Ukraine: Airport, area infrastructure left destroyed by Russia

The airport of the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, a major industrial hub, has been destroyed by Russian rocket fire, according to local administrator Valentin Reznichenko.

The airport doesn’t exist any more, he wrote on Telegram. “The airport and the nearby infrastructure have been destroyed. And the rockets keep on flying and flying.”

Efforts are under way to count the victims, he added.

He also wrote that infrastructure units were destroyed in the community of Zvonetske, the same spot where Russian military forces recently said they had wiped out the staff and base of a volunteer force named Battalion Dnipro.

A mass grave containing dozens of Ukrainian bodies was found Saturday in Buzova, a village west of Kiev, a local official says.

Taras Didych, the local leader, told Ukrainian TV that the bodies were found in a pit near a petrol station.

Bodies had also been found in a dozen shelled cars on the main road from the cities of Kiev to Zhytomyr, which goes through Buzova, he said.

Russian troops recently withdrew from the area around Kiev, after spending the first several weeks of the war trying unsuccessfully to blockade the city.

The United Nations has been able to confirm more than 1,700 civilian deaths. But, like the government in Kiev, the UN assumes the actual toll is far higher.

Britain could start targeting Russian troops and generals suspected of committing war crimes in Ukraine with sanctions, the policing minister has said.

Kit Malthouse said the UK was determined to do all it could to help bring to justice those responsible for the “truly awful crimes” which had taken place during the invasion.

During a surprise visit to the Ukrainian capital on Saturday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Russian President Vladimir Putin had “permanently polluted his reputation” through the actions of his forces.

Appearing alongside President Volodymyr Zelensky, Johnson praised the courage of the Ukrainian forces and promised the West would send military equipment to ensure Russia could never again invade its neighbor.

Ukraine’s prosecutor general Iryna Veneditktova said that in the area around Kiev alone they had found the bodies of 1,222 dead.