an order to erase our history. Erase our country. Erase us all” as the invaders intensified their attacks on key cities, with fighting raging for a seventh day in the north, east and south.
Talks between Ukraine and Russia were expected to resume last night as negotiators travel to Belarus.
And charities have called on Britons to “mobilise” their generosity and good- will to support the refugees fleeing the murderous attacks.
The Daily Express is supporting the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) appeal, which will direct funds to Save the Children UK and the British Red Cross.
Meanwhile, more signs of demoralised
Russian troops came from messages intercepted by ShadowBreak International.
Founder Samuel Cardillo got the recordings from amateurs listening in using antennas. He said: “There were periods where we heard them crying in combat. There was an instance where they shot at each other.” Another video shows Moscow’s troops apparently walking back across the Russian border in the Sumska region.
A local man asks: “Are you leaving us?” with one of the soldiers replying: “We’re going home.” One captured solider said: “I didn’t know we were going to Ukraine, I was tricked.”
Soldiers desperate to avoid combat “deliberately punched holes” in their petrol tanks, a US official told the New York Times. Rob Lee, of King’s College London’s Department of War Studies, shared shots of an abandoned Russian air defence system.