Ukraine-Russia war: 1200 bodies found in Ukraine capital
Heavy bombardments hammered Ukraine through the weekend, adding to mounting casualties six weeks into Russia’s invasion of its neighbour. WARNING: GRAPHIC PHOTOS
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Ukraine says it has located more than 1200 bodies in the Kyiv region, the scene of atrocities allegedly committed during the Russian occupation last month, as residents in the country’s east braced – or fled – ahead of an expected massive offensive.
Heavy bombardments hammered Ukraine through the weekend, adding to mounting casualties six weeks into Russia’s invasion of its neighbour.
Shelling claimed two lives in northeast Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, on Sunday morning, regional governor Oleg Sinegoubov said, the day after 10 civilians, including a child, died in bombing southeast of the city, according to authorities.
“The Russian army continues to wage war on civilians due to a lack of victories at the front,” Sinegoubov said on Telegram.
In Dnipro, a large industrial city of a million inhabitants, a rain of Russian missiles nearly destroyed the local airport, causing an uncertain number of casualties, local authorities said. It had already been struck on March 15.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy again condemned atrocities against civilians, and after speaking with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said they had agreed “that all perpetrators of war crimes must be identified and punished”.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova said the country was examining the alleged culpability of 500 leading Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, for thousands of war crimes.
And White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan pledged the US would “work with the international community to make sure there’s accountability” for what he called “mass atrocities”.
At the Vatican, Pope Francis called for an Easter ceasefire to pave the way for peace, denouncing a war where “defenceless civilians” suffered “heinous massacres and atrocious cruelty”.
PUTIN ENLISTS ‘BUTCHER OF SYRIA’, TARGETS ‘EUROPE’
Vladimir Putin has enlisted a feared Russian general to lead Russia’s invasion – amid warnings his target is now “the entire Europe project”.
According to The Sun, Captain General Aleksandr Dvornikov – referred to as the Butcher of Syria – helped president Bashar al-Assad crush his enemies in the civil war and is now working for Mr Putin.
During the general’s time, chemical weapons and air strikes were used in Syria – resulting in thousands of horrific civilian casualties.
It is understood Dvornikov is now the commander of Russia’s Southern Military District, and will turn his attention to capturing Ukraine’s Donbas region on the request of Putin himself.
Newly released Maxar satellite imagery collected on Friday showed a 13km convoy of military vehicles headed south to the Donbas region through the Ukrainian town of Velykyi Burluk.
Western military analysts said an arc of territory in eastern Ukraine was under Russian control, from Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city in the north to Kherson in the south.
Meanwhile, during a late-night address to Ukrainians on Saturday, Ukrainian president Zelenskyy said Russian aggression “was not intended to be limited to Ukraine alone” and the “entire European project is a target for Russia”.
“That is why it is not just the moral duty of all democracies, all the forces of Europe, to support Ukraine’s desire for peace,” he said.
“This is, in fact, a strategy of defence for every civilised state.
“This will be a hard battle, we believe in this fight and our victory. We are ready to simultaneously fight and look for diplomatic ways to put an end to this war.”
PUTIN, RUSSIAN LEADERS MAY FACE WAR CRIMES CHARGES
Ukraine is examining the alleged culpability of 500 Russian leaders for thousands of war crimes, including President Vladimir Putin, a top official said on Sunday.
Speaking on Britain’s Sky News, Ukrainian prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova also thanked Prime Minister Boris Johnson for his surprise visit to Kyiv on Saturday.
Mr Johnson promised more UK military aid in face-to-face talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, before the pair took a heavily-guarded stroll through central Kyiv.
“I think that the Ukrainians have shown the courage of a lion, and you, Volodymyr, have given the roar of that lion,” Mr Johnson said in televised remarks, standing alongside the president.
Ms Venediktova said Mr Johnson’s trip had offered “really great support for us”, as she detailed alleged atrocities by Russian invaders, including at a railway station packed with fleeing civilians.
“Of course what we see on the ground in all the regions of Ukraine, it is war crimes, crimes against humanity,” the prosecutor added, speaking in English.
She said there was “full evidence” linking Russian forces to the missile attack on the station at Kramatorsk, in eastern Ukraine, where officials said 52 people were killed.
RUSSIAN FORCES EXPOSED TO RADIOACTIVE CONTAMINATION
Russian soldiers who occupied the Chernobyl nuclear plant stole radioactive substances from research laboratories that could potentially kill them, Ukraine’s State Agency for Managing the Exclusion Zone said on Sunday.
Moscow’s forces seized the defunct power plant on the first day of their invasion of Ukraine on February 24. They occupied the highly radioactive zone for over a month, before retreating on March 31.
The agency said on Facebook that Russian soldiers pillaged two laboratories in the area.
It said the Russians entered a storage area of the Ecocentre research base and stole 133 highly radioactive substances.
“Even a small part of this activity is deadly if handled unprofessionally,” the agency said.
Earlier this week Ukraine’s energy minister German Gulashchenko said Russian soldiers exposed themselves to a “shocking” amount of nuclear radiation, saying some of them may have less than a year to live.
“They dug bare soil contaminated with radiation, collected radioactive sand in bags for fortification, breathed this dust,” Mr Gulashchenko said on Facebook on Friday after visiting the exclusion zone.
“After a month of such exposure, they have a maximum of one year of life. More precisely, not life but a slow death from diseases,” the minister said.
“Every Russian soldier will bring a piece of Chernobyl home. Dead or alive.” He said Russian military equipment was also contaminated.
“The ignorance of Russian soldiers is shocking.” The Chernobyl power station was the site in 1986 of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
WORLD LEADERS TO MEET OVER UKRAINE
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer will visit Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday, local time, the first European leader to meet him since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, Vienna said Sunday.
“He is going there, having informed Berlin, Brussels and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky” to encourage dialogue, said a spokesman for Nehammer, who was in Ukraine on Saturday.
The spokesman confirmed he is the first European leader to meet Putin since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.
Also on Monday US President Joe Biden will meet virtually with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, weeks after Mr Biden said India has been “shaky” in its response to the invasion of Ukraine.
Mr Biden will use the talks to continue “close consultations on the consequences of Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine and mitigating its destabilising impact on global food supply and commodity markets,” his spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, said in a statement.
The two leaders failed to reach a joint condemnation of the Russian invasion when they last spoke in early March at a meeting of the “Quad” alliance, which includes the United States, India, Australia and Japan.
India has so far refused to join the votes condemning Moscow at the United Nations General Assembly, while saying it was deeply disturbed by the alleged killings of civilians by Russian troops in the town of Bucha in Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who met with Mr Modi in New Delhi in early April, has praised India for its approach to the conflict.
Mr Biden said on March 21 that India was an exception among Washington’s allies with its “shaky” response to the Russian offensive.
Also on the menu for discussions are security in the Asia-Pacific region, the Covid-19 pandemic and the climate crisis, the White House said.
In the Cold War, officially non-aligned India leaned towards the Soviet Union – in part due to US support for arch rival Pakistan – buying its first Russian MiG-21 fighter jets in 1962.
According to experts, Russia remains India’s biggest supplier of major arms and India is also Russia’s largest customer.
KREMLIN PROPAGANDA BLAMED FOR KILLINGS THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD
Ukraine on Sunday said Kremlin propaganda laid the groundwork for civilian killings in Moscow’s invasion, accusing Russian media of sowing hatred towards Ukrainians for years.
The discovery of civilian bodies in areas recently retaken by Ukraine has shocked the world. Kyiv calls them war crimes and has vowed to punish perpetrators.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Sunday cited civilian killings in the town of Bucha outside of Kyiv after bodies were discovered as the Russian army retreated from the area.
“Bucha did not happen in one day,” he said on Twitter.
“For many years, Russian political elites and propaganda have been inciting hatred, dehumanising Ukrainians, nurturing Russian superiority and laying ground for these atrocities,” Mr Kuleba said.
Bodies have also been found in other towns near the capital after Russia’s retreat.
Mr Kuleba called for scholars to research the lead-up to the civilian killings in Bucha.
State television in Russia is tightly controlled by the Kremlin. Since 2014, when Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimea after a pro-Western revolt in Kyiv, it has been dominated by an anti-Ukraine narrative.
Russian state media portrays authorities in Kyiv as fascists, with President Vladimir Putin saying he aimed to “de-Nazify” Ukraine with his military offensive.
“That’s why it will be one of the cases in our big profile,” Ms Venediktova said. “You know that now we started 5600 cases in Ukraine on the above war crimes”, involving “500 suspects” from Russia’s government and military, she said.
“Vladimir Putin is the main war criminal of 21st century,” the official said, adding that as president, he may enjoy immunity from prosecution under international law but that would not last forever.
Britain has been providing technical expertise as the International Criminal Court in The Hague pursues its own investigation into Ukraine, Ukrainian invasion.
In Kyiv, Mr Johnson said the discovery of civilian bodies in Ukrainian towns such as Bucha and Irpin had “permanently polluted” Putin’s reputation and amounted to war crimes.
MORE THAN 4.5 MILLION UKRAINIANS FLEE WAR
More than 4.5 million Ukrainian refugees have fled their country since the Russian invasion on February 24, according to the United Nations refugee agency.
The UNHCR said there were 4,503,954 Ukrainian refugees on Sunday. That was 62,291 more than the previous day.
Europe has not seen such a flood of refugees since World War II. Ninety per cent of those who have fled Ukraine are women and children, as the Ukrainian authorities do not allow men of military age to leave.
According to the UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM), around 210,000 non-Ukrainians have also fled the country, sometimes encountering difficulties returning to their home countries.
A further 7.1 million people have been displaced within the country, according to figures published by the IOM on April 5.
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