Russia announced on Saturday that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and several other senior British officials were banned from entering the country, after London imposed sanctions on Moscow over its military operation in Ukraine. It is day 52 of the war in Ukraine, as Russian forces are expected to begin a new big offensive in the east of the country after their retreat from the Kiev region and other parts of the country revealed growing evidence of human rights atrocities. Despite Moscow"s blanket denials, horrific discoveries of civilian murders, torture and other barbaric acts continue coming to light, with Ukrainian authorities claiming tens of thousands of civilian casualties in Mariupol alone. Ukraine has continued to call for tighter Western nations against Moscow and for more weapons to repel Putin"s forces. Russia, along with Johnson, banned Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, former Prime Minister Theresa May and Scotland"s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon from entering country "This measure was taken in response to the unbridled media and political campaign aimed at isolating Russia internationally and creating the conditions for (...) strangling the national economy," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The ministry’s statement cited “unprecedented hostile actions of the British government, expressed, in particular, in the imposition of sanctions against top officials” in Russia. “The Russophobic course of action of the British authorities, whose main goal is to stir up negative attitude toward our country, curtailing of bilateral ties in almost all areas are detrimental to the well-being and interests of the residents of Britain. Any sanctions attack will inevitably backfire on their initiators and receive a decisive rebuff,” the statement said. In mid-March Russia announced a similar travel ban on US President Joe Biden and other US officials. Western countries including the US, the UK and the EU have targeted Russian President Vladimir Putin and other senior officials with sanctions. On Friday evening, the ministry announced the expulsion of 18 European Union diplomats from Moscow, in retaliation for the bloc"s declaring 19 diplomats from the Russian mission to the EU and to the European Atomic Energy Community persona non-grata. The European Union said the expulsions were groundless, and that EU diplomats targeted were working in the framework of the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations. Meanwhile, one person was killed and several were wounded in Russian strikes on targets in eastern Kiev, the city"s mayor said as Russia"s Defense Ministry claimed its forces struck a military equipment factory in the Ukrainian capital. The governor of the Lviv region in western Ukraine reported Russian air strikes in the region on Saturday morning and he also claimed that Ukrainian air defenses downed four cruise missiles. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that existing sanctions on Russia are “painful” but not yet enough to stop the Russian military. He called for “the democratic world” to ban Russian oil. Also CIA Director William Burns has said no one “can take lightly” the threat that Russia could use tactical or low-yield nuclear weapons but he has seen no “practical evidence” suggesting it is imminent. Zelenskyy echoed those words, saying the world should be worried about how Putin might react to military setbacks. The Ukrainian president has said about 2,500 to 3,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed in seven weeks of war with Russia and about 10,000 injured. And, Ukraine"s deputy prime minister says nine humanitarian corridors have been agreed for Saturday, including from Mariupol. Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that one person died and several more were wounded in the Saturday morning airstrikes on the Darnytski district of the capital, as Russian forces resumed scattered attacks on the capital in western Ukraine. “Our air defense forces are doing everything they can to protect us, but the enemy is insidious and ruthless,” Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app. The attacks, which the Russian Defense Ministry said targeted an armored vehicle plant in the Ukrainian capital, was an explosive reminder to Ukrainians and their Western supporters that the whole country remains under threat despite Russian forces pivot to the east, where a new offensive is feared. Klitschko urged Ukrainians not to return to Kiev just yet in televised remarks Saturday, warning that strikes on the capital are likely continue and its suburbs are rigged with explosives. “We’re not ruling out further strikes on the capital,” Klitschko said. “We can’t prohibit, we can only recommend. If you have the opportunity to stay a little bit longer in the cities where it’s safer, do it.” The mayor of Kiev added that because of the mines, Kiev residents are barred from visiting parks and forests in the northeastern areas that border with liberated territories formerly occupied by Russians. Russian forces hit an airfield with a missile strike late on Friday in Oleksandriya, a city in Ukraine"s Kirovohrad region, the mayor of the city said on Saturday without mentioning whether there were casualties. Shelling in the eastern Luhansk region killed one person and wounded three more, the governor said, and also damaged gas pipelines in Severodonetsk and Lysychansk. The mayor of Aleksandria, about 300 km southeast of Kiev, said on Facebook that a Russian missile had hit the city"s airport overnight on Friday into Saturday. He said that the rescue teams were at work but had no immediate word on casualties. Authorities in the northeastern Kharkiv region said on Friday that 10 people including a seven-month-old baby were killed, and 35 others injured, as Russia attacked buses evacuating residents. In southeastern Ukraine, nearly 2,900 civilians were evacuated on Friday from besieged Mariupol and Berdyansk to Zaporizhzhia, according to Kiev. The Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday that Russian artillery had caused the death of around 30 "Polish mercenaries" in northeastern Ukraine. Ukrainian MP Sviatoslav Yurash said, Kiev has been the target of rocket attacks and cruise missiles even though Russian forces have withdrawn from its surrounding region. Talking to British broadcaster Sky on Saturday, he said that Russian forces have been using long range weapons and aircrafts to attack from afar. Yurash said that even though Russian forces were pushed back there was always the threat of them coming back to try and seize the capital. He warned that Russians were preparing a big attack from the east and that they were determined to prove that the invasion was not in vain. "Kiev continues to receive rocket attacks by cruise missiles from Russia, even though we defeated the Russians around Kyiv and pushed them back across the border," Yurash said. "They attack from the long range, they attack from aircraft, they have been firing rockets non-stop," he went on, adding that Ukraine was ready to deal with the threat of Russia trying to retake the capital. The Ukraine"s military warned on Saturday of the threat from Russian warships armed with sea-launched missiles in the Black Sea. It claims this suggests it"s more likely that Russia may use them to strike Ukraine’s defense industry and logistics infrastructure. It also said that Russia"s navy was active in the Sea of Azov to block the port of Mariupol, where ground fighting has intensified as Ukraine said it was trying to break Russia"s siege. Home to 400,000 people before Russia"s invasion, the southeastern city has been reduced to rubble. Thousands of civilians have died and tens of thousands remain trapped. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said the Russian army has still not completely captured Mariupol. This follows Thursday"s sinking of the Moskva, the flagship of Moscow"s Black Sea fleet. The United States believes it was hit by two Ukrainian missiles and that there were Russian casualties. The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Saturday that it had targeted a military equipment factory in Kiev, a day after Russian forces warned that they would intensify their attacks on the Ukrainian capital. "High-precision, long-range air-to-surface weapons destroyed production buildings of an arms factory in Kiev," the ministry said in a statement on Telegram. Earlier an AFP journalist reported that a military factory manufacturing tanks in particular had been targeted on Saturday morning by a bombardment in the suburbs of Kyiv. A large number of soldiers and police were present on the spot, preventing access to the complex, from which smoke was billowing. The mayor of Kiev, Klitschko, indicated on Facebook that he had no information on the potential victims at this stage. In a rare good news emanating out of this grisly war, a Russian man and Ukrainian woman were married in the Mexican border city of Tijuana after they were unable to travel together to the US. Daria Sakhniuk was allowed to enter the US. as a Ukrainian refugee but her partner, Semen Bobrovski, was unable to travel there following Russia"s invasion of Ukraine. They left Ukraine as the war began. Bobrovski told El Sol de Tijuana that he believed the marriage Thursday would bolster his chances of entering the US with his new wife. The US allows only Russian nationals with family members in the US to enter the country. “Without it, we won’t be able to cross because, still to the official American government, we are strangers to each other," he said. — Euronews