Day 10: Russian shelling batters encircled towns
In war-torn areas of Ukraine, residents fled on footpaths and grief-stricken parents mourned dead children as Russian troops continued to shell encircled cities.
A promised cease-fire in the port city of Mariupol collapsed Saturday amid scenes of terror in the besieged town, while in the outskirts of Kyiv, a stream of residents with pets and children crossed the Irpin River on an improvised path under a bridge destroyed by a Russian airstrike.
Ukrainians crowd under a destroyed bridge as they try to flee across the Irpin River in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, March 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
In comments carried on Ukrainian television, Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said thousands of residents had gathered for safe passage out of the city when shelling began that morning.
Ten days into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, 1.45 million people have fled the battered country, according to the U.N.-affiliated Organization for Migration in Geneva.
The death toll of the conflict was difficult to measure but likely had surpassed 1,000.
Text from AP News story, AP PHOTOS: Day 10, Russian shelling batters encircled towns