A Russian commander allegedly ordered his troops to shoot at Ukrainian civilians near besieged Mariupol.
In a foul-mouthed radio dispatch intercepted by Ukraine’s SBU and published on the security service’s official Facebook account, an unnamed soldier details the positions of non-combatants to nearby troops in a village near the southern port city.
His superior then demands: ‘Take them all f**king out’, before doubling down on his bloodcurdling instructions as the troop says that two people emerging from a nearby grove were dressed in ‘civilian clothes’. The commander screams: ‘Off them all, f**k!’.
The port city of Mariupol has become a living hell for those still trapped there by Russian occupiers. Local officials estimate up to 5,000 have died from Moscow’s shelling, while 90 per cent of the city’s infrastructure has been destroyed.
In recent days, Ukraine’s security officials have warned that Russia is preparing an alleged false flag provocation in the besieged city of Mariupol in which they will accuse Ukrainian troops of committing atrocities against their own populace.
‘The main task of Russian propaganda today is to divert the attention of the audience, both international and domestic, as much as possible’, the SBU said.
‘According to existing data, the occupiers are preparing a large-scale falsification: They plan to collect the bodies of Mariupol residents killed by the Russians themselves, and present them as mass victims of the Ukrainian troops.
‘For this reason, there have been false theses recently that Ukrainians use peaceful residents as human shields.’
Leaked audio footage captured the moment a foul-mouthed Russian commander demanded his troops ‘open fire’ on civilians in the besieged city of Mariupol (pictured)
A Ukrainian serviceman examines destroyed Russian heavy armour near the capital of Kyiv
In the leaked audio recording, another soldier complains about their battalion being outnumbered by their Ukrainian adversaries.
‘Their [Ukraine’s] group has 150,000 soldiers and there’s f*** 3,000 of us… They are on the left, right, encircling us, f***!
‘There’s so many of them and few of us. We don’t have any support, no aviation, not a f****** thing!’
Other leaks have painted a picture of dissent and freefalling morale within Russian ranks, leading to troops being denied the right to use their own smartphones.
Moscow’s armies are expected to tighten their grip on their soldiers’ access to the internet and limiting their use of social media applications.
‘The security services have become aware of numerous cases of soldiers being blackmailed through their personal data and cases of soldiers being deceived with false information communicated to them personally through messenger apps such as Viber, WhatsApp, Telegram, Vkontakte and others,’ according to a document.
Ukrainian sources have said intercepting Russian communications has been a simple task because they still use technologically-inept equipment or commercial walkie-talkies.
Ukrainian authorities have residents of the country’s eastern regions to evacuate ‘now’ or ‘risk death’ as Putin ramps up plans for a fresh offensive to create a land bridge connecting his forces with Crimea.
To the south, the besieged southern port of Mariupol has been under bombardment throughout most of the invasion that began on February 24, trapping tens of thousands of residents without food, water or power.
The crucial port city remains surrounded and under siege from Russian forces amid constant shelling.
Mariupol’s capture could enable Russia to entrench a land passage between two separatist, self-proclaimed people’s republics in Donbas and the Crimea region which Russia seized and annexed in 2014.
‘The humanitarian situation in the city is worsening,’ British military intelligence said on Wednesday, while Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said people trying to flee would have to use their own vehicles.
‘Most of the 160,000 remaining residents have no light, communication, medicine, heat or water. Russian forces have prevented humanitarian access, likely to pressure defenders to surrender’, the MoD added.
Residents walk past a near entirely burnt out building in Mariupol on Monday
The besieged southern port of Mariupol has been under bombardment throughout most of the invasion that began on February 24, trapping tens of thousands of residents without food, water or power
The city council have since accused Russians of setting up mobile crematoriums to remove any evidence of potential war crimes.
Officials estimate the death toll in the port city is as high as tens of thousands, and the Kremlin is now trying to ‘cover their tracks’ after the international condemnation to the horrific scenes of Bucha where civilian bodies were piled high and buried in mass graves, they said.
The city council said: ‘After the widespread international genocide in Bucha, Russia’s top leadership ordered the destruction of any evidence of crimes committed by its army in Mariupol.
‘All potential witnesses to the occupiers’ atrocities are being identified through filtration camps and destroyed… The scale of the tragedy in Mariupol the world has not seen since the times of Nazi concentration camps.’
Russia has even attempted to install a pro-Kremlin puppet mayor in Mariupol, Kostyantyn Ivashchenko, while the true mayor Vadym Boychenko remains trapped in the besieged city.
Remarkable footage from Thursday showed the moment a woman was pulled alive from the rubble of a home in Rubizhne in the wake of heavy Russian shelling, as Putin‘s forces continue to pound the east of Ukraine.
Emergency services shared photos this morning of the distressed woman buried under timber and rocks as they scrambled to free her following the latest savage attack.
Once she was pulled to safety yesterday afternoon, the woman was carried by rescuers to an ambulance and she is being treated at hospital.
The airstrike injured five people and seven more ‘extricated themselves from the rubble’, the local governor Sergiy Gaiday said.
It comes as NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg today warned the war in Ukraine could last ‘months, even years’ as there is no sign Vladimir Putin has lost ‘his ambition to control the whole country’.
Stoltenberg, speaking ahead of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, said the international community should be ‘realistic’ about Moscow’s intentions and ‘realise that this may last for a long time’ as the war entered its 41st day.
‘We need also to be prepared for the long haul, both when it comes to supporting Ukraine, sustaining sanctions and strengthening our defences,’ he added.
Stoltenberg also confirmed that some members of the alliance had sent heavy weaponry to Ukraine following reports the Czech Republic had supplied Soviet-era tanks to Kyiv.
‘Since the invasion allies have stepped up their support. I also expect that ministers when they meet today and tomorrow will discuss how they can further support Ukraine,’ he said, declining to give details.
‘I can say that the totality of what allies are doing is significant and that includes also some heavier systems combined with lighter systems.’
Several BVP-1 infantry fighting vehicles, howitzer artillery pieces and more than a dozen T-72 tanks were yesterday loaded on a train bound for Slovakia where they are expected to head on to Ukraine, footage run by public broadcaster Czech Television showed.
The Czech delivery has been funded by Prague as well as private donors who have contributed to a crowdsourced fundraising campaign to supply arms to Kyiv.
A woman has been pulled alive from the rubble of a home in Rubizhne after a Russian airstrike which killed a civilian, as Putin’s forces continue to pound the east of Ukraine
Field engineers of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine stand next to destroyed armoured vehicles on a street in the town of Bucha, on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, April 5, 2022
Zelensky accused the West of holding back on supplies because of ‘intimidation’ from Moscow and suggested Russia is in charge of NATO
The Czech delivery of T-72s (pictured) has been funded by Prague as well as private donors who have contributed to a crowdsourced fundraising campaign to supply arms to Kyiv
Ukraine burns through in a single day the same amount of weaponry it receives in a week, according to a senior Polish official, and Kyiv’s eastern neighbours are concerned with keeping up with demand.
Prague, and neighbouring Slovakia which has no tanks to give, are also considering helping repair and refit damaged Ukrainian military equipment. Germany will send several dozen infantry fighting vehicles to Kyiv and the UK has approved the delivery of 20 ambulances.
The United States has agreed to provide an additional $100 million in assistance to Ukraine, including Javelin anti-armour systems, the Pentagon said on Tuesday. US chipmaker Intel Corp (INTC.O) said it had suspended business operations in Russia, joining a growing list of companies leaving the country.
NATO has already supplied fuel, ammunition, helmets, protective gear and medical supplies to Ukraine, Stoltenberg said yesterday.
Ukraine’s deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk today said in a message on Telegram that residents of the country’s eastern regions should evacuate ‘now’ or ‘risk death’ due to a feared Russian attack.
‘The governors of the Kharkiv, Lugansk and Donetsk regions are calling on the population to leave these territories and are doing everything to ensure that the evacuations take place in an organised manner,’ she said.
The call for urgent evacuations comes as Ukraine says Russian forces are regrouping to launch a fresh offensive in the country’s east after retreating from the Kyiv region.
Vereshchuk asked residents to cooperate with authorities, saying Kyiv will ‘not be able to help’ them after an attack.
‘It has to be done now because later people will be under fire and face the threat of death. There is nothing they will be able to do about it, nor will we be able to help,’ she said.
‘It is necessary to evacuate as long as this possibility exists. For now, it still exists,’ she added.
