Two more of Putin's tanks are blown up in new footage from Mariupol

Two more of Putin’s tanks are blown up in new footage from Mariupol… as aerial video shows Ukrainian soldiers dodging Russian bombardment as they run through trenches

  • Footage shows two Russian tanks being destroyed in direct hits outside Mariupol
  • Volley of tracers fired by Azov Battalion fighters outside besieged south port city
  • Separate video shows remains of a Russian tank convoy on a highway in Ukraine
  • Comes as Moscow’s men completed their withdrawal from territory around Kyiv

Two more of Vladimir Putin’s tanks have been destroyed in Mariupol, new drone footage shows. 

Separate aerial video shows Ukrainian soldiers dodging a Russian bombardment as they run through trenches in Donetsk Oblast, where civilians have been told it is their ‘last chance’ to flee before a fresh offensive by Moscow.

Footage posted online purports to show two Russian tanks driving along the road in a residential area in the outskirts of the besieged southern port city Mariupol.

Moments later Moscow’s men are ambushed by Ukrainian troops using tracers with two direct hits. The Russian tanks attempt to flee the scene but are gunned down a second time in a volley of shots. 

The Azov Battalion forces then fire off a round of extra ammunition, with several shots flying wayward of the flaming targets, in an apparent attempt to make sure the tanks have been destroyed.     

It comes as Russia completed the pullout of 24,000 troops from Kyiv and Chernihiv in preparation for an expected major offensive in the Donbas with Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv now seeing the worst of the fighting.

Meanwhile Mariupol remains under siege with 170,000 still trapped in the besieged city where the civilian death toll has risen to 5,000, including 210 children. 

Footage posted online purports to show two Russian tanks being ambushed by Ukrainian troops using tracers with two direct hits. The Russian tanks attempt to flee the scene but are gunned down a second time in a volley of shots

The Azov Battalion forces then fire off a round of extra ammunition, with several shots flying wayward of the flaming targets, in an apparent attempt to make sure the tanks have been destroyed

Rescuers clear the debris at the site of a multi-story residential building destroyed by the Russian army shelling in Borodyanka

Vladyslava Liubarets, a Bucha resident, walks with her family past destroyed Russian military machinery

Drone footage shows Russian artillery in Donetsk as Putin focuses his war efforts in the east of Ukraine

Ukraine today told residents of its eastern industrial heartland to leave while they still can and urged Western nations to send ‘weapons, weapons and weapons’.

Russia’s six-week-old invasion failed to take Ukraine’s capital quickly and achieve what Western countries say was Putin’s initial aim of ousting the Ukrainian government. Russia’s focus is now on the Donbas, a mostly Russian-speaking region in eastern Ukraine. 

Growing numbers of Putin’s troops, along with mercenaries, have been reported moving into the Donbas, where Russia-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian forces for eight years and control some territory.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk urged civilians to evacuate to safer regions before it was too late. She said Ukrainian and Russian officials had agreed to establish 10 civilian evacuation routes today.

The change of Russia’s focus brought relief to Chernihiv, a city near Ukraine’s northern border with Belarus that was encircled and cut off for weeks,

The departed troops left behind twisted buildings and traumatized residents, who clambered over rubble and passed cars destroyed by the fighting. Dozens of people lined up for food, diapers and medicine today at a shattered school now serving as an aid-distribution point.

The blackboard in one classroom was chalked, ‘Wednesday the 23rd of February – class work.’ Russia invaded Ukraine the next day, besieging Chernihiv as its troops tried to sweep south towards the capital. 

The change of Russia’s focus brought relief to Chernihiv, (pictured) a city near Ukraine’s northern border with Belarus that was encircled and cut off for weeks

The departed troops left behind twisted buildings and traumatized residents, who clambered over rubble and passed cars destroyed by the fighting

Debris of Russian military aircraft shot down in the city of Chernihiv and now lying in the middle of the town following Moscow’s retreat

Ukraine today told residents of its eastern industrial heartland to leave while they still can and urged Western nations to send ‘weapons, weapons and weapons’

Britain’s defense ministry said today that Russia was targeting the ‘line of control’ between Ukrainian-held and rebel-controlled areas in the Donbas with artillery and airstrikes and hitting infrastructure targets around Ukraine to wear down the Ukrainian defense.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it struck fuel storage sites around the cities of Mykolaiv, Zaporozhe, Kharkiv and Chuguev overnight using cruise missiles fired from ships in the Black Sea.

A Ukrainian naval vessel caught fire under unclear circumstances in the besieged port city of Mariupol, satellite photos today. The images from Planet Labs PBC appear to show the Ukrainian command ship Donbas burning at the Sea of Azov port on Wednesday afternoon as a nearby building also burned.

Mariupol has experienced some of the war’s greatest deprivations. Russian forces are fighting street by street to capture the city; doing so would allow Russia to secure a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014.

Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko said more than 5,000 civilians have been killed, including 210 children. British defense officials estimate that 160,000 people remain trapped in the city, which had a prewar population of 430,000.

Ukrainian authorities said the bodies of least 410 civilians were found in Bucha and other towns around Kyiv, victims of what Zelensky has portrayed as a Russian campaign of murder, rape, dismemberment and torture.

In areas north of the capital, Ukrainian officials gathered evidence of Russian atrocities amid signs Moscow’s troops killed people indiscriminately before retreating. Some victims were apparently shot at close range or died with their hands bound.

Western officials warned that similar atrocities were likely to have taken place in other areas occupied by Russian troops.  

The International Criminal Court opened an investigation into possible war crimes in Ukraine before the grim discoveries near Kyiv fueled more urgent calls for the perpetrators of civilian atrocities to be brought to justice. Ukrainian authorities were transferring piles of body bags to a facility for identification and investigation,

The Kremlin insists its troops have committed no war crimes and alleged the Ukrainians staged images of brutality coming out of Bucha and nearby towns.

Bodies of civilians in plastic bags lay in a mass grave in Bucha city, whose horrors were revealed after it was recaptured by the Ukrainian army

Serhii Lahovskyi, 26, mourns his friend Ihor (covered by a house rug) in stricken Kyiv suburb Bucha after their street was hit

A Ukrainian serviceman stands amid destroyed Russian tanks in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, April 6

More than 30 bodies in black bags were lined up in a Ukrainian cemetery in Bucha before being taken to the morgue

Tanya Nedashkivs’ka, 57, weeps in the street over the death of her husband at the hands of retreating Russian forces

A satellite image taken of a street in the city of Bucha on March 19 – when Russian forces were in full control of the city – shows dark objects in the road that exactly match where civilian corpses were later discovered by Ukrainian troops

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