{O/C} Fighting has persisted in Ukraine in the second month of the war.
A defiant Russian President Vladimir Putin today nailed his colours to the mast, calling off an assault on a steel-mill plant and instead sealing it off.
While there are new satellite images showing growing mass graves near the besieged port city, Russia has prematurely claimed victory in Mariupol despite the some 2,000 Ukrainian fighters still hunkering down in that steel-mill factory.
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This unconfirmed aerial footage from a Russian state television purportedly shows the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold -- the sprawling Azovstal steel plant.
In a choreographed meeting between Russia's Defence Minister and President Putin, Sergei Shoigu claimed boots on the ground had had the plant blockaded, with the rest of Mariupol "liberated," forestalling a bloody battle.
The plant could be captured in three to four days.
Russia says it's carried the day in Mariupol despite stiff resistance.
Satellite images reveal long rows of more than 200 mass graves outside Mariupol, where up to 9,000 deceased civilians are reportedly buried.
A move aimed at muffling the long-repudiated allegations of ghastly war crimes.
With Mariupol smouldering, Russian rockets thrashed this residential area in Kharkiv on Thursday. At least two civilians were burned to death in this car engulfed by flames.
Firefighters were seen dousing the blazes and searching for anyone still incarcerated.
A school and a residential building nearby also sustained damage.
A waystation for people leaving Mariupol for safety was also targeted. The city of Zaporizhzhia was subjected to at least two Russian attacks. No one was injured.
The Red Cross said 1,500 were expected to be evacuated. But Russian forces pulled some off the buses. Only a few dozen were fortunate enough to leave.
Ukrainian President Zelensky has been awarded a John F. Kennedy Courage Award for marshalling his forces with unremitting resolve.
Meantime, U.S. President Joe Biden's administration is nipping a refugee crisis in the bud. This, after it shut down an informal route to the country via its southern border.
The United States will turbocharge a programme that grants asylum to those fleeing the war, and will no longer accept those coming in from northern Mexico.
President Joe Biden has promised to give 100,000 Ukrainians refuge in America in an effort to ameliorate the overwhelming influx of refugees swamping Eastern Europe.
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