Ukraine Accuses Russia of Resorting to 'Medieval' Tactics

As Russian shelling continued to kill Ukrainian civilians Monday, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations made a bizarre claim at a Security Council meeting. Vasily Nebenzya accused the Ukrainians of shelling themselves, and his remarks caused outrage and comparisons to similar claims made by Bosnian Serb forces when they bombed Sarajevo, the Guardian reports. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, said that Vladimir Putin "has a plan to brutalize Ukraine" and that the humanitarian toll is mounting, with dozens of children killed and countless more deeply traumatized. "Children are dying, people are fleeing their homes, for what?" she said.

Ukrainian officials said Russia stepped up its shelling of major cities Monday, with one strike killing at least 13 civilians at a bread factory in northern Ukraine. Talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations resumed Monday after the failure of efforts to evacuate civilians from cities under Russian fire, the AP reports. Ukrainian officials said Russian proposals to evacuate civilians to Russia and its ally, Belarus, were unacceptable and "completely immoral." Thomas-Greenfield urged Russia to honor proposals "for time-bound humanitarian safe passage in specific, agreed-upon locations." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia on Monday of destroying buses that were supposed to collect civilians and mining routes that had been chosen for deliveries of food and medicine.

With evacuations canceled and convoys unable to bring aid to besieged cities included Mariupol, fears are growing that thousands more civilians could die in the days to come, the New York Times reports. Russia is "resorting to tactics reminiscent of medieval siege warfare, encircling cities, cutting off escape routes, and pounding the civilian population with heavy ordnance," a member of Ukraine's legal team told the International Court of Justice on Monday. The Guardian reports that for the first time since the invasion began 12 days ago, Zelensky delivered his daily video address from his office instead of a bunker. "I'm not hiding. And I'm not afraid of anyone," he said. (More Russia-Ukraine war stories.)