On the 57th day of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, the strategic port of Mariupol came under Russian control according to Moscow, while only the Azovstal factory remains under the Ukrainian flag.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered to besiege the place, without giving the assault.
Meanwhile, kyiv police announced the discovery of the bodies of nine civilians on Wednesday in Borodianka, near the capital, some showing "signs of torture".
Mariupol under Russian control according to Moscow
According to the Kremlin, the entire city of Mariupol, a strategic Ukrainian port, passed under Russian control on Thursday, with the exception of the Azovstal factory.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said his forces had "successfully" taken control of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol and ordered the remaining Ukrainian fighters to be besieged rather than stormed.
"The end of the work of liberating Mariupol is a success," Vladimir Putin told his Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, during a meeting broadcast on television.
The Russian president also informed him that he wanted to besiege the last Ukrainian fighters entrenched on the metallurgical site of Azovstal, because an assault would cost too many lives, the area being notably composed of a vast network of underground galleries.
“I consider the proposed assault on the industrial zone to be inappropriate.
I order to cancel it.
We must think (...) of the life and health of our soldiers and our officers, we must not enter these catacombs, and crawl underground.
Block off this whole area so that not a fly will pass,” he concluded, assuring the lives of those who surrendered.
Nine bodies of civilians found in Borodianka
kyiv police announced overnight from Wednesday to Thursday the discovery of the bodies of nine civilians on Wednesday in Borodianka, near the capital, some showing "signs of torture".
"These people were killed by the (Russian) occupiers and some of the victims show signs of torture," local police chief Andrii Nebytov said on Facebook.
"In a pit were two 35-year-old men, and next to them a 15-year-old girl," Nebytov said.
Before adding: "In another, the police discovered the bodies of six people: four men and two women" who "could be identified as residents of the city".
“The Russian military knowingly killed civilians who offered no resistance to them,” he castigated, adding that the bodies of the victims had been “taken to morgues in the kyiv region to be appraised”.
Forensic scientists and investigators also inspected both graves, according to Nebytov.
"The police in the kyiv region continue to investigate" the crimes of civilians attributed by Ukraine to the Russians, he also indicated.
More than 1,000 civilian bodies in mortuaries in Kyiv region
More than 1,000 bodies of civilians are currently in mortuaries in the kyiv region, a Ukrainian official told AFP on Thursday, as kyiv accuses the Russians of having "massacred" hundreds of civilians during their occupation of the region in March.
“1,020 bodies of civilians, only civilians, are (in morgues) from the whole Kyiv region,” Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Stefanichyna told AFP in the northern town of Borodianka. -west of Kyiv.
Since the withdrawal of Russian forces from the kyiv region at the end of March, hundreds of civilian bodies have been found by the Ukrainian authorities, who, along with the West, accuse Russia of "war crimes", which Moscow denies.
First transfer to France of Ukrainian refugees in Moldova
A first charter with 74 Ukrainian refugees on board, "mostly women and children", is due to land in Bordeaux on Thursday afternoon, from Moldova, a country bordering Ukraine that Paris has pledged to help by transferring 2 500 displaced from the conflict to France, AFP learned from the authorities.
"It is the fulfillment of the commitments made by France, in conjunction with its European partners and with the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), to help Moldova deal with the influx of Ukrainian refugees into its soil”, welcomed the Ministry of the Interior.
