Russian forces withdrew from cities north of the capital Kiev last week as it turned its attack on southern and eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian troops have recaptured cities devastated by nearly six weeks of war, including Bucha, where dead civilians have lined the streets. Images of a mass grave in Bouha and the tied up corpses of people shot at close range caused an international outcry on Monday. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register US President Joe Biden has called for a war crimes trial against Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the United States will ask the UN General Assembly to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council. read more Russia has denied any involvement in the killing of civilians and said it would present “empirical evidence” at a UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday to show that its forces were not involved. In a videotaped speech early in the morning, Zelensky said he would also address the Security Council on Tuesday, as he backed an investigation into the Buca killings. “And this is just one city. One of the many Ukrainian communities that Russian forces have been able to occupy,” Zelensky said. “Now, there is information that in Borodyanka and some other liberated Ukrainian cities, the number of casualties of the occupiers may be even higher,” he added, referring to a town 25 kilometers (16 miles) west of Bucha. read more Reuters saw several bodies apparently shot at close range, including makeshift burials and a mass grave in Buha, but could not independently verify the death toll or who was responsible. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said he had spoken to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres about Bucha and stressed that “Ukraine will use all available UN mechanisms to gather information and hold Russian war criminals accountable.” read more Kuleba also spoke with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi by telephone on Monday, with Beijing calling for renewed talks to end the conflict in Ukraine. read more The call, which Beijing said was made at Ukraine’s request, was the first reported high-level talks between the two countries since March 1, when Kuleba urged Beijing to use its ties with Moscow to end Russian invasion, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said at the time. . “FEEL THE CONSEQUENCES” Russia launched what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine on February 24, with the aim of demilitarizing and “denationalizing” Ukraine. Ukraine and the West say the invasion was illegal and unjustified. Russian forces withdrew from the capital Kyiv in the face of unexpectedly deadly and mobile Ukrainian resistance using Western anti-tank weapons. Moscow described the withdrawal as a gesture of goodwill in the peace talks, which last convened on Friday. The negotiators were due to meet on Monday, but neither side has briefed on the talks. A man stands next to graves with the bodies of civilians, who according to locals were killed by Russian soldiers, as the Russian offensive in Ukraine continues, in Bucha, in the Kiev region, Ukraine, April 4, 2022. REUTERS / Vladyslav Musiienko read more German Chancellor Olaf Solz said on Monday that Putin and his supporters would “feel the effects” of the events in Bucha and that Western allies would agree on further sanctions against Moscow in the coming days. Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said new US sanctions against Moscow would be announced this week. The State Department has said it supports an international team of prosecutors and experts in gathering and analyzing evidence of atrocities. read more France and Germany have said they will deport Russian diplomats. Russia will respond with the same kind and “shut the door on Western embassies,” said Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president and deputy head of the Security Council. “It will be cheaper for everyone. And then we will end up looking at each other in no other way than with guns.” German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said the European Union should discuss a ban on Russian gas, although other officials called for attention to measures that could affect a European energy crisis. Russia supplies about a third of Europe’s gas, and Putin has tried to use energy as a lever to tackle Western sanctions. But Moscow has maintained gas flows through major pipelines to Europe, despite uncertainty over Putin’s demands for ruble payments. read more The United States has blocked the Russian government from paying more than $ 600 million in US bank reserves to its debtors in a move aimed at increasing pressure on Moscow to consume its dollar-denominated reserves. . read more BATTLES IN THE EAST Ukraine has said it is preparing for about 60,000 Russian reservists who will be called in to step up Moscow’s offensive to the east, where Russia’s main targets include the port of Mariupol and Kharkiv, the country’s second largest city. Ukraine’s general staff said Russian forces were aiming to take full control of the Russian-backed separatist Donetsk and Luhansk provinces and encircle a group of Ukrainian forces. “Russian troops attacked Mykolayiv with cluster munitions prohibited by the Geneva Convention. Entire blocks of civilian buildings came under fire, especially a children’s hospital. There are dead and wounded, including children,” the statement said. on Tuesday. Reuters could not independently verify the allegations. In Mariupol, a southeastern city on the Azov Sea that has been under siege for weeks, Reuters images showed three plainclothes corpses lying in the street, one on a wall of blood. A team from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was stopped during an attempt to reach Mariupol to evacuate civilians and is now being held in a nearby town, a spokesman said Monday. read more The bomber struck shortly after noon in the town of Mykolaiv, killing at least 10 people, including a child, and wounding 46 others, said Oleksandr Senkevich, head of the regional administration. Reuters could not immediately confirm the report. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Additional reports from Reuters’s offices. Written by Rami Ayyub and Lincoln Feast. Editing Michael Perry & Shri Navaratnam Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
