Latest situation in Russia and Ukraine: Zelenskiy said Russia launched a "terrorist" attack, saying that thousands of people in Mariupol had been deported
1) The Mariupol City Council says thousands of people have been forcibly taken to Russia
2. Zelenskiy said that Russia's siege of Mariupol will go down in the annals of human war crimes
3. Russia reported a hypersonic missile attack on Ukraine
4) Britain says Russia is now trying to wage a war of attrition against Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia's siege of the port city of Mariupol was "a horror that will be remembered for centuries to come," while local authorities said thousands of residents there had been taken over by force and sent to the border.
"In the past week, thousands of Mariupol residents have been deported to Russian territory," the city council said in a statement on its Telegram channel late Saturday.
The media could not independently verify this claim.
Russian news agencies say moscow buses have transported hundreds of people to Russia from strategic ports in the Sea of Azov in recent days.
Airstrike sirens sounded in Ukraine's main cities earlier Sunday, but no new attacks were immediately reported.
According to local authorities, about 400,000 people were trapped in Mariupol for more than two weeks, dodging severe bombing that cut off central electricity, heating and water supplies.
Rescuers are still searching for survivors at the Mariupol Theater, which local authorities said was razed to the ground by Russian airstrikes on Wednesday. Russia denies attacking theatres or targeting civilians.
Russia's defense ministry said on Friday that its forces were "tightening the noose" around Mariupol and that fighting had reached the city center.
Zelenskiy said on late-night radio that the siege of Mariupol would "go down in the history of responsibility for war crimes."
"To do this for a peaceful city ... it is an act of terror that will be remembered for centuries to come.
Still, he said peace talks with Russia are needed, although they are "not easy and enjoyable."
Russian troops have suffered heavy losses since Feb. 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin launched what he called a "special operation" aimed at demilitarizing Ukraine and purging nationalists he considered dangerous. Ukraine and the West say Putin has launched an aggressive war of choice.
Long troops pouring down on the capital Kiev were stopped in the suburbs.
Britain's defense attaché in the United States said British intelligence believed Russia was surprised by Ukraine's resistance to its invasion and was now "adopting a strategy of attrition."
Zelenskiy said the Ukrainian front was "littered with the bodies of many Russian soldiers."
However, the media is unable to independently verify the authenticity of these comments.
On Saturday, Russia said its hypersonic missiles destroyed a large underground missile and aircraft ammunition depot in the western region of Ivano-Frankivsk. Hypersonic weapons can travel more than five times the speed of sound, and Interfax says it is the first time Russia has used them in Ukraine.
A spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force Command confirmed the attack but said the Ukrainian side had no information about the type of missile used.
