Vladimir Putin accused of mass abductions of Ukrainian citizens

Vladimir Putin has been accused of “abducting and deporting” thousands of civilians from the besieged city of Mariupol and transporting them deep inside Russia.

Ukrainian authorities alleged Russian forces had rounded up several thousand residents from the shattered port before sending them to remote cities hundreds of miles from the border.

On Sunday night, Moscow gave Ukraine a deadline to surrender Mariupol as gun battles raged in the city centre. In a statement, the Russian defence ministry said Ukrainian and foreign armed units must drop their weapons “without exception” and leave between 7am and 9am (UK time) on Monday.

But on Sunday night Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereschuk said there was no question of surrendering Mariupol, the online newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda reported.

Russian state media broadcast clips of hundreds of Ukrainians whom it said had been rescued from Mariupol and evacuated eastward to safety in Russian cities.

But Ukrainian officials said they had instead been forced to travel and had been told they had to live and work in their new homes for at least two years.

Liz Truss said she was appalled by Russian atrocities in Mariupol. The Foreign Secretary wrote on Twitter:

It came as Boris Johnson spoke on Sunday night with Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, to ask for “an assessment of Ukraine’s military requirements” in advance of his meetings with G7 and Nato leaders this week.

Ten million people — around a quarter of the population — have now fled their homes in Ukraine due to Russia’s “devastating” war, the United Nations refugees chief said on Sunday.

Vadym Boichenko, Mariupol’s mayor, likened the deportations to “the horrific events of World War II, when the Nazis forcibly captured people”.

He said: “It is hard to imagine that in the 21st century, people can be forcibly taken to another country.”

On March 7, Kyiv rejected an offer from Moscow to create “humanitarian corridors” from heavily bombed Ukrainian cities after it emerged that most of the supposedly safe routes led directly to Russia or its ally, Belarus. The move prompted Emmanuel Macron, French president, to accuse Putin of “moral and political cynicism”, adding “I do not know many Ukrainians who want to go to Russia.”

Lyudmyla Denisova, Ukraine’s human rights commissioner, told Ukrainian TV the evacuees to Russia were taken to “filtration camps where the occupying forces were checking people’s phones and documents”.

She said they were taken to Taganrog, the closest Russian city over the border from Mariupol, and some were then sent by rail to “economically depressive Russian cities”.

“Our citizens were given documents that oblige them to stay in a particular town, meaning they have no right to leave it for at least two years and they have to seek employment there,” she said on Ukraine’s Channel 24.

America’s ambassador to the United Nations said reports of the deportations were “horrific” and “unconscionable” if true.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield said: “Certainly, that would be another escalation, but not beyond the realm of possibility given how the Russians have tried to put pressure on the Ukrainian people.”

Hundreds of thousands remain trapped in the Black Sea port of Mariupol, which has been under siege for three weeks and where conditions are dire. Russian and Ukrainian forces on Sunday continued to fight for control, with Moscow’s troops having advanced in recent days into the city centre.

Officials said Russian forces hit an art school where about 400 people had taken refuge from shelling. There was no immediate word on casualties. The school building was reportedly destroyed and officials said there were fears people could be trapped under rubble.

“Our cities have turned into multi-storey ruins, every area is like a horror movie,” Sergiy Gaiday, head of the Luhansk regional administration, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Officials also said 56 people were killed when Russian forces opened fire at a nursing home in Kreminna, in eastern Ukraine.

On Sunday night Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said at least one person had been killed following explosions in the Podil district of the city, where houses and the shopping districts were hit.

As fighting continued, a Russian Black Sea Fleet commander was shot dead by Ukrainian forces, becoming the first Russian naval chief to be killed during the invasion.

Andrey Paliy, the deputy commander of the fleet, became the sixth senior military figure to die during the invasion, after he was killed in battle around Mariupol.

One former naval officer posted on social media that Paliy had died “like a true commissar by leading the marines into battle”.

Russia’s navy continued to strike Ukraine with cruise missiles fired from ships in the Black Sea and Caspian Sea. Its military also launched hypersonic missiles from Crimean airspace, the Russian defence ministry said. The missiles had targeted military infrastructure, including a vehicle repair plant in Nizhyn, a statement said.

Ukraine meanwhile said assassins from Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group had entered the country with orders to kill Mr Zelensky and his leadership team.

Mr Putin “personally ordered another attack by one of his proxies”, the Ukrainian intelligence directorate said, but “all previous attempts ended in the failure and elimination of terrorists”.

Targets were said to include Mr Zelensky and his right hand men Denys Shmyhal, the prime minister, and Andriy Yermak, the presidential chief of staff.

Within little over a week into the invasion, Mr Zelensky had already survived three assassination attempts, two of which were allegedly attempted by the Wagner Group.

Meanwhile, Mr Zelensky appealed to Israel for help in pushing back the Russian assault on his country.

In the latest in a series of appeals for help from abroad, he addressed the Israeli parliament by video link and challenged Israel’s reluctance to sell its Iron Dome missile defence system to Ukraine.

“Everybody knows that your missile defence systems are the best... and that you can definitely help our people, save the lives of Ukrainians, of Ukrainian Jews,” said Mr Zelensky, who is of Jewish heritage.

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