Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Thursday dismissed the reluctance of some countries fulfill Ukrainian requests for arms due to fears of being drawn into the conflict with Russia, saying that by giving Ukraine what it needs, Ukrainians will do the fighting so no one else has to.

“I think the deal that Ukraine is offering is fair: You give us weapons, we sacrifice our lives, and the war is contained in Ukraine,” Kuleba said.

He spoke in Brussels alongside NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg ahead of a meeting with NATO foreign ministers where Stoltenberg said allies would address Ukraine’s need for air defense systems, anti-tank weapons and other support.

“The more weapons we get, and the sooner they arrive in Ukraine, the more human lives will be saved, the more cities and villages will not be destructed, and there will be no more Buchas,” Kuleba said, citing the area outside the capital where retreating Russian soldiers are accused of killing civilians.

Kuleba welcomed new Western sanctions against Russia, but called for further measures, including a full embargo on Russian oil and gas, blocking all Russian banks from the SWIFT banking system and closing ports to Russian vessels and goods.

“I hope we will never face a situation again when to step up the sanctions pressure we need atrocities like at Bucha to be revealed and to impress and to shock other partners to the extent that they sit down and say, ‘OK, fine, we will introduce new sanctions,’” Kuleba said. “I don’t believe that Ukrainians have to pay with their lives, hells and sufferings for the political will of partners to impose sanctions.”

New sanctions

The United States and its Western allies said Wednesday they imposed “new, severe and immediate economic sanctions” against Russia, banning American investment there, fully blocking the country’s largest financial institutions and targeting assets held by President Vladimir Putin’s adult children.

“Together with our allies and our partners, we’re going to keep raising economic costs, to ratchet up the pain for Putin and further increase Russia’s economic isolation,” President Joe Biden said Wednesday during remarks at a North America’s Building Trades Unions event.

The new measures, according to the White House, are in retribution for atrocities against Ukrainian civilians allegedly committed by Russian troops, including those discovered in recent days in Bucha.

Biden said horrific images from Bucha, where dead civilians were left on the street, imparted “a sense of brutality and inhumanity left for all the world to see,” as he outlined the steps his administration is taking to punish those responsible. Russia has denied killing civilians in Bucha.

The most punishing of the new measures are the “full blocking sanctions” on Sberbank, Russia’s largest financial institution, and the country’s largest private bank, Alfa Bank.

Applying full blocking sanctions against Russia’s largest bank takes U.S. measures against the Russian financial sector to their maximum level, said Andrew Lohsen, a fellow in the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Until now, the Biden administration had refrained from applying the same restrictions on Sberbank as it had on other Russian banks because Sberbank is one of the main institutions handling energy payments.

“That seems to have changed as images from Bucha are circulating around the world,” Lohsen told VOA. “The aversion to carve-outs is eroding, as evidence of Russian atrocities in Ukraine comes to light.”

In a move to add psychological pressure on Putin’s inner circle, the White House said it is also sanctioning Putin’s adult children — daughters Mariya Putina and Katerina Tikhonova — as well as the wife and daughter of Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and members of Russia’s Security Council. New sanctions were also applied to “critical, major Russian state-owned enterprises.”

“We’ve seen attempts and efforts to stash assets in the accounts and resources of his (Putin’s) children,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a briefing to reporters Wednesday.

The U.S. is also blocking Russia from making debt payments with money subject to U.S. jurisdiction. This follows action earlier this week to make Russia’s frozen funds in the United States unavailable for debt payments. Psaki said Moscow will have to decide whether they are going to spend the dollars they have to avoid default or continue to fund military operations in Ukraine.

“Part of our objective is to force them into a place where they are making that decision,” Psaki said.

The move makes it more costly for Russia to remain current on foreign debt, which may eventually push it to default and lead to further consequences, Jacob Kirkegaard, senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, told VOA.

“There will be investor lawsuits. They will go after Russian government assets in Western jurisdictions. So, this could potentially be a further isolation of the Russian economy in general,” he added.

Without access to its dollars held in American banks, Russia’s Finance Ministry announced Wednesday that it had used rubles to pay about $650 million in dollar-denominated debt obligations. Payments are usually required to be made in the currency the debt was sold in.

In his remarks, Biden said that the steps already taken to punish Russia are expected to shrink the country’s gross domestic product by double digits this year alone and wipe out the last 15 years of Russia’s economic gains.

“Because we’ve cut Russia off from importing technologies like semiconductors and encryption security and critical components of quantum technology that they need to compete in the 21st century, we’re going to stifle Russia’s ability in its economy to grow for years to come,” he added.

The steps announced Wednesday were sweeping and hard-hitting, but they also mean the West is running out of levers to stop Russian aggression, unless they are willing to apply direct pressure on the Russian oil and gas sector.

“The remaining large category of unused tools would likely focus on both direct sanctions on Russian energy exports and importantly, secondary sanctions on any non-Western entities that take or facilitate such trade,” said Daniel Ahn, global fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center, to VOA.

Alleged war crimes

Meanwhile, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department is assisting Ukrainian and European partners and the State Department to collect evidence of alleged war crimes by Russian forces in Ukraine.

Federal criminal prosecutors met with prosecutors from Eurojust and Europol on Monday “to work out a plan for gathering evidence.” On Tuesday, the top Justice Department prosecutor in Paris met with French prosecutors, Garland said at a news conference. He also announced the indictment of a Russian oligarch.

VOA’s Patsy Widakuswara and Masood Farivar contributed to this report. 
…

International efforts to punish Russia for its war on Ukraine are being felt far from Europe, in the U.S. Gulf state of Louisiana, a hub of America’s energy sector.

Late last month, the European Union announced it was exploring ways to gain independence from Russian energy “well before 2030.” American firms took note.

“You can see most European countries don’t want to be seen as complicit with the barbarism of Russia,” said Brian Lloyd, vice president for communications at Sempra Energy, a U.S.-based energy infrastructure company with investments in natural gas production. “Many see every dollar sent to Russia’s state-owned energy companies as helping to fuel its aggression in Ukraine, so Europe is seeking energy alternatives.”

In late March, the U.S. announced a deal with the EU to begin replacing some of the natural gas Russia had been supplying. By the end of this year, President Joe Biden said, the United States would be able to ship enough gas to Europe to offset at least 10% of what Russia currently provides, or 15 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas.

LNG is natural gas that has been cooled to a liquid state. Its volume is approximately 600 times smaller than its gaseous state.

“This makes shipping to Europe economical when building pipelines across an ocean wouldn’t be,” explained Eric Smith, associate director of Tulane University’s Energy Institute in New Orleans.  

 The U.S. plans to meet its new commitments to Europe by increasing domestic production of natural gas. To do so, industry leaders propose building new LNG facilities and expanding and increasing the efficiency of existing ones.

“It will be like the Marshall Plan we supported Europe with after World War II, but this one will have an energy focus,” Lloyd said. “The United States is uniquely positioned to lead the way on this because we have some of the least expensive natural gas in the world.”

Much of the existing and increased LNG production capacity is centered in the states of Louisiana and Texas, along the energy-rich Gulf of Mexico. Many state and industry leaders welcome the production of LNG in the region, while environmentalists and commercial fishers are far less enthusiastic.

“We make our living in the sea,” said Dean Blanchard, a shrimper and the president of Dean Blanchard Seafood. “I don’t know much about natural gas yet, but anything that alters the dynamics of the water really screws us.”

Energy crisis abroad

Approximately 40% of the natural gas used in Europe — as well as 25% of crude oil and refined petroleum products — is produced in Russia.

“Europe is a continent that has been dependent on Russian energy for quite some time,” Smith told VOA. “So Biden’s commitment to help supply the EU with LNG became a key component in convincing some European countries to announce sanctions against Moscow. That’s why this increased production of LNG is so important.”

But Europe’s energy crisis began long before Russian’s invasion of Ukraine. Consecutive colder-than-usual winters and a world awakening from coronavirus lockdowns boosted demand for many types of energy.

Europe has moved aggressively to embrace renewable energy sources but found production to be inconsistent because it often depends on the weather.

“Europe is caught in a tough spot — they don’t want to be importing fossil fuels like natural gas as they try to reduce carbon emissions,” Smith said. “But natural gas actually makes for a perfect transition. Nuclear and coal plants take weeks to turn on and off, whereas natural gas can be switched off in minutes. When you’re low on renewables, natural gas can be an easy bridge to get you through another cold winter.”

Smith added, “It’s also, by the way, needed for fertilizer and to produce grain, which might be very important for Europe and the Middle East should this war in Ukraine continue.”

Environmental crisis at home

Much of the LNG exported by the United States will be funneled through the U.S. Gulf Coast.

“We have six or seven LNG export terminals in the United States,” explained Naomi Yoder, staff scientist at Healthy Gulf, an environmental organization focused on protecting the Gulf of Mexico. “Four of those — soon to be five — are located on the Gulf Coast in Louisiana and Texas. We have six more that are in the works in the region as well. That’s a massive number for one relatively limited region.”

And it’s a region that is no stranger to energy-related environmental disasters.

“It would take me hours to tell you about the effects of that one BP oil spill from 2010,” seafood entrepreneur Blanchard said. “Our ecosystem is still recovering from that spill — the amount of fish and shrimp and oysters are still down. And the number of humans that got sick down here in Grand Isle (small Louisiana barrier island), those people will never recover.”

Blanchard said the BP oil spill got attention only because of its magnitude. But smaller spills, he said, happen every day.

“These energy companies say they care about us and our livelihood, but they’re destroying us,” he said.

Blanchard’s hometown of Grand Isle could soon gain an LNG facility nearby. While Blanchard admits he’s unsure precisely how expanding the production and transportation of natural gas will affect the ecosystem, Yoder predicts only bad results.

“We’ve seen it many times,” Yoder said. “The production of natural gas produces air pollution through methane leaks and water pollution, too. It harms the ecosystem locally as well as the environment more generally. People like to say natural gas emits less carbon than coal, but the process of building these facilities, and liquifying that gas, and shipping it across the ocean just to turn it back into gas — that all emits a lot of carbon into the air, too. We don’t need to produce more energy from fossil fuels. We need to transition to renewables like solar, wind and water energies.”

Balancing act

Advocates of natural gas don’t oppose renewable energy, said Sempra Energy’s Lloyd. Rather, he sees them as complementing each other.

“I think we all have the same goal,” he said. “We want to see an increase in the use of renewable energy over time. But you can’t pretend like if we don’t produce this natural gas now, that Europe won’t just get it from somewhere else. They’ll probably get it from Russia, where the methane leaks are far more numerous and where they aren’t working nearly as hard as we are to further curb carbon emissions.”

Tulane University’s Smith agrees.

“Every serious analyst says we aren’t able to shift our world economy away from fossil fuels between now and 2050,” he said. “So Europe is going to get their natural gas one way or another because they’re not going to just let their people freeze or starve.”

For now, many energy industry leaders and lawmakers say, an opportunity exists to curtail a source of revenue to Russia’s war machine — and to boost jobs and revenues along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

But fishermen like Blanchard fret about a potentially costly trade-off.

“Of course I want to help Ukraine, and I’m proud of the way they’re fighting for themselves,” he said. “But how can I be expected to support something that could destroy my livelihood? I can’t do that for Ukraine or anyone else.”
…

A Ukrainian official has provided VOA with exclusive photos of the aftermath of Russia’s five-week occupation of Ukraine’s decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant, showing what he says are Russian trenches dug into radioactive soil near a 1986 nuclear accident at the site.

Evgen Kramarenko, director of the Ukrainian state agency managing the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl plant, sent the photos to VOA on Wednesday, saying he had taken them himself on a visit to the site with several of his colleagues the day before.

It was the first visit to the site by Kramarenko’s team since Russian troops withdrew from the plant and the surrounding area on March 31, ending an occupation that began on February 24, when Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor.

In a phone interview with VOA, Kramarenko said the photos show trenches that Russian troops dug using heavy machinery in a grassy field covering radioactive soil near the Chernobyl plant’s destroyed No. 4 reactor.

That reactor’s explosion on April 26, 1986, was the world’s worst nuclear accident, killing 31 people in its immediate aftermath and forcing hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate surrounding communities, including in nearby Belarus. The exclusion zone set up after the accident extends to 30 kilometers from the Chernobyl plant.

The track marks from heavy vehicles can be seen in some of Kramarenko’s photos of the trenches.

His photos are the first ground-level images from a Ukrainian governmental source to corroborate multiple reports, published in the past week, that the occupying Russian troops dug the trenches, kicking up clouds of radioactive dust in the process.

In a March 31 statement, Energoatom, the Ukrainian state-run company operating the plant, said the Russian troops had been exposed to “significant doses of radiation” and withdrew from the site in a panic at the first sign of illness.

VOA cannot independently verify the health status of the Russian troops who occupied the Chernobyl plant and later retreated to Belarus, a key Russian ally that has allowed Moscow to use its territory to attack Ukraine. Russia has been silent on the troops’ condition.

Belarus-based science journalist Siarhei Besarab told VOA that the area around Chernobyl’s No. 4 reactor is contaminated with the three most common types of radiation: alpha particles, beta particles and gamma ray-irradiated soil.

“Given what we know about the area where the Russian soldiers were digging, it’s the most concentrated spot with all three types of radiation,” Besarab said.

The severity of the soldiers’ radiation poisoning would depend on the time they spent in the area and the type of contact they had, he added.

Kramarenko said Russian soldiers who inhaled radioactive dust may experience a worsening of chronic diseases or new health problems in the coming months and years.

“If the Russians who withdrew to Belarus got radioactive particles onto their clothes and military equipment, this also creates a health problem for anyone who comes near those objects,” Kramarenko said.

Earlier Wednesday, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry tweeted video from a drone that it said showed an aerial view of trenches that were dug by Russians near the Chernobyl plant.

The tweet references the Red Forest, a wooded area around the plant whose trees turned red after absorbing radiation from the 1986 explosion.

“Complete neglect of human life, even of one’s own subordinates, is what a killer-state looks like,” the Ukrainian Defense Ministry wrote, in reference to Russia.

The drone video first appeared on Telegram. Its source was not clear.

In an article published March 28, Reuters said it spoke to two Ukrainian men who were working at the Chernobyl plant while it was under Russian occupation. Without naming them, the report quoted the two men as saying that none of the Russian troops whom they saw were wearing any gear that would protect them from radiation.

Some information for this report came from Reuters.
…

The United States announced new sanctions against Moscow on Wednesday following allegations that Russian forces in Ukraine massacred civilians. Henry Ridgwell reports from London. Camera: Henry Ridgwell.

This video contains graphic images and may not be suitable for all viewers.
…

The road to Borodyanka is littered with signs of a battle that ended abruptly. An empty tent. Discarded, unused ammunition. A dead pig. 

A security expert tells us everything that moved was probably shot. 

Inside the town, the devastation is colossal. Broken glass and mounds of debris surround a row of apartment buildings, most of which are charred and collapsing. As many as 200 people may have died in these artillery strikes, authorities say.  

As it starts to rain, a few young men trudge in and out of one of the few buildings still standing on the block, albeit with its windows shattered. They salvage some items from their apartments: a box of wine glasses, a TV, a kitchen sink. 

Victor Hrohul, a soldier and mine expert who has been fighting with the Ukrainian army for eight years, is stationed outside the building, guarding it from looters. Russians stole everything from cars to shampoo, he says, but local people have also been caught looting in this area, where some estimates say up to 80% of the population has fled.  

The punishment for looting, Hrohul says, is being tied to a tree or pole without pants “so people can spank them as they pass.” 

But looting is one of the lesser crimes Russian troops are accused of. In the few days since the Ukrainian military retook Borodyanka, Bucha and the other towns in the Kyiv region, hundreds of bodies have been found, some with their hands tied behind their backs.  

Many bodies were burned after they were shot, and officials say it appears to have been done to cover up war crimes.  

Rape has also been reported across the newly recaptured region. Ukrainian officials say they are currently investigating whether the rapes were a systematic weapon of war or a horrific series of individual crimes.  

In eight years of fighting with Russians and their proxies, Hrohul says, he has never seen war like this. 

“In the war in the Donbas region, it was soldier against soldier,” he explains, referring to the eastern part of the country, where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting with Ukraine since 2014. “There wasn’t looting, killing civilians and rapes.”  

Troops leave, fear remains 

A few blocks away, we meet Marina, a 44-year-old mother of two, on her way to examine her law office. She doesn’t know if the building is still standing. 

I ask if she will speak on camera, and she looks nervous.  

“What if they come back?” she asks. “Won’t I get in trouble?” 

I put away the camera, and she is visibly relieved. She says she wants people to know what happened here, but she fears Russian troops will return and punish people who spoke out against them. 

Around the corner, the words “people live here” are scrawled in white on the garage door of an orange-and-white brick house. Marina, who prefers not to use her surname for the same reason she doesn’t want to be filmed, says she believes her children saved her. Their presence made it clear to soldiers that they were civilians, not Nazis or fighters, as so many others were accused of being. 

Her nephew was stripped naked in search of Nazi tattoos, and another young man in her neighborhood was arrested and beaten, she says. The valuables were stolen from every abandoned house in her village, she says, and the only families that managed to hang on to their possessions were those that stayed home despite daily shelling, shootings and explosions.  

There was a brief time when Russian soldiers asked if she needed humanitarian aid for her family, but she declined, even though they had only potatoes to eat. 

“If I took things from them, they would bring reporters to film it,” she says. “And it would go on Russian TV as propaganda to show how good they are.” 

And Russian troops — none older than 26 years old — made it clear to her that they could take what they wanted, when they wanted. 

“They knocked everything out of my closet and picked up a shirt,” she says, telling us of a day when Russian troops searched her house.  

“Is this your white shirt?'” one soldier asked. It was hers. He dropped it on the ground and stepped on it, grinding dirt from his boots into the shirt. “Now it is not your white shirt,” he said. 

Is there an end? 

A few blocks away, past mounds of rubble and destroyed belongings, Hrohul, the soldier and mine expert, leaves, warning us to be careful. The entire town is littered with deadly mines left by Russian troops, and it may take weeks or months for the military to clear them all, he explains.  

“Even a pen can be a dangerous bomb,” Hrohul says, pulling out his black ballpoint pen. “It can look normal, but then when you click it, it explodes.” 

Hryhoriy Nezdoliy, a house builder nearby, says he recently learned the lawn across the street from his house was heavily mined. “The soldiers said I was lucky” not to have been injured, he says. “I used to walk there every day.”  

Nezdoliy is over 60 years old and lives with his mother. He wanted to escape the recent violence in Borodyanka but couldn’t get out. “I got as far as the edge of the park,” he says, pointing about 200 meters away. “I had heard there was a Ukrainian humanitarian corridor. But the Russian soldiers told me I couldn’t go.” 

Like everyone else we meet in Borodyanka and Bucha, he says that he believes the war in their region is not over, and that Russian troops will attack again despite reports that Russia is focusing on fighting in eastern towns and cities. 

“I’m not an expert,” he says, considering the matter. “But, yes, they will come back, and I think it will be worse.” 

 
…

The parents of a former U.S. Marine held captive in Russia pleaded for information about him on Wednesday, expressing fears about his “rapidly declining health” and that “something terrible” had happened to him.

Joe and Paula Reed, who met last week with President Joe Biden about the plight of their son, Trevor, 30, said in a statement that it has been five days since he was last heard from, in a Friday phone call with his girlfriend.

“With each passing hour, we are more and more worried that something terrible has happened,” the parents said in their statement. “We believe there is a rapidly closing window for the Biden administration to bring our son home.”

Russian news agencies reported Monday that Reed ended a hunger strike to protest his solitary confinement and was being treated in a prison medical center.

The younger Reed is serving a nine-year term after being convicted of endangering the lives of two police officers while drunk on a visit to Moscow in 2019. Reed denied the charges. The United States called his trial a “theater of the absurd.” 

After his parents met with Biden, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the president reiterated his commitment to continue to work to secure Reed’s release and other Americans “wrongfully held in Russia and elsewhere.” 

U.S.-Russia relations, however, are severely strained after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and U.S. imposition of economic sanctions, including new ones on Wednesday. 

Some information in this report came from Reuters.
…

The European Union is expected to join the United States in imposing new sanctions against Russia as horrific reports of possible war crimes in Ukraine continue to surface. But critics, including some EU members, are calling the measures insufficient.

The new EU sanctions — the fifth round by the bloc since Russia invaded Ukraine — are expected to target Russian coal, shipping and banking sectors, including Russia’s largest lender Sverbank, which says the move will be insignificant on its operations.

In a video address to the Irish parliament, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the EU indecisive for not adopting stronger measures to bar Russian energy imports.

Calls for tougher energy bans also are growing within the EU, including from Baltic states — which ended Russian natural gas imports as of April 1 — and the bloc’s executive arm. That includes European Council President Charles Michel, who addressed the European Parliament on Wednesday.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, “I think that measures on oil and even gas will also be needed sooner or later.”

The same message was sent from EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who said the EU had paid Russia’s President Vladimir Putin more than $35 billion for energy imports since the war began, compared with only about $1 billion worth of arms and weapons the EU sent to Ukraine.

The 27-member bloc has pledged to cut by two-thirds its Russian gas imports by year’s end, and completely end energy imports from Moscow this decade. But countries like Germany, which is highly dependent on Russian oil and gas, are worried about the economic hit of an immediate and total energy ban.

Hungarian leader Viktor Orban, who won another term in office Sunday and who has nurtured close ties with Russia, is also pushing back against tougher sanctions.

Still, horrific reports of possible Russian war crimes in Ukraine are hardening European mindsets. This week, more EU countries expelled dozens of Russian officials from their soil. Some member states also are sending their diplomats back to Ukraine, who left after Russia’s invasion six weeks ago.

On Tuesday, French prosecutors opened three probes into alleged war crimes for activities they said likely had been committed in Ukraine against French nationals.

Interviewed by French radio, President Emmanuel Macron of France, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, said there are clear indications that war crimes were committed in Ukraine, likely perpetrated by Russia’s army. He said international justice must be served and perpetrators held responsible.  

Still, Macron has maintained an open dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin to try to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict. That has been criticized by EU member state Poland, which compares Putin to Hitler.
…

An international agreement under negotiation at the United Nations this week seeks to reduce harm to civilians by curbing the use of heavy explosive weapons in cities, towns and villages.

The Ukrainian city of Mariupol is one of the latest examples of a populated area that has been turned to rubble by the relentless use of heavy explosive weapons. Ongoing bombing and shelling of cities and towns in Yemen, Ethiopia, and Syria, among others, are devastating whole communities and causing irreparable harm to civilians and civilian infrastructure.

Data collected over the past decade show 123 countries have experienced a similar fate. The International Network on Explosive Weapons, a coalition of non-governmental activists, says tens of thousands of civilians are killed and wounded every year using explosive weapons in populated areas. It says civilians comprise 90 percent of the victims.

The coordinator of the network, Laura Boillot, says restrictions must be placed on the use of explosive weapons such as aircraft bombs, multi-barrel rocket systems, rocket launchers, and mortars.

Boillot says direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects are prohibited under the rules of armed conflict and international humanitarian law. She notes, however, the use of explosive weapons is not illegal per se.

“But what we are seeing, and finding is that too often warring parties are killing and injuring civilians with outdated, inaccurate and heavy explosive weapons systems in towns and cities and this is because of their wide area affects, which makes them particularly risky when used in urban environments,” she said.

The crisis and conflict researcher for Human Rights Watch, Richard Weir, is in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. Weir has seen for himself the havoc caused by explosive weapons on populated areas. He says they have a long-lasting, harmful impact on communities.

“They litter their impact areas with the remnants of their weapons and leave a deadly legacy in the form of unexploded ordnance… The effects of these weapons are devastating. They are present and they are continuing. And that is why these negotiations are important. That is why states need to commit now to avoiding their use in populated areas,” he said.

Activists are calling on negotiators to set new standards to reduce harm to civilians. They say the new international agreement also should contain commitments to assist the victims and families of those killed and injured, and to address the long-lasting humanitarian impact of explosive weapons.
…

As gruesome videos and photos of bodies emerge from the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, Kremlin-backed media are denouncing them as an elaborate hoax — a narrative that journalists in Ukraine have shown to be false.

Denouncing news as fake or spreading false reports to sow confusion and undermine its adversaries are tactics that Moscow has used for years and refined with the advent of social media in places like Syria.

In detailed broadcasts to millions of viewers, correspondents and hosts of Russian state TV channels said Tuesday that some photo and video evidence of the killings were fake while others showed that Ukrainians were responsible for the bloodshed.

“Among the first to appear were these Ukrainian shots, which show how a soulless body suddenly moves its hand,” a report Monday on Russia-1’s evening news broadcast declared.

“And in the rearview mirror it is noticeable that the dead seem to be starting to rise even.”

But satellite images from early March show the dead were left out on the streets of Bucha for weeks. On April 2, a video taken from a moving car was posted online by a Ukrainian lawyer showing those same bodies scattered along Yablonska Street in Bucha. High-resolution satellite images of Bucha from commercial provider Maxar Technology reviewed by The Associated Press independently matched the location of the bodies with separate videos from the scene.

Other Western media had similar reports.

Over the weekend, AP journalists saw the bodies of dozens of people in Bucha, many of them shot at close range, and some with their hands tied behind them. At least 13 bodies were located in and around a building that residents said was used as a base for Russian troops before they retreated last week.

Yet Russian officials and state-media have continued to promote their own narrative, parroting it in newspapers and on radio and television. A top story on the website of a popular pro-Kremlin newspaper, Komsomolskaya Pravda, pinned the mass killings on Ukraine, with a story that claimed “one more irrefutable proof that ‘the genocide in Bucha’ was carried out by Ukrainian forces.”

An opinion column published Tuesday by the state-run news agency RIA Novosti surmised that the Bucha slayings were a ploy for the West to impose tougher sanctions on Russia.

Analysts note it isn’t the first time in its six-week-old invasion of Ukraine that the Kremlin has employed such an information warfare strategy to deny any wrongdoing and spread disinformation in a coordinated campaign around the globe.

“This is simply what Russia does every time it recognizes that it has suffered a PR setback through committing atrocities,” said Keir Giles, senior consulting fellow with the Russia and Eurasia program at the Chatham House think tank. “So the system works almost on autopilot.”

Before the war, Russia denied U.S. intelligence reports that detailed its plans to attack Ukraine. Last month, Russian officials tried to discredit AP photos and reporting of the aftermath of the bombing of a maternity hospital in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which left a pregnant woman and her unborn child dead.

The photos and video from Bucha have set off a new wave of global condemnation and revulsion.

After his video appearance Tuesday at the U.N. Security Council, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy enumerated the killings in Bucha by Russian troops and showed graphic video of charred and decomposing bodies there and in other towns. Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia dismissed them as staged.

Across social media, a chorus of more than a dozen official Russian Twitter and Telegram accounts, as well as state-backed media Facebook pages, repeated the Kremlin line that images and video of the dead were staged or a hoax. The claims were made in English, Spanish and Arabic in accounts run by Russian officials or from Russian-backed news outlets Sputnik and RT.

The Spanish-language RT en Español has sent more than a dozen posts to its 18 million followers.

“Russia rejects allegations over the murder of civilians in Bucha, near Kiev,” an RT en Español post said Sunday.

Several of the same accounts sought to discredit claims that Russian troops carried out the killings by pointing to a video of Bucha Mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk, taken March 31, in which he talked about the suburb being freed from Russian occupation.

“He confirms that Russian troops have left Bucha. No mentioning of dead bodies in the streets,” top Russian official Mikhail Ulyanov tweeted Monday.

But Fedoruk had publicly commented on the violence before the Russian troops left in an interview with Italian news agency Adnkronos on March 28, where he accused them of killings and rapes in Bucha.

In an AP interview March 7, Fedoruk talked about dead bodies piling up in Bucha: “We can’t even gather up the bodies because the shelling from heavy weapons doesn’t stop day or night. Dogs are pulling apart the bodies on the city streets. It’s a nightmare.”

Satellite images by Maxar Technologies while Russian troops occupied Bucha on March 18 and 19 back up Fedoruk’s account of bodies in the streets, showing at least five bodies on one road.

Some social media platforms have tried to limit propaganda and disinformation from the Kremlin. Google blocked RT’s accounts, while in Europe, RT and Sputnik were banned by tech company Meta, which also stopped promoting or amplifying Russian-state media pages on its platforms, which include Facebook and Instagram.

Russia has found ways to evade the crackdown with posts in different languages through dozens of official Russian social media accounts.

“It’s a pretty massive messaging apparatus that Russia controls — whether it’s official embassy accounts, bot or toll accounts or anti-Western influencers — they have many ways to circumvent platform bans,” said Bret Schafer, who heads the information manipulation team at the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington.
…

The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) is holding talks with the British government on the participation of players from Russia and Belarus at this year’s Wimbledon, saying on Tuesday that it hopes to announce a decision in mid-May.

Russian and Belarusian players have been allowed to compete on the regular ATP and WTA Tours but not under the name or flag of their countries following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Belarus was a key staging area for the invasion, which Russia says is a “special military operation.”

Russia was also banned from defending its Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup team titles.

“We have noted the UK Government’s guidance regarding the attendance of Russian and Belarusian individuals in a neutral capacity at sporting events in the UK,” the AELTC, organizers of the grasscourt Grand Slam, said in a statement.

“This remains a complex and challenging issue, and we are continuing to engage in discussion with the UK Government, the Lawn Tennis Association, and the international governing bodies of tennis.

“We plan to announce a decision in relation to Wimbledon ahead of our entry deadline in mid-May.”

British Sports Minister Nigel Huddleston had said last month that he would not be comfortable with a “Russian athlete flying the Russian flag” and winning Wimbledon in London.

He added that U.S. Open champion Daniil Medvedev may have to provide assurances that he does not support Russian president Vladimir Putin if he is to compete.

Wimbledon will be held from June 27-July 10.

 
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The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights says it is gathering evidence of possible war crimes committed by Russian forces in the Ukrainian town of Bucha.

U.N. rights chief Michelle Bachelet has expressed horror at the images of civilians lying dead on the streets of Bucha, a town on the outskirts of the capital, Kyiv. Her spokeswoman, Liz Throssell, says photos of bodies that have been desecrated are extremely disturbing.

Throssell notes that pictures of people with their hands bound, of partially naked women, and of bodies being burned strongly suggest they have been directly targeted.

Under international humanitarian law, she says, the deliberate killing of civilians is a war crime.

“We are not saying that this specific incidence is a war crime. We cannot establish that yet. That is why there needs to be detailed forensic examinations, for example. That is why there needs to be detailed monitoring and information gathering of what happened to whom, by whom, and on what particular date. Now we are working to do that kind of work, as are other bodies.”

The International Criminal Court has opened an investigation into alleged war crimes by Russian military in Ukraine. The chief prosecutor of the ICC has said there was a reasonable basis to believe war crimes have been committed during the conflict. He said evidence was being gathered on possible war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

Throssell says it is important for this work to continue and for perpetrators of such crimes to be held accountable and brought to justice.

“We have been talking about war crimes in the context of shelling, of bombardment and civilian attacks. Now they need to be investigated. But you could argue they were used in a military context, for example to a building being hit. It is hard to see what was a military context of an individual lying in the street with a bullet to the head or having their bodies burned.”

Russia dismisses as fake propaganda allegations that its soldiers have committed war crimes in Ukraine. It accuses Ukrainian special forces of staging a false scenario in Bucha to besmirch the Kremlin’s reputation.
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The United States said Monday it wants the U.N. General Assembly to remove Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council, citing allegations of war crimes committed in Ukraine.

“Russia’s participation on the Human Rights Council is a farce,” said Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield. “And it is wrong, which is why we believe it is time the U.N. General Assembly vote to remove them.”

Thomas-Greenfield based her call for Russia’s removal on allegations by Ukraine that Russian troops killed dozens of civilians in the town of Bucha.

Ukraine said it is investigating the killings, and Russia has denied any involvement.

A two-thirds vote by the 193-member assembly is required to remove Russia from the council.

The council, which is based in Geneva, is largely symbolic, but it can authorize investigations into human rights violations.

Russia is in its second year of a three-year stint on the 47-member council.

It has yet to comment on calls for its removal.

Since Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine, the General Assembly has passed two resolutions condemning the country’s actions.

Some information in this report comes from Reuters.
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At the urging of the United States, Spain on Monday seized the yacht of Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg at a shipyard on the Spanish island of Mallorca.

The 78-meter-long boat named Tango is valued at more than $99 million.

It is the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that the U.S. has been involved in seizing property belonging to a Russian oligarch. The move comes under the Justice Department’s new KleptoCapture task force, which is expected to go after more assets held by Russian oligarchs.

“Today marks our task force’s first seizure of an asset belonging to a sanctioned individual with close ties to the Russian regime. It will not be the last,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a press release. “Together, with our international partners, we will do everything possible to hold accountable any individual whose criminal acts enable the Russian government to continue its unjust war.”

Vekselberg, who runs the energy and aluminum conglomerate Renova, was already the subject of multiple U.S. sanctions, including over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

He has yet to comment on the seizure.

Spain has reportedly seized three other yachts owned by Russian oligarchs.

Some information in this report comes from Reuters.
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The European Union said Monday it will hold discussions about a new round of sanctions on Russia, following the reported atrocities in Ukrainian towns that have been occupied by Russian forces.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement that the EU “will advance, as a matter of urgency, work on further sanctions against Russia.”

Borrell said, “The massacres in the town of Bucha and other Ukrainian towns will be inscribed in the list of atrocities committed on European soil.”

The sanctions are to be discussed this week. EU foreign ministers will be able to read over them on the sidelines of a NATO meeting later this week or at their regular meeting next week.

Borrell’s statement said the EU will offer assistance to Ukrainian prosecutors who are collecting and preserving “the [evidence] of the war crimes.”

The EU is also in support of the investigations into the crimes by the International Criminal Court and the United Nations human rights commissioner, the statement said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken sharply condemned Russia Sunday, accusing it of committing war atrocities in Ukraine as the world saw its first glimpse of the bodies of dead Ukrainians left behind in the streets of the Kyiv suburb of Bucha after Russian troops departed the area.

“You can’t help but feel a punch to the gut,” the top U.S. diplomat told CNN’s “State of the Union” show. “We cannot become numb to this. We cannot normalize this.

Blinken is traveling to Brussels for meetings this week with other NATO foreign ministers, looking to highlight the military alliance’s resolve to hold Russia responsible for continued fighting in Ukraine.

Blinken said the United States would be “looking hard to document” Russian war crimes throughout Ukraine even as Ukraine claims it has retaken control of the north-central region around the capital. Moscow’s troops have pulled back from the Kyiv territory to concentrate new attacks in southern Ukrainian cities along the Black Sea and in the contested Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.

Reflecting on the bodies found in the streets, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told CBS’s “Face the Nation” show, “Indeed. This is genocide.” He said Ukraine is being “destroyed and exterminated” by Russian forces.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told CNN, “It is a brutality against citizens we have not seen in decades” in Europe. “It is [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin’s responsibility to end the war.”

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Twitter, “I am deeply shocked by the images of civilians killed in Bucha, Ukraine. It is essential that an independent investigation leads to effective accountability.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that the EU must be prepared to put more sanctions on Russia in response to the reported killing of civilians.

Ukraine’s chief prosecutor said Sunday that authorities have found 410 bodies in and around Kyiv, during an investigation concerning possible war crimes committed by Russia. Prosecutor General Iryna Venedyktova, said, however, that witnesses would have to be interviewed later because they are too traumatized by what they saw to speak now, according to a Reuters report.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch’s director of Europe and Central Asia said, in a statement that “The cases we documented amount to unspeakable, deliberate cruelty and violence against Ukrainian civilians.” Hugh Williamson said, “Rape, murder, and other violent acts against people in the Russian forces’ custody should be investigated as war crimes.”

In a surprise videotaped appearance at the Grammys, the annual ceremony in the U.S. honoring the year’s top musicians, President Zelenskyy asked the gathering for help.

“Support us in any way you can. Any, but not silence,” he said. “Our musicians wear body armor instead of tuxedos, they sing to the wounded, in hospitals, even to those who can’t hear them.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry contended in a statement Sunday that it had not killed civilians in Bucha and claimed that video footage and photographs showing the dead were “yet another provocation” by the West. Russia asked the U.N. Security Council to convene a meeting Monday to discuss the actions of “Ukrainian radicals” in Bucha.

However, Britain, which chairs the Security Council this month, said there would be no meeting Monday and that the issue could be discussed at the meeting on Ukraine already scheduled for Tuesday.

Some information in this report came from Agence France-Presse.
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Medyka, Poland, is one of the busiest border crossings for people fleeing the war. Everyday refugees stream across the border form Ukraine, and at the same time volunteers are arriving to help. For VOA News, Julia Riera has the story.
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An early official count of Serbia’s national election on Monday confirmed the landslide victory of President Aleksandar Vucic and his populist party – important allies of Russia in the volatile Balkans and in Europe.

Vucic scored an outright victory in Sunday’s presidential vote with the backing of some 60% of the voters, while his Serbian Progressive Party gained 43% of ballots, according to a near-complete tally of the state election authorities.

The results mean that no runoff vote is needed in the presidential election and that Vucic’s party will be able to form the next Serbian government in a coalition with junior partners in the 250-member assembly.

The main opposition group, United for Serbia’s Victory, trailed the populists in the parliamentary election with some 13% of the votes. The group’s presidential candidate Zdravko Ponos gained 17%, the official results showed.

Despite being so far behind nationally, the opposition groups appeared to be in a tight race with the populists in the capital, Belgrade, where ballots are still being counted.

Both the opposition groups and independent observers have listed a series of irregularities and incidents, including violent ones. Ruling populists have denied vote manipulation or pressuring voters.

Since the party came to power in 2012, Vucic has gradually clamped down on mainstream media and institutions, assuming complete control over the years. A former ultranationalist, Vucic has served as defense minister, prime minister and president.

Portraying himself as a guarantor of peace and stability amid the war in Ukraine, Vucic has refused to join Western sanctions against Russia despite formally seeking membership in the European Union for Serbia.

After declaring victory on Sunday evening, he said the new government will face tough decisions but will seek to maintain friendly relations with historically close Slavic ally Russia.

Most of the parties running in the election were right leaning, reflecting the predominantly conservative sentiments among Serbia’s 6.5 million voters. For the first time, however, a green-left coalition made it into the parliament, reflecting rising public interest in neglected environmental problems in the Balkan country.

Turnout was nearly 60%, which is higher than recent votes.  

  
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Four million people have fled Ukraine since the start of Russia’s invasion, according to U.N. data. The vast majority are women and children – populations that are especially vulnerable to human trafficking. Lesia Bakalets has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by Andrey Degtyarev.
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Grandmothers, mothers and children account for most of those fleeing Russia’s war on Ukraine. Each refugee has a story as well as hopes for the future. VOA’s Celia Mendoza reports from Medyka, Poland. Julia Riera contributed.
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Ukraine’s president has called Russia’s ongoing and unprovoked war a “genocide” while Western officials have condemned what they call atrocities committed by Russian forces in a Kyiv suburb. The U.S. secretary of state travels to Europe this week to meet with NATO allies. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more. GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING: The following video contains content which some people may find disturbing.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken sharply condemned Russia on Sunday, accusing it of committing war atrocities in Ukraine as the world saw its first glimpse of the bodies of dead Ukrainians left behind like trash in the streets of the Kyiv suburb of Bucha after Russian troops departed the area.

“You can’t help but feel a punch to the gut,” the top U.S. diplomat told CNN’s “State of the Union” show. “We cannot become numb to this. We cannot normalize this.”

Blinken said the United States would be “looking hard to document” Russian war crimes throughout Ukraine even as Ukraine is claiming it has retaken control of the north-central region around the capital. Moscow’s troops have pulled back from the Kyiv territory to concentrate new attacks in southern Ukrainian cities along the Black Sea and in the contested Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.

Reflecting on the bodies found in the streets, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told CBS’s “Face the Nation” show, “Indeed. This is genocide.” He said Ukraine is being “destroyed and exterminated” by Russian forces.

Watch related video by Arash Arabasadi:

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told CNN, “It is a brutality against citizens we have not seen in decades” in Europe. “It is [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin’s responsibility to end the war.”

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Twitter, “I am deeply shocked by the images of civilians killed in Bucha, Ukraine. It is essential that an independent investigation leads to effective accountability.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry contended in a statement Sunday that it had not killed civilians in Bucha and claimed that video footage and photographs showing the dead were “yet another provocation” by the West.

Both Blinken and Stoltenberg voiced skepticism about the immediate implications of the Russian military pullback from fighting near Kyiv, which Moscow once appeared to think might be captured within days of launching its Feb. 24 invasion of eastern Ukraine and aerial bombardment of numerous targets.

“They could be regrouping and then coming back to Kyiv,” Blinken said, but added that the resistance of the Ukrainian fighters over the last five-plus weeks has shown that “the will of the Ukrainian people will not be subjected to occupation” by Russia.

Stoltenberg said, “This is not a real withdrawal but a shift in strategy to the east and south.”

Blinken said Western economic sanctions are taking a toll on Russia and predicted its economy would shrink 10% this year compared to a projected 3% year-over-year U.S. advance. He said the U.S. and its allies are looking to tighten sanctions they have already imposed on Russia and add more.

Blinken is traveling to Brussels for meetings this week with other NATO foreign ministers, looking to highlight the military alliance’s resolve to hold Russia responsible for continued fighting in Ukraine.

The Reuters news agency reports that Ukraine has “retaken more than 30 towns and villages around Kyiv.”

Zelenskyy, however, warned that what Russia has left behind in Kyiv and its nearby areas is a “complete disaster,” a territory with mined land, houses and equipment. The president claimed even the bodies of the dead have been mined.

Zelenskyy said Saturday in his nightly address, “We should not cherish empty hopes that” the Russians “will simply leave our land.” He said peace could only be gained through “hard battles,” “negotiations” and “daily vigorous work.”

Reports from Odesa, on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, say a Russian missile strike on an oil refinery there has destroyed the facility. The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement, “This morning, high-precision sea- and air-based missiles destroyed an oil refinery and three storage facilities for fuel and lubricants near the city of Odesa, from which fuel was supplied to a group of Ukrainian troops.”

British military intelligence said Sunday that reported mines in the Black Sea are a serious risk to maritime activity. The agency said that the origin of the mines is disputed and unclear but is likely to be due to Russian military activity.

Ukraine’s chief negotiator has indicated, however, that talks between Zelenskyy and Putin could be possible after “Moscow’s negotiators informally agreed to most of a draft proposal discussed during face-to-face talks in Istanbul” last week, according to an Associated Press news report.

In the besieged southeastern port city of Mariupol Sunday, residents continued to wait for an International Committee of the Red Cross humanitarian convoy designed to evacuate residents and bring humanitarian aid. The Associated Press reports that as many as 100,000 people are thought to be trapped in the city that has been surrounded by Russian troops for more than a month.
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