Ukraine: What happened today, Monday, April 11

A family mourns a relative killed during the war with Russia, as dozens of black bags containing more bodies of victims are seen strewn across the graveyard in the cemetery in Bucha. Picture: AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd

Ukrainian troops have repulsed several Russian assaults in the country's east, the focus of a new offensive by the invading forces, British intelligence said on Monday, while President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this week will be crucial to the course of the war.

Russian forces were also pushing their offensive to establish control over the southern port city of Mariupol, a key target whose capture would link up areas of Russian control to the west and east.

The Russian invasion has left a trail of death of destruction that has drawn condemnation from Western countries and triggered concern about Russian President Vladimir Putin's broader ambitions.

About a quarter of Ukraine's 44 million population have been forced from their homes, cities turned into rubble, and thousands of people have been killed or injured - many of them civilians.

Putin expected to 'double or even treble' Russian troop numbers 

Road workers load a destroyed Russian tank onto a platform in the village of Andriyivka close to Kyiv, Ukraine. Andriyivka was occupied by the Russian troops at the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war and freed recently by the Ukrainian army. Picture: AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky

Putin is expected to double or even possibly triple the number of Russian troops in the Donbas as the Russian president resorts to a “diminished” invasion strategy, according to Western officials.

The Russian leader has been forced to “diminish considerably” the plan in Ukraine, one official said, amid suggestions Mr Putin wants to take the Donbas region before May 9 – when Russia traditionally marks the Soviet Union’s World War Two victory against Nazi Germany with military parades in Moscow – in an attempt to claim victory for his so-called “special operation”.

Western officials said they hoped that, with Russia’s military regrouping and moving east, more European leaders could travel to Kyiv to show solidarity “on the ground” with Ukraine.

While Russian troops are poorly-led and ill-disciplined, they are also becoming desensitised by the war, an official said, leading to “revolting” behaviour, such as the “targeting of civilians”.

The next phase of the conflict is expected to see focus shift to the southeast of Ukraine, although it is not known when a fresh assault will commence.

More than 10,000 civilians killed in Mariupol - mayor 

Mayor Vadym Boychenko also said Russian forces brought mobile cremation equipment to the city to dispose of the bodies. Picture: AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko

The mayor of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol said that more than 10,000 civilians have died in the Russian siege of his city, and that the death toll could surpass 20,000.

Speaking by phone to The Associated Press, Mayor Vadym Boychenko also said Russian forces brought mobile cremation equipment to the city to dispose of the bodies, and he accused Russian forces of refusing to allow humanitarian convoys into the city in an attempt to conceal the carnage.

With their offensive in many parts of the country thwarted, Russian forces have relied increasingly on bombarding cities — a strategy that has left many urban areas flattened and killed thousands of people.

Ukrainian authorities accuse Russian forces of committing atrocities, including a massacre in the town of Bucha, outside Kyiv, airstrikes on hospitals and a missile attack that killed at least 57 people last week at a train station.

Meanwhile, the UN children’s agency said that nearly two-thirds of all Ukrainian children have fled their homes in the six weeks since Russia’s invasion began, and the United Nations has verified that 142 children have been killed and 229 injured, though the actual numbers are likely much higher.

Austrian chancellor meets Putin in Moscow 

Karl Nehammer was the first European leader to meet Putin in Moscow since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February. Picture: Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer says his meeting with Putin in Moscow was “very direct, open and tough”.

In a statement released by his office after the meeting on Monday, Mr Nehammer said his primary message to Putin was “that this war needs to end, because in war both sides can only lose”.

Mr Nehammer was the first European leader to meet Putin in Moscow since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February.

The Austrian leader stressed that the trip was “not a friendly visit,” but rather his “duty” to exhaust every possibility for ending the violence in Ukraine.

Mr Nehammer’s Moscow visit comes after a trip on Saturday to Kyiv, where he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.