Ukraine's chief negotiator Mikhailo Podolyak would not be drawn on the plan, saying only that the two sides had discussed it and it did not take Kyiv's negotiating position into account. Russian negotiators yesterday briefed journalists on their 15-point plan for peace, which would see Ukraine declare neutrality and place limits on its armed forces in return for Russian withdrawal. It is unclear how many people were inside at the time.ĭespite the mounting death toll, peace talks between the two sides are continuing with concrete proposals for a ceasefire being discussed. City officials said Thursday morning that evacuations are now underway, and that a bomb shelter at the theatre survived the strike. President Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack 'heartbreaking' while Joe Biden branded Putin a 'war criminal.'Ĭasualties from the attack are unclear. Mariupol, the heavily besieged city in the south of Ukraine, also continued to come under heavy fire as city officials estimated that at least 2,400 people have now been killed there - though mayoral adviser Petro Andriushchenko said the true toll could be as high as 20,000 once cut-off areas have been searched for victims.Īndriushchenko spoke before a theatre in the city housing up to 1,200 civilians was struck and destroyed by Russian forces Wednesday evening - despite having signs that said 'kids' in Russian positioned outside it. That tallies with assessments by British intelligence, which said today that Russia's invasion has stalled 'on all fronts' with 'minimal progress on land, sea or air' in the last 24 hours while continuing to 'suffer heavy losses'.īut the bombardment of Ukrainian cities continues never-the-less, with Kyiv struck by missiles in the early hours - one of which was shot down, though wreckage still struck a 16-storey apartment block, killing one person and sparking fires which injured dozens of others.Ī fire truck sits outside a school building in the city of Sumy, in eastern Ukraine, after it was hit by a Russian bomb and partially destroyed as Moscow keeps up its bombardment Losses are now so severe, US intelligence believes some Russian units cannot keep fighting. The staggering toll is roughly double NATO losses in Afghanistan over two decades of fighting, and roughly equal to US casualties in the 36-day battle of Iwo Jima - one of the bloodiest clashes in the Pacific during the Second World War. The Pentagon estimates at least 7,000 Russian troops have now died in the fighting while another 14,000 to 21,000 have been wounded - accounting for nearly a fifth of the estimated 150,000 men that Putin amassed on the border before giving the order to attack 21 days ago. A man mourns next to the body of his mother, who was killed when the remains of an intercepted Russian missile hit a residential building in the capital Kyiv, leaving dozens of others wounded
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