FIGHTING continued in Ukraine today as Russia claimed that more than 1,026 troops had surrendered to its forces in the south-eastern port city of Mariupol.

President Vladimir Putin emphasised that the invasion of Ukraine would “continue until its full completion and the fulfilment of the tasks which have been set.”

Hopes that peace talks might achieve an early end to the conflict have faded as Ukraine accuses Russia of war crimes, including targeting civilians with rocket strikes and murdering others in occupied suburbs north of Kiev, from which the Russian army has since withdrawn.

A report published today by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe said that it had found “clear patterns of [international humanitarian law] violations by the Russian forces” during the war, but Moscow denied the allegation and pointed out that the report’s authors had all been chosen by the Ukrainian government.

The same report said that it had documented violations by Ukraine as well, but those by Russia were “far larger in scale and nature.” Footage published by the New York Times showed Ukrainian soldiers killing a Russian prisoner of war.

An International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation is now under way in Ukraine, but since Moscow does not recognise the court (nor does the United States) it is unlikely that it would allow its soldiers or officials to be tried by it.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said today after a visit to Bucha – where numerous atrocities are alleged to have been committed by Russian troops – that Ukraine “is a crime scene,” but he cautioned against jumping to conclusions, saying investigations must “pierce the fog of war” to determine what had happened.

Russia has retreated from its encirclement of the Ukrainian capital, but Western governments say satellite imagery shows a regrouping of forces for a new offensive in the east aimed at taking the whole Donbass region, and statements by the Russia-backed Donetsk People’s Republic support that claim. 

Donetsk and Lugansk, Russian-speaking regions that rose in revolt after the 2014 US-backed coup in Kiev in 2014, have been fighting the Ukrainian army and neonazi paramilitaries aligned with it for eight years.

Claims that they faced “genocide” at the hands of the Ukrainian forces were among the reasons that Mr Putin gave in February for starting the war.