Russia's flattening of the strategic port city has drawn multiple accusations of war crimes, including a deadly attack on a maternity ward, and Ukraine has begun a reckoning for captured Russian troops.
KYIV - Ukraine on Friday ordered its last troops holed up in Mariupol's besieged Azovstal steelworks to lay down their arms after nearly three months of desperate resistance against a ferocious Russian assault.
"Russian occupation forces are conducting intense fire along the entire line of contact and trying to hit artillery deep into the defences of Ukrainian troops," Ukrainian defence ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk told reporters. The city forms part of the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in Lugansk, which along with the neighbouring region of Donetsk comprises the Donbas war zone.
"I now hope that soon, the families and all of Ukraine will be able to bury their fighters with honours." The US Congress approved a $40-billion aid package, including funds to enhance Ukraine's armoured vehicle fleet and air defence system.And meeting in Germany, G7 industrialised nations pledged $19.8 billion to shore up Ukraine's shattered public finances.
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