HEARTBREAKING footage shows distraught Ukrainians burying bodies in mass graves as the bloodiest day of the war saw 53 killed in ONE town – including three kids.

Russian troops are blasting cities and brutally slaughtering citizens as Vladimir Putin's stalling invasion rages into its fourth week, met with staunch Ukrainian resistance.

But as Putin's soldiers continue to unleash devastating attacks, 53 people were killed just on Wednesday in the northern town of Chernihiv amid intense bombardment.

"We are suffering heavy losses – 53 citizens were killed yesterday," Governor Viacheslav Chaus said.

Ukraine's emergency services said rescue workers discovered the bodies of five people, including three kids, among the rubble during searches of obliterated residential buildings damaged by shelling.

And in further harrowing scenes, footage shows grieving Ukrainians removing bodies in bags from a truck before lowering them into mass graves in Bucha, just outside of Kyiv.

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Meanwhile in Putin's evil troops bombed a theatre said to be sheltering up to 1,200 terrified people – despite the word "children" being written outside the building.

The Mariupol Drama Theatre was used as a safe haven from Russia's relentless shelling of the southern port city, with meals being provided and people sleeping there overnight.

The continuous bombardment of Mariupol has forced around 20,000 Ukrainians to flee, and it's estimated more than 2,300 citizens have been killed in the area.

The city's deputy mayor, Serhiy Orlov, said between 1,000 and 1,200 people were inside the theatre on Wednesday when it was targeted by the Russians.

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Despite repeated attacks on cities across Ukraine, Western countries have claimed Russian forces are no longer making progress on the ground.

British military intelligence said in an update on Thursday that the invasion had "largely stalled on all fronts", and Russian forces were suffering heavy losses from a "staunch and well-coordinated" Ukrainian resistance.

Although both sides have pointed to limited progress in peace talks this week, Putin, who ordered Russia's invasion on February 24, showed little sign of relenting.

In a televised speech, he sent a chilling warning to the West and oligarchs, telling "scum" traitors that Russians will "spit them out like a midge that flew into their mouths".

Northeastern and northwestern suburbs of Kyiv have been reduced to rubble by heavy fighting, but the capital itself has held firm, under a curfew and subjected to deadly nightly rocket attacks.

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At least one person was killed and three were wounded when a residential building was struck by a downed Russian missile in the capital, emergency services said on Thursday.

And two people died when an apartment block was shelled in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city.

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