World leaders renew calls to investigate attacks on civilians

As Russian forces pressed their assault on Ukraine, world leaders called anew for an investigation of the Kremlin’s repeat attacks on civilian targets, including air strikes on schools, hospitals and residential areas that led one official to lament that his city had never seen such “nightmarish, colossal losses.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday that American officials were evaluating potential war crimes and that if the intentional targeting of civilians by Russia is confirmed, there will be “massive consequences”.

In city after city, hospitals, schools and buildings where people sought safety from the bombardment have been attacked.

Rescue workers continue the search for survivors in the ruins of a theatre that served as a shelter when it was blown apart by a Russian air strike in the besieged city of Mariupol.

In Merefa, near the north-east city of Kharkiv, at least 21 people were killed when Russian artillery destroyed a school and a community centre, a local official said.

In the northern city of Chernihiv, dozens of bodies were brought to the morgue in just one day.

United Nations political chief Undersecretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo also called for an investigation into civilian casualties, reminding the UN Security Council that international humanitarian law bans direct attacks on civilians.

She said many of the daily attacks battering Ukrainian cities “are reportedly indiscriminate” and involve the use of “explosive weapons with a wide impact area.”

Ms DiCarlo said the devastation in Mariupol and Kharkiv “raises grave fears about the fate of millions of residents of Kyiv and other cities facing intensifying attacks”.

“We are trying to survive somehow,” said one Mariupol resident, who gave only her first name, Elena. “My child is hungry. I don’t know what to give him to eat.”

She had been trying to call her mother, who was in a town 80 kilometres away.

“I can’t tell her I am alive, you understand. There is no connection, just nothing.”

Cars, some with the “Z” symbol of the Russian invasion force in their windows, drove past stacks of ammunition boxes and artillery shells in a neighbourhood controlled by Russian-backed separatists.

Russia’s military denies bombing the theatre or anyplace else in Mariupol.

In Chernihiv, at least 53 people were brought to morgues over 24 hours, killed amid heavy Russian air attacks and ground fire, the local governor,  Viacheslav Chaus, told Ukrainian TV..

Ukraine’s emergency services said a mother, father and three of their children, including 3-year-old twins, were killed when a Chernihiv hostel was shelled.

Civilians were hiding in basements and shelters across the embattled city of 280,000.

“The city has never known such nightmarish, colossal losses and destruction,” Mr Chaus said.

Ukrainian officials said 10 people were killed on Wednesday while waiting in a bread line in Chernihiv. An American man was among them, his sister said on Facebook.

The World Health Organization said it has verified 43 attacks on hospitals and health facilities, with 12 people killed and 34 injured.

The fighting has led more than 3 million people to flee Ukraine, the UN estimates. The death toll remains unknown, though Ukraine has said thousands of civilians have died.

AP