LVIV/ODESA (Ukraine) – Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, said Russia’s attack on Mariupol was “a terror which will be remembered for many centuries to come” while local officials claimed that thousands of Mariupol residents were forced to flee to Russia.

The city council stated that “over the last week, many thousand Mariupol residents have been deported onto Russian territory”. This statement was made on Telegram late Saturday.

Reuters couldn’t independently verify this claim.

Russian media reported that buses carried hundreds of people Moscow called refugees to Russia from the strategically located port at the Sea of Azov.

Local authorities estimate that around 400 000 people remain trapped in Mariupol after being bombarded with heavy bombings, which have cut central heating and electricity supplies.

Local authorities claim that the Russian air strike on Wednesday destroyed the Mariupol theater, and rescue workers are still looking for survivors. Russia has denied attacking the theater or targeting civilians.

Russia’s defence ministry claimed that on Friday its forces “tightened the noose” around Mariupol. It also stated that fighting had reached Mariupol’s centre.

Zelenskiy declared that Mariupol’s siege would be “another example of war crimes in the history books”.

“To do that to a peaceful town…is a terror which will be remembered for generations.”

He stated that Russia needed peace talks, but they were not easy nor pleasant.

Since February 24, Russian forces suffered heavy losses. President Vladimir Putin’s “special operation,” which he called a demilitarization of Ukraine, and the purge it from dangerous nationalists, launched on Feb. 24. According to the West, Putin has launched an aggressive conflict of choice in Ukraine.

The suburbs have stopped the long columns of troops which attacked the capital Kyiv.

British intelligence thinks Russia is being taken aback at Ukraine’s resistance and has now begun to “follow a strategy for destruction,” according to Britain’s defense attache to America.

Russia announced Saturday that it had demolished a huge underground missile depot in Ivano-Frankivsk to store missiles and ammunition. The speed of hypersonic weapons is five times faster than sound and Interfax reported that Russia used them for the first time in Ukraine.

According to a spokesperson from the Ukrainian Air Force Command, the Ukrainian side confirmed the attack but did not provide any details about the types of missiles that were used.

NEUTRAL STATUS

Interfax reported that Sergei Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister, stated that Moscow expects its operations in Ukraine to be ended by the signing of an agreement covering all security matters, which includes Ukraine’s neutrality status.

Moscow and Kyiv reported progress last week in negotiations toward a political solution that would ensure Ukraine’s safety while maintaining NATO membership. However, each side accused the other for dragging its feet.

Zelenskiy stated that Ukraine would accept security guarantees from other countries, but not the long-held goal of joining NATO. This has been Russia’s main concern.

On Saturday, the Ukrainian president made passionate appeals for foreign assistance to a Bern anti-war demonstration. He said that the money of those who started this war was in Swiss banks and should therefore be frozen.

Ukrainian cities are being demolished at the request of European citizens who reside in lovely Swiss cities and who have property in these cities. In an audio address, he stated that it was a great idea to take away this privilege.

Neutral Switzerland is not part of the European Union and has adopted all EU sanctions against Russian persons and entities. This includes orders to stop their assets from Swiss banks.

These EU sanctions are part of wider Western countries’ efforts to sanction Russia in order to starve its economy and stop it from waging war.