Russian forces are maintaining their pressure on the strategic port city of Mariupol, Tuesday April 12, which Ukrainian soldiers are desperately trying to defend. According to Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak, “dozens of thousands” people died there and “90% of houses” have been destroyed. He adds that “Ukrainian soldiers are surrounded and blocked”.
Chemical weapons charges. The UK has announced it is trying to verify reports of the possible use of chemical weapons by Russian forces in Mariupol, after the Ukrainian Azov regiment claimed that a Russian drone had dropped a bomb there. “toxic substance” on soldiers and civilians.
kyiv fears a major offensive in the east of the country. “According to our information, the enemy has almost completed its preparation for an assault on the East”warned the spokesman of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, Oleksandre Motouzianik. “The attack will take place very soon.”
French gendarmes in Ukraine to investigate. Members of the Criminal Research Institute of the National Gendarmerie (IRCGN) were dispatched to the country yesterday with the primary mission of identifying the victims and determining the causes of their death. They “will answer the questions of the kyiv prosecutor”explains on franceinfo Colonel Franck Marescal, the director of the IRCGN.