The human cost of the war in Ukraine has risen as workers retrieved up to 100 bodies from every destroyed building in the devastated city of Mariupol – a horrific attempt that an official described as an “endless death caravan”. Meanwhile, fears of a global food crisis have escalated due to Ukraine’s inability to export millions of tonnes of grain through its blockaded ports. At the same time, Ukrainian and Russian forces fought hard on Wednesday for control of Sievierodonestk, a city that has emerged as the center of Moscow’s campaign to occupy the eastern industrial heart of Ukraine, known as the Donbas. Many buildings in Mariupol contain 50 to 100 corpses each, according to an assistant mayor in Russia’s southern port city. Petro Andryushchenko told the Telegram application that the bodies were being transported in an “endless death caravan” to morgues, landfills and other places. At least 21,000 civilians in Mariupol were killed during Russia’s weekly siege, according to Ukrainian authorities. The effects of the war are being felt far beyond Eastern Europe, as shipments of Ukrainian grain are bottled domestically, raising the price of food. Ukraine, long known as the “bread basket of Europe”, is one of the largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil in the world, but much of this flow has stopped due to the war and the Russian blockade of its Black Sea coast. Of Ukraine. It is estimated that 22 million tonnes of grain remain in Ukraine. Failure to send it jeopardizes food supply to many developing countries, especially Africa. Russia on Wednesday voiced support for a UN plan to build a safe sea corridor that would allow Ukraine to resume grain shipments. The plan calls, among other things, for Ukraine to remove mines from the waters near the port of Odessa on the Black Sea. But Russia insists it will be allowed to control incoming weapons ships. Ukraine has also expressed fears that the mine clearance could allow Russia to attack the coast. Ukrainian officials have said the Kremlin’s assurances that it will not do so are unreliable. European Council President Charles Michel on Wednesday accused the Kremlin of “equipping food supplies and surrounding them with a Soviet-style web of lies”. While Russia, which is also a major supplier of grain to the rest of the world, has blamed the impending food crisis on Western sanctions against Moscow, the European Union has strongly denied it, saying Russia’s responsibility for the war against Ukraine lies with Russia. . “These are Russian ships and Russian missiles that are blocking the export of crops and grain,” Michel said. “Russian tanks, bombs and mines are blocking Ukraine from planting and harvesting.” The West has exempted cereals and other foods from its sanctions against Russia, but the US and EU have imposed sweeping sanctions on Russian ships. Moscow argues that these restrictions make it impossible for its ships to use grain for export and also make other shipping companies reluctant to transport its product. Turkey has sought to play a role in the negotiations to end the war and to mediate the resumption of grain shipments. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoλουlu met with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, on Wednesday. Ukraine was not invited to the talks. Moscow troops continued their arduous, inch-by-inch campaign into the Donbass region with heavy fighting in and around Siyevierodonetsk, which had a population of 100,000 before the war. It is one of the last cities not yet occupied by the Russians in Luhansk, one of the two provinces that make up Donbass. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Sievierodonetsk the “focus” of the battle for Donbas and perhaps one of the most difficult battles of the war. He said the Ukrainian army was defending its positions and causing real casualties to Russian forces. “In many ways, the fate of our Donbass is decided there,” Zelensky said in a video overnight video recorded on the street outside his office in Kyiv. An adviser to Zelensky’s office said Russian forces changed their tactics in the battle, retreating from the city as they hit it with artillery and air strikes. As a result, Oleksiy Arestovych said, the city center is deserted and artillery hits an empty space. “They are hitting hard without much success,” he said in a daily web interview. The governor of Luhansk, Serhiy Haidai, acknowledged the difficulties of the battle with the Russian forces, saying: “We may have to retreat, but at the moment the fighting continues in the city.” “Everything the Russian army has – artillery, mortars, tanks, air force – all this, it uses in Sievierodonetsk to wipe the city off the face of the earth and take it completely,” he said. The city of Lysychansk, like Sievierodonetsk, is also stuck between Russian forces in Luhansk province. Valentyna Tsonkan, an elderly resident of Lysychansk, described the moment her house was attacked. “I was lying on my bed. “The shrapnel hit the wall and passed over my shoulder,” she said as she was receiving treatment for her injuries. Russia’s continued encroachment could open the possibility of a negotiated settlement between the two nations more than three months after the war, analysts said. “Russian President Vladimir Putin” has the choice to state that his goals are being met at all times in order to consolidate Russia’s territorial gains, “said Kir Giles, a Russia expert at the Chatham House think tank in London. At that point, Giles said, Western leaders could “push Ukraine to accept its losses in order to end the war.” Zelensky said Russia is unwilling to negotiate because it still feels strong. Speaking via video link to US corporate leaders, he called for even tougher sanctions to weaken Russia financially, including its removal “from the global financial system.” Zelensky said Ukraine was willing to negotiate “to find a way out”, but a settlement could not come “at the expense of our independence”.

Karmanau reported from Lviv, Ukraine. Associated Press journalists Oleksandr Stashevskyi, John Leicester and David Keyton in Kyiv, Ukraine. Andrew Katell in New York. and Sylvia Hui in London contributed to this exhibition.

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