In a chilling move, four rogue nations have publicly thrown their support behind Vladimir Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials fear large numbers of people may be dead after “more than 15 hours” of shelling on a city near the Russian border.
The Deputy Mayor of the southeastern city of Mariupol, Sergiy Orlov, has told the BBC a riverside district, normally home to 130,000 people including his father, has been “nearly totally destroyed”.
“We cannot count the number of victims there, but we believe at least hundreds of people are dead. We cannot go in to retrieve the bodies,” he said.
The Russian army is working through all their weapons here – artillery, multiple rocket launch systems, aeroplanes, tactical rockets. They are trying to destroy the city,” Orlov says.
He said Russian forces are several kilometres away on all sides.
It comes as Russia ramps up assaults on key Ukrainian cities, sparking a bleak warning President Vladimir Putin may be planning to use banned weapons against Ukraine.
Read on for the latest updates.
Four countries side with Russia
A handful of rogue nations have sensationally sided with Russia during a UN vote “deploring” Russia’s “aggression against Ukraine”, which also called for the immediate withdrawal of its forces.
The only nations to vote no in support of Vladimir Putin were Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea and Syria, with long-term Russian allies Cuba and Venezuela joining China and 32 others in abstaining.
Meanwhile, 141 of the 193 member states voted in favour of the resolution.
During the meeting, Ukraine’s ambassador to the UN, Sergiy Kyslytsya, compared Mr Putin to Adolf Hitler in a passionate speech, calling on the world to unite against him.
It comes amid increasing signs Belarus plans to take a more direct role in supporting Russia against Ukraine, with Ukrainian officials claiming some Belarusian troops had already crossed the border.
Russia’s sick plan to use banned weapons
US Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, has told a UN General Assembly emergency special session on Ukraine that Russia was intentionally destroying crucial infrastructure – and that she feared worse was to come.
“We have seen videos of Russian forces moving exceptionally lethal weaponry into Ukraine, which has no place on the battlefield,” she said.
“That includes cluster munitions and vacuum bombs – which are banned under the Geneva Convention.
“We have seen the 40-mile-long lethal convoy charging toward Kyiv. President Putin continues to escalate – putting Russia’s nuclear forces on high alert, threatening to invade Finland and Sweden. At every step of the way, Russia has betrayed the United Nations. Russia’s actions go against everything this body stands for.”
2000 dead in brutal invasion
Ukrainian authorities have confirmed that more than 2000 ordinary Ukrainian citizens had been killed over the course of the invasion so far.
“Children, women and defence forces are losing their lives every hour,” Ukraine’s emergency service said in a statement.