More than 5 million people have fled Ukraine amid the fighting.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken warned of the horrors yet to be discovered in Mariupol.
Russia reported the first successful test launch of a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile.
Kyiv | Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his forces not to storm the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in the besieged city of Mariupol on Thursday but instead to block it “so that not even a fly comes through”.
His defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said the rest of the city beyond the sprawling Azovstal steel plant where Ukrainian forces were holed up has been “liberated” – as Russian officials refer to areas of Ukraine they have seized. Mr Putin hailed that as a “success”.
