Russia reports that 1,000 Ukrainian troops surrendered in Mariupol

Russia's Defense Ministry said today that more than 1,000 Ukrainian servicemen had surrendered in Mariupol, a strategic port in eastern Ukraine that has been under siege by Russian forces for a month, AFP reported.

"In Mariupol, 1,026 Ukrainian servicemen from the 36th Naval Brigade voluntarily laid down their arms and surrendered," the ministry said.

Of those who surrendered, 162 were officers and 47 were women. More than 100 were injured.

Russia is believed to be trying to link the annexed Crimea and Moscow-backed separatist territories in Donbas by land.

A spokesman for the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense commented that there was no such information.

Mariupol Mayor Vadim Boychenko told reporters that more than 100,000 people remained in the city awaiting evacuation. But Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk said it was not possible to open humanitarian corridors today.

Last night, the besieged port city of Mariupol was shelled again. According to the Ukrainian army, the port and the Azovstal metallurgical plant were attacked.

A total of more than 720 killed civilians have been found in Bucha and other suburbs of Kyiv, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said. There are still more than 200 missing in the area of ​​the capital from which the Russian army withdrew.

The Ukrainian prosecutor's office announced that it is investigating cases in Brovary, in the Kyiv region, where the bodies of six people were found in a basement under a residential building yesterday.

The BBC says it has evidence of the use of a cluster bomb to hit the Kramatorsk railway station on April 8. There, 57 people died, including children, and dozens were injured in hospital. The cluster...