It comes as Kremlin-controlled TV claimed that Third World War had already started as Moscow reels from heavy losses. A police chief revealed most of the slaughtered non-combatants were left in the streets or given hurried burials by the invaders retreating from their failed bid to take the Ukrainian capital.
Andriy Nebytov, the head of Kyiv’s regional police force, said that 95 per cent had died from gunshot wounds and more bodies are being found every day, among rubble and in mass graves.
He said: “Under the occupation, people were simply executed in the streets. The most victims were found in Bucha, where there are more than 350 corpses.”
Russian state-controlled TV yesterday warned that World War Three has already started – as Vladimir Putin’s forces were beaten back in the Donbas.
The Kremlin’s new military objective in the East quickly ran into fierce Ukrainian resistance with tanks destroyed and several incursions driven back, incurring the fury of the Russian despot.
He was further enraged by the loss of GRU military intelligence agent Captain Alexey Bogomolov, of the 25th separate regiment of GRU special forces and the sinking of its warship the Moskva.
Olga Skabeyeva, the leading propagandist presenter on Rossiya 1 channel,told viewers: “What it’s escalated into can safely be called World War Three. That’s entirely for sure. Now we’re definitely fighting against Nato infrastructure, if not Nato itself. We need to recognise that.”
Military commentator Dmitry Drozdenko said on separate State-run Channel 1: “A full-scale multi-level war is underway with the collective West. And the West has long been preparing for the war.”
Anchor Olesya Loseva, host of the Russian talk-show Vremya Pokazhet, told viewers the West was supplying “zillions of weapons” to Ukraine. Smarting over the loss of its flagship cruiser in the Black Sea, Russia hit back, launching renewed attacks near Kyiv, targeting the munitions factory which reportedly produced the cruise missiles that sank the Moskva.
Heavy explosions were seen and heard overnight in and around the capital before Russia’s Ministry of Defence said it had destroyed theVizar plant which makes antiship missiles and rockets.
Yesterday, the site was burnt out as the Kremlin warned there would be further attacks if Kyiv attacked Russian interests.
But Putin’s forces’ attempts to seize the cities of Popasna and Rubizhne in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk and Tavriya were confirmed to have been “unsuccessful”.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said his troops had repelled eight Russian attacks in the Donetsk and Luhansk in 24 hours. He claimed his men had destroyed four tanks, six armoured transport vehicles, four infantry fighting machines and an artillery system.
Military analysts believe Russia’s failures and slow progress are likely to lead to an even more savage response in the east.
And the governor of Ukraine’s Luhansk region yesterday urged all residents in the area to leave immediately.
Serhiy Gaidai added that 32,000 residents have been evacuated on trains and buses, but urged others to do the same.
President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked his countrymen for their courageous fight.
But his Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said more military equipment needed to be delivered soon to have any chance of breaking the devastating siege of the southern port of Mariupol.
The US this week pledged a further $800million package of military equipment – including personnel carriers, armoured Humvees, helicopters, naval drone vessels used in coastal defence, and equipment used to protect soldiers in chemical, biological, nuclear and radiological attacks.