UN documents 'unlawful' killings in Ukraine as Russia vows bigger campaign

Russia said on Friday that it intended a full-bore assault to carve out control of a sizeable slice of Ukraine but faced intensified world outrage as the UN documented the killing of dozens of civilians in one town.

Ukraine's government, emboldened by a fresh influx of high-grade Western weaponry, said its trapped forces were still holding out inside a sprawling, seaside steelworks in the razed city of Mariupol.

The Kremlin has claimed the "liberation" of Mariupol, whose control is pivotal to its war plans nearly two months after President Vladimir Putin ordered the shock invasion of Russia's Western-leaning neighbour.

Russian senior commander Rustam Minnekaev: “One of the tasks of the Russian army is to establish full control over the Donbas and southern Ukraine. This will provide a land corridor to Crimea…”

He added: “Control over the south of Ukraine is another way to Transnistria.”

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) April 22, 2022

"Since the start of the second phase of the special operation... one of the tasks of the Russian army is to establish full control over the Donbas and southern Ukraine," Major General Rustam Minnekaev said.

"This will provide a land corridor to Crimea," he added, according to Russian news agencies, referring to the peninsula Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Minnekaev's comments were the most detailed description yet of Russia's goals in the "second phase" of its operation, which was forced on the Kremlin after Ukraine's dogged resistance around the capital Kyiv.

Russia's change of strategic focus to southern and eastern Ukraine saw invading forces leave behind a trail of indiscriminate destruction and civilian bodies around Kyiv, including in the commuter town of Bucha.

A United Nations mission to Bucha documented "the unlawful killing, including by summary execution, of some 50 civilians there", the UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said.

"Russian armed forces have indiscriminately shelled and bombed populated areas, killing civilians and wrecking hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure, actions that may amount to war crimes," its spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani added.

The UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, has urged respect for international humanitarian law amid growing evidence of #WarCrimes in #Ukraine.

FULL STATEMENT ▶️ https://t.co/twj6J7INRC pic.twitter.com/KCeTwVJ1DR

— UN Human Rights Council (@UN_HRC) April 22, 2022

The UN mission was sent on April 9, a week after an AFP team found bodies of people dressed in civilian clothing lining the streets of Bucha, after the town had been under Russian occupation for over a month.

There was no immediate response from Russia, but it has previously accused Ukrainian forces of staging the scene in Bucha, which when first reported triggered Western denunciations and redoubled sanctions against Moscow.

US satellite imagery company Maxar released photos that it said showed a "mass grave" on the northwestern edge of Manhush, west of Mariupol.

UK police said they had received "around 50" referrals relating to alleged war crimes in Ukraine, in support of an investigation by the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

Ukrainian officials say the bodies of more than 1,000 civilians have been retrieved from areas around Kyiv, and they are working with French investigators to document alleged war crimes.

"It's all being investigated," Oleksandr Pavliuk, head of the Kyiv regional military administration told reporters. "There is no final number of civilians killed."

"The forensic experts are now examining the bodies, but what we saw was hands tied behind the back, their legs tied and shot through the limbs and in the back of the head," he said.

Zelensky meanwhile welcomed the latest promises of Western military aid including, from the United States, howitzers, armoured vehicles, 144,000 rounds of ammunition and tactical drones.

"We're in a critical window now... where they're going to set the stage for the next phase of this war," US President Joe Biden said, pledging Putin would "never succeed in dominating and occupying all of Ukraine".

"That will not happen," he added, as he also announced a ban on Russian-affiliated ships using US ports.

The UK government said more than 20 Ukrainian soldiers had travelled to Britain for training in operating some 120 UK-supplied armoured vehicles.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman denied that training the Ukrainians in Britain would risk escalating the conflict.

"We're always conscious of anything that's perceived to be escalatory, but clearly what's escalatory is the actions of Putin and his regime," he said.