100,000 forgotten Ukraine orphans
»»Babies cower in Kyiv bunker as Putin bombs »»Pleas for safe escape route to rescue them
DOZENS of orphaned babies and toddlers hide in a basement, highlighting the heartbreaking reality of Putin’s war.
The abandoned Kyiv children are among 100,000 orphans who lived in 700 homes across Ukraine when the shelling started.
Today the Sunday Mirror calls for their safe passage, and we launch an appeal for vital supplies.
UKRAINE was last night facing an “escalation of horror” as Vladimir Putin prepared for a brutal assault on its capital Kyiv – and continued his merciless onslaught of cities across the devastated country.
Russia was feared to be making final preparations to lay siege to Kyiv after gaining ground in its outskirts, with troops said to be less than 15 miles away.
But as air-raid sirens and volleys of shelling rang out over the city Ukrainians vowed they will stand up to Russia.
The country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, warned Putin would only take Kyiv if he razes it to the ground.
Its youngest MP, Sviatoslav Yurah, 26, vowed: “Nobody is going to surrender.”
As they prepared to fight, experts warned the battle for Kyiv could lead the Russians to use “irregular weapons”.
But Britain last night offered some hope to Ukrainians fleeing their country.
The UK Government announced a settlement scheme for refugees with financial help for people in Britain who take them into their homes.
Yesterday, the 17th day of Putin’s senseless and relentless war…
■ Intense fighting raged in multiple areas around the capital city.
■ Russian forces captured the eastern outskirts of besieged Mariupol, where mass graves have been dug for more than 1,500 people.
■ A strike on an ammunition depot in the satellite town of Vaslkyiv triggered hundreds of smaller detonations, while the cities of Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Sumy were encircled.
■ Loud explosions were reported in the cities of Dnipro, Mykolaiv and Nikolaev. ■ Fresh attempts to evacuate innocent civilians from fighting flash points were again hampered by constant shelling.
■ Defiant President Zelensky claimed the Russian army had suffered its largest loss “in decades”.
So far 353 Russian tanks have been destroyed by Ukraine soldiers. The number of Russian troops killed is estimated to be more than 12,000.
In a rousing online speech, Mr Zelensky vowed his country would fight to the end in its defence of Kyiv.
But he said: “If there are hundreds of thousands of people, who are now being mobilised by Russia, and they come with hundreds or thousands of tanks, they will take Kyiv. We understand that.”
Mr Yurah likened the looming battle to the bloodiest of the Second World War, in which 1.9 million German and Soviet troops died. He said: “This will be their Stalingrad if they want to make it so.
“Nobody is going to surrender. I can definitely guarantee you that.”
Sources said Ukrainian soldiers yesterday blew up a main Russian HQ set up outside Kyiv.
Putin’s troops, supported by mercenaries and fighters from Chechnya and Syria, have still failed to take control of any major urban area. But they were pictured moving rocket launchers into position outside the capital.
And former British Army colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon warned of an “escalation of horror”.
The chemical weapons expert, who advised the UK government after the