Ukraine: What happened today, Tuesday, April 12
Relatives and friends stand by the coffins of Ukrainian servicemen Yuri Filyuk, 49, and Oleksander Tkachenko, 33, during a funeral ceremony in a village of Oleksandrivka, Odesa region, Ukraine. Picture: AP Photo/Max Pshybyshevsky
The death toll in Ukraine continues to rise as fighting in the eastern part of the country is expected to intensify over the coming weeks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin reappeared after a rare public silence to say the invasion of Ukraine was a "noble" cause and that peace talks had reached a dead end.
Here are some of the latest developments:
The United States cannot confirm the use of chemical agents in Ukraine's port city of Mariupol at this time, a senior US defense official said on Tuesday.
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said the government was checking unverified information that Russia may have used chemical weapons while besieging Mariupol.
"We cannot confirm the use of chemical agents at this time," the US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told reporters.
The official added the United States had no information to support the movement of chemical agents by Russia in or near Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Ukrainians that Russia might use chemical weapons in Mariupol.
“We take this as seriously as possible,” Mr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address on Monday.
Western leaders warned even before Russian troops moved into Ukraine that Russia could resort to unconventional weapons there, particularly chemical agents.
A Russia-allied separatist official, Eduard Basurin, appeared to urge their use Monday, telling Russian state TV that Russian-backed forces should seize a giant metals plant in Mariupol from Ukrainian forces by first blocking all the exits out of the factory.
“And then we’ll use chemical troops to smoke them out of there,” he said.
Vladimir Putin has vowed that Russia’s bloody offensive in Ukraine will continue until its goals are fulfilled.
The Russian President insisted the campaign was going as planned, despite a major withdrawal in the face of stiff Ukrainian opposition and significant losses.
Putin defended the war as a "noble" mission that would achieve its goals as his troops massed for a new offensive amid allegations of rape, brutality against civilians and possible use of chemical weapons.
He spoke defiantly despite Western abhorrence at his actions and the imposition of wide-ranging international sanctions on his country.
Asked by space agency workers if the operation in Ukraine would achieve its goals, Putin said: "Absolutely. I don't have any doubt at all.
"Its goals are absolutely clear and noble," Putin said. "We didn't have a choice. It was the right decision."
Putin said Kyiv had derailed peace talks by staging what he said were fake claims of Russian war crimes and by demanding security guarantees to cover the whole of Ukraine.
"We have again returned to a dead-end situation for us," Putin told a news briefing during a visit to the Vostochny Cosmodrome 3,450 miles (5,550 km) east of Moscow.
The mayor of Bucha near Kyiv said on Tuesday that authorities had so far found 403 bodies of people they believed were killed by Russian forces during their occupation of the area but that the number was growing.
Reuters could not immediately verify Fedoruk's comments about the number of people found dead in Bucha. Reuters has witnessed the remains of five victims in Bucha who were shot through the head but has not been able to independently determine who was responsible.
Corpses are now “carpeted through the streets” of Mariupol after Russian troops killed more than 10,000 civilians over the past six weeks, the mayor said.
Speaking to The Associated Press, Mariupol mayor Vadym Boychenko accused Russian forces of having blocked weeks of attempted humanitarian convoys into the city in part to conceal the carnage.
Mr Boychenko said the death toll in Mariupol alone could surpass 20,000.
"Mariupol has been destroyed, there are tens of thousands of dead, but even despite this, the Russians are not stopping their offensive," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address to South Korean lawmakers without providing more details.
If confirmed, this figure would be by far the largest number of dead so far reported in one place in Ukraine, where cities, towns and villages have come under relentless bombardment and bodies, including civilians, have been seen in the streets.
The head of the Russia-backed self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, Denis Pushilin, told Russia's RIA news agency on Monday that more than 5,000 people may have been killed in Mariupol. He said Ukrainian forces were responsible.
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