Russia Accused Of Shelling A Mosque That Reportedly Housed Over 80 Foreigners In Mariupol
Ukrainian authorities have claimed that Russia's military has shelled a mosque sheltering more than 80 people in the besieged city of Mariupol.
A government statement issued did not have any immediate reports of casualties.
The Ukrainian Embassy in Turkey reported earlier that a group of 86 Turkish nationals, including 34 children, were among those seeking refuge from an ongoing Russian attack on the encircled port city.
An embassy spokeswoman cited information from the city's mayor.
Thousands of civilians have been trapped in Mariupol for more than a week with no food, water, heat or power amid freezing temperatures.
Death toll rising
As of Friday, the death toll in Mariupol passed 1,500 during 12 days of attack, the mayor's office said. A strike on a maternity hospital in the city of 446,000 this week that killed three people sparked international outrage and war-crime allegations.
This comes as Russia is increasing the intensity of the war in Ukraine which is now in its third week.
Russian forces have hit at least two dozen hospitals and medical facilities since they invaded Ukraine on February 24, according to the World Health Organization. Ukrainian officials reported Saturday that heavy artillery damaged a cancer hospital and several residential buildings in Mykolaiv, a city 489 kilometers west of Mariupol.
The hospital's head doctor, Maksim Beznosenko, said several hundred patients were in the facility during the attack but no one was killed.
In Kyiv, an ammunition depot outside the city was shelled overnight, sending billowing black smoke into the sky, according to video provided by emergency workers. It was unclear immediately if were injuries or deaths.
The capital is reportedly being encircled by the Russian troops.
Ukrainians armed with portable missiles and Molotov cocktails have vowed to annihilate any Russian forces who enter the capital, but they themselves are likely to face days or weeks of murderous shelling before any tanks roll in.
To the north, Russian forces were blockading Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, even as efforts have been made to create new humanitarian corridors around it and other urban centers.
Ukraine's emergency services reported that the bodies of five people were pulled from an apartment building that was struck by shelling in Kharkiv, including two women, a man and two children.
New commercial satellite images appeared to capture artillery firing on residential areas that stood between the Russians and the capital. The images from Maxar Technologies showed muzzle flashes and smoke from big guns, as well as impact craters and burning homes in the town of Moschun, 33 kilometers from Kyiv, the company said.
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