Live updates | Separatists to nationalize ships in Mariupol

The leader of Russia-backed separatists who control part of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region says his administration will nationalize some of the ships in the port of Mariupol

The leader of Russia-backed separatists who control part of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region says his administration will nationalize some of the ships in the port of Mariupol.

Denis Pushilin was quoted by Russian state news agency RIA Novosti on Tuesday as saying that “some of the vessels will come under the jurisdiction of the Donetsk People’s Republic. The relevant decisions have been made.” It wasn’t immediately clear whether he was referring to Ukrainian vessels or ships from other countries.

Kyiv has accused Russia of blocking its sea ports and hindering grain exports, fueling a global food crisis. Moscow has sought to pin the blame on the West and the sanctions it imposed on Russia.

Russian forces encircled Mariupol, a strategic port city on the Azov Sea, early in the war. They took full control of it this month after capturing nearly 2,500 Ukrainian fighters who had been holed up in the sprawling Azovstal steel mill, the last remaining pocket of Ukrainian resistance.

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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:

— Russians, Ukrainians fight block by block in eastern city

— A ‘terrible nightmare’: Treating Ukraine’s wounded civilians

— War crimes meeting held at Hague over Russia-Ukraine war

— EU leaders agree to partial embargo on Russian oil

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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

BRUSSELS — After securing a compromise overnight to slap an embargo on most Russian oil imports, European Union leaders will focus Tuesday on how to help Ukraine export millions of tons of grain blocked by the war.

The leaders will call on Russia to halt its attacks on transport infrastructure in Ukraine and lift its blockade of Black Sea ports so that food can be shipped out, notably from Odesa.

Ukraine says Russia has prevented the export of 22 million tons of its grain and is fueling a global food crisis. The U.N. says African countries imported 44% of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine between 2018 and 2020.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says the EU’s sanctions are making things worse. Putin says he’s willing to help ease concerns if the restrictive measures are lifted.

The EU leaders are likely to call for a speedier effort to set up “solidarity lanes” and to help Ukraine get its grain out through European land routes and sea ports.

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KYIV, Ukraine — A Ukrainian regional governor says an overnight missile strike on the city of Sloviansk in the eastern Donetsk region killed at least three people and wounded six more.

Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said in a Facebook post on Tuesday morning that a school and at least seven multi-story buildings were damaged.

In the neighboring Luhansk region, where Russian forces are attempting to take the city of Sievierodonetsk, two people were killed and four wounded by shelling, Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai said on Telegram on Tuesday. He didn’t say when the shelling occurred.

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THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Representatives of a group of nations working together to investigate war crimes in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are meeting in The Hague amid ongoing calls for those responsible for atrocities to be brought to justice.

Tuesday’s coordination meeting at the European Union’s judicial cooperation agency, Eurojust, of members of a Joint Investigation Team and International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan comes as Russian forces continue to pound Ukrainian towns.

Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine has been widely condemned as an illegal act of aggression. Russian forces have been accused of killing civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha and of repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure including hospitals and a theater in the besieged city of Mariupol that was being used as a shelter by hundreds of civilians. An investigation by The Associated Press found evidence that the March 16 bombing killed close to 600 people inside and outside the building.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, the AP and PBS series Frontline have verified 273 potential war crimes.

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ISTANBUL — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office says he has stressed the need to set up a corridor for Ukrainian agricultural products in a phone call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Ukraine says Russia’s blockade of its Black Sea ports is preventing the supply of millions of tons of grain around the world.

Erdogan's office said late Monday he told his Ukrainian counterpart that he “attaches particular importance” to securing safe passage for ships carrying agricultural exports.

He also wants Turkey to be part of an Istanbul-based “control center” including Ukraine, Russia and the United Nations to find a way to end the war.

Earlier Monday, Erdogan spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin. A readout of that call from Erdogan’s office referred to an “observation mechanism” involving Turkey, Ukraine, Russia and the U.N. No further details were given.

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POKROVSK, Ukraine — Across eastern Ukraine, hospitals in cities and towns near the front lines of Russia’s war are increasingly coming under pressure.

Many staff have fled and those who remain have to deal with an influx of war wounded on top of their usual flow of sick patients. One lifeline for the overstretched hospitals is a specially equipped evacuation train run by the medical charity Doctors Without Borders.

It includes an intensive care unit and ferries the wounded and the sick westward to better equipped hospitals in safer parts of the country.

One surgeon in the eastern city of Kramatorsk says medical workers are facing “the most terrible nightmare” of treating civilians who have been wounded in Russian attacks including children with their limbs blown off.