MOSCOW/VIENNA: A pro-Russia rebel leader said on Monday that separatist forces in eastern Ukraine have taken control of the port of the strategic city of Mariupol.

“Regarding the port of Mariupol, it is already under our control,” Denis Pushilin, leader of the separatists in the breakaway Donetsk region, said in televised remarks.

Russian troops have for over a month besieged Mariupol on the shores of the Sea of Azov.

Thousands of civilians are believed to have died there since the start of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.

Earlier, Pushilin told journalists that the remaining Ukrainian forces in Mariupol were concentrated inside the city’s giant metallurgical and heavy machinery plants.

“The enemy has concentrated its forces in factories such as Azovstal, Zavod Ilyicha and AzovMash,” he told reporters in the region’s de-facto capital Donetsk.

“As for the centre of the city, peaceful elements of life are already being restored. It’s the first step,” he added. Pushilin said separatist forces would intensify fighting in eastern Ukraine. Moscow has now made this area its primary target.

French police

French police officers and forensic doctors arrived in Ukraine on Monday to help investigate alleged Russian war crimes after hundreds of civilian bodies were discovered in towns around Kyiv, Paris said.

The French interior and justice ministries said they had sent the team to “prevent the impunity of acts constituting war crimes” following the killings that shocked the world.

Russia immediately accused the team of bias and trying to tarnish Moscow’s reputation.

The French ministries said the detectives would “provide concrete support” to Ukrainian and international jurisdictions to probe the killings.

“In agreement with the Ukrainian authorities, it may also contribute to the International Criminal Court investigation.” The experts will help in “identification and collection of evidence,” they said.

France’s ambassador to Ukraine posted a photograph on Twitter of the uniformed officers standing by a mobile laboratory van in the western city of Lviv.

“Proud to welcome to Lviv the detachment of technical and scientific gendarmes who came to assist their comrades in investigations of war crimes committed near Kyiv,” Etienne de Poncins said.

“France is the first to provide such help. They will start work tomorrow.” Ukraine says it found 1,222 bodies in areas in the Kyiv region from where the Russian army recently retreated. It has vowed to find and identify those behind civilian killings and has called for international help in doing so.

The ministries said the team is made up of “two forensic doctors and about 15 gendarmes from the National Gendarmerie Criminal Research Institute (IRCGN), experts in crime scene and victim identification”.

Austrian chancellor holds talks with Putin

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer held “very direct, open and tough” talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday, in Putin’s first meeting with a European Union leader since the invasion of Ukraine started more than six weeks ago.

Neutral Austria, which obtains 80 per cent of its natural gas from Russia, generally maintains closer ties to Moscow than much of the European Union but that has not been the case recently.

Nehammer has expressed solidarity with Ukraine and denounced apparent Russian war crimes, while his government has joined other EU countries in expelling Russian diplomats, albeit only a fraction of the large Russian diplomatic presence there.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2022