Pavel Polityuk, James Mackenzie

MARIUPOL/LVIV/KYIV Ukraine, (Reuters) – The U.S. President Joe Biden warned that Moscow might use chemical weapons and issued one his strongest warnings to date.

After failing to seize any Ukrainian cities for more than 4 weeks, Russian troops are increasingly resorting to massive destruction of residential areas with long-range missiles, artillery and air strikes.

Russia’s southern port, Mariupol is now a major focus of Russia’s aggression. The city lies mostly in ruin and bodies lie on the streets. But on Monday attacks intensified on Kharkiv.

Ukraine’s armed forces said in a statement issued on Tuesday that Russian forces were expected to continue to attack critical infrastructure using “high-precision weapons and indiscriminate munitions”.

Biden stated that Russia’s false allegations that Kyiv has chemical and biological weapons showed that Vladimir Putin had considered using them.

Putin has his back against the wall, and now he is talking about false flags that he’s creating, including claiming that America has chemical as well as biological weapons in Europe. This simply is not true, Biden stated at an event called Business Roundtable.

They also suggest that Ukraine may have chemical and biological weapons. This is a sign that he may be considering both.

Washington, DC: The Russian Embassy in Washington didn’t immediately reply to my request for comment.

Biden warned businesses also to watch out for Russian hackers. “It’s part of Russia’s playbook,” he said in a statement.

Washington and its allies previously accused Russia, without any evidence whatsoever, of inventing the claim that Ukraine was developing a bio weapons programme. Biden made Monday some of the strongest statements on the topic.

Russia claims it doesn’t attack civilians, but the destruction inflicted on Ukrainian cities such as Mariupol or Kharkiv is reminiscent of Russian attacks on Syrian and Chechnya-based cities.

Putin refers to the war in Ukraine, which was the largest attack on an European state since World War Two as a “special military operations” that was designed to dearm Ukraine and defend it against “Nazis.” This is a pretext to an unprovoked, hostile war of aggression by the West.

Biden will travel to Europe next week to meet with allies leaders and discuss tougher sanctions against Russia. This is in addition to the already unprecedented financial penalties. According to the White House, he spoke with European leaders about Russia’s “brutalistic” tactics ahead of his trip.

Russia’s bombardment and siege of Mariupol ports by Russia, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borell called “a huge war crime”, has increased pressure to take action.

On Monday, EU foreign ministers differed over whether or not to include energy in sanctions. Germany claimed that it was too dependent on Russian oil for the bloc to declare an embargo.

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Conflict has forced almost half of Ukraine’s 44million people to flee their homes. Germany forecasts the number of refugees could be as high at 10 million within weeks.

Ukraine rejected Monday’s Russian request to cease defending Mariupol under Russian occupation. There, hundreds of thousands are being killed by Russian bombings.

Reuters reached a strange wasteland in a part of Mariupol that is currently held by Russian troops. Many bodies were wrapped in blankets and laid by the road. Windows were destroyed and walls were burned to black. The basement inhabitants sat down on benches, covered in debris and wrapped up in their coats.

Some managed to flee, however. Around 8,000 persons were evacuated by seven humanitarian corridors, which ran from cities and villages under siege, to safety.

Also, the east cities of Kharkiv (Sumy) and Chernihiv were hard hit.

Boris Romanchenko (96), a Holocaust survivor, is one of the many dead in Kharkiv. His flat was bombed last week by Russian forces.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian President, said that he had seen many achievements.

He was hit by a Russian missile and killed. It becomes clearer with each passing day that this war continues, what denazification is to them.

Witness in Kharkiv claimed that Monday night she witnessed people dropping bombs or other explosives onto the streets from the rooftops of apartments.

Another witness outside of the city reported hearing stronger explosions than any other day since Russian troops attacked last month.

Reuters was unable to verify these accounts immediately.

Six bodies were seen in Kyiv laid to rest by the Russian bombers who had attacked a Kyiv shopping mall overnight. To the distant sound of artillery fire, emergency services dug through wreckage.

According to the governor of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia, buses transporting civilians out of front-line areas were shelled on Monday by shelling. Four children sustained injuries in separate incidents.

Ukrainian officials believe that Moscow will reach an agreement to withdraw. Although details weren’t available, both sides indicated last week that they were making progress on negotiations for a formula that would allow Ukraine some “neutrality”, though there was not much.

Japan responded angrily to Russia’s withdrawal from the peace treaty negotiations on Tuesday, citing Tokyo’s decision to participate in international sanctions campaign. Fumio Kishida, the Japanese Prime Minister, said that Russia’s actions were “completely unacceptable”.