Food and medicine quickly running out in Mariupol
Hugo Bachega -BBC News, Lviv
About 400 staff and patients remain trapped inside a hospital that has been captured by Russian forces in the besieged southern city of Mariupol.
Iryna Vereshchuk, the Ukrainian deputy prime minister, said the troops “were now shooting at Ukrainian army positions from the hospital premises”.
The situation in Mariupol is dire with an estimated 400,000 residents without running water, electricity and gas, and unable to leave. Contacting people there is extremely difficult.
Dmytro Horshakov said his 57-year-old mother was at the hospital - he called Regional Hospital for Intensive Care, but he could not reach her. He was getting updates from friends he managed to contact in the city, he said.
“There isn’t a lot of information coming out,” he said. “I have several people I know from Mariupol. Their parents are also medical workers and they’re at the hospital as well… Right now, Russian forces are starting to [send] their injured soldiers there. This hospital [has] got very good equipment… All the administrative team is kept in the basement.”
Food and medicine are quickly running out, and no humanitarian aid has been allowed into the city.
The International Committee of the Red Cross described the situation as a “waking nightmare”.
The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross - who's arrived in Kyiv for a five day visit to Ukraine - says people there are "crying out for help".
In a tweet and video posted to social media, Peter Maurer says the charity needs better access to civilians caught up in the war.
"Needs are massive, conditions volatile. We are sparing no effort to answer their call," he says.
And he adds, the Red Cross is especially worried about what it's described as the "waking nightmare" in the port city of Mariupol, where it's unable to deliver aid and tens of thousands of people are still trapped.
"I hope that we can increase our assistance work in the country," Maurer says - adding that he wants the charity to be allowed to do more to evacuate people, and on "the issue of prisoners, of detainees but also of dead bodies".
12:59 -BREAKING
Russian troops kill 10 people queuing for bread - US embassy in Kyiv
The US embassy in Ukraine has tweeted that today Russian forces shot and killed 10 people in the northern city of Chernihiv.
They were standing in line for bread, the embassy says.
Suspected war crimes in Ukraine
-Drone video captures killing of civilian
von Arndt Ginzel und Christian Rohde
According to a ZDF Frontal investigation, a camera drone observed the killing of a civilian by Russian soldiers near Kiev. Suspicions of war crimes in Ukraine are growing stronger.
https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/politik/ ... tor=CS5-62
Video: A camera drone captured the killing of an unarmed civilian near Kiev on March 7.
ZDF Frontal obtained drone footage from an anonymous source in Ukraine. They are two individual clips, one two minutes long, the other almost four minutes long. What they show is shocking: it is March 7 2022, early in the afternoon. A Ukrainian surveillance drone is filming the E40 expressway a few kilometers west of Kiev.
North of the highway, Russians have taken control over Kiev's suburbs. They have advanced to the road. The drone films a Russian tank position a few meters from a gas station, the tank bearing one of the typical white identification marks of the Russian forces in Ukraine. In front of it: a blue car, apparently damaged by bullets. And in the woods next to it: the small but distinct silhouette of soldiers can be seen carrying rifles.
Perpetrators appear to be Russian soldiers
It is 16 minutes past 2 pm when the camera drone films several cars. They are not military but ordinary passenger cars, heading towards the center of Kiev. The first drivers may have noticed the Russian tanks and turn around, a silver-grey car slows down and stops. Then something terrible happens.
A person leaves their car with their hands up and is shot, falling down right behind the car. The Russian soldiers appear to be responsible. They run from their positions to the scene of the crime. They can be identified as Russian soldiers by their white bands, commonly word to tell friends from foes in Ukraine.
Does the footage show a war crime?
The shooting of civilians - even more so of people who have obviously surrendered - is forbidden, a crime under the International Criminal Code. Is the footage genuine? After all, truth dies first in war, and all parties involved use propaganda for their own purposes. Images can be a weapon.
To verify the authenticity of the drone images, we spoke to the drone pilot. After many phone calls and a drive through many side streets in Kiev, we find him in a basement in the Ukrainian capital.
Drone pilot describes his observations
He calls himself Zanoza and wants to defend his country as a volunteer. In his life before the war, he dealt in electrical goods. We know his real name and age, but agreed not to publish this personal information. He is fighting in the "Bugatti Company", a group mostly made up of volunteers. Until recently, it was unthinkable for many of them that their city, their home, would be attacked.
Zanoza shows us his drone. It is a Mavic III, a professional film camera, not a military device. On March 7 2022, Zanoza had the objective to observe Russian positions on the E40 highway. He describes to us what he saw through his camera.
I was observing Russian tank positions on the road for some time.
Zanoza, drone operator
Nothing happened for a long time, he remembers. The gas station had been closed for days. Then civilian vehicles approached. One slowed down and stopped.
The diver [sic] got out of the car, raised his hands and was shot by Russian soldiers.
Zanoza, drone operator
Later, the car was towed away and burned.
Authenticity of the drone video can be verified
We checked the video recordings right there. They contain a time stamp. We compare the location to maps: Sadova Vulytsya, 2, Mriia, Kyivs'ka oblast, 08112. The scene of the crime can be found on Google Maps. The gas station, the adjacent forest, a house on the roadside - everything matches. The fact that Russian forces were shelling the very nearby Kiev suburb of Iprin at that time is also no secret.
The pictures from March 7 show Russian soldiers dragging the body of the man away from his car and into a ditch. A woman and a child were also traveling with him. They are later led by soldiers into the nearby forest. What happens to them then, the pictures do not show.
Russian president Vladimir Putin claims that there was no invasion of Ukraine, that it was a "special operation" against "neo-Nazis". Civilians are not at risk, he said. This report exposes the words of the Russian president for what they were all along - a lie.
Arndt Ginzel is a freelance journalist and Christian Rohde a reporter at ZDF's Frontal program.
Air raid sirens in Lviv at 5:25 AM local time.
