Zelensky of Ukraine will speak at the Security Council meeting, which will begin at 10 a.m. ET. The governor of Luhansk warns residents after the alleged Russian attack on a storage tank containing nitric acid. Spain, Italy and Denmark are among the last countries to deport Russian diplomats. The president of the European Commission will travel to Kyiv to meet with Zelensky this week.
The Ukrainian president planned to address the most powerful UN body on Tuesday, after even more horrific evidence emerged of the massacre of civilians in areas where Russian forces had recently left. Western nations have deported dozens of other Moscow diplomats and weighed further sanctions as they expressed disgust at what they say are war crimes.
President Volodymyr Zelensky’s speech to the Security Council will be full of symbolism, but the invitation and other pro-Western events are unlikely to change the situation on the ground. He says his forces desperately need more powerful weapons, some of which the West was reluctant to provide.
Russia’s veto guarantees that the body will not take any action, and it was not clear whether its representatives would even remain in the video conference room.
Ukrainian officials say the bodies of at least 410 civilians have been found in cities around Kyiv recaptured by Russian forces and that a “torture chamber” has been discovered in the city of Bucha, from which some of the darkest details have emerged.
An elderly woman prepares lunch on Monday in the basement of a building in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kiev. Dozens of bodies were found in the city after Russian troops retreated, prompting war crimes charges. (Rodrigo Abd / The Associated Press)
Associated Press reporters in Bucha have counted dozens of corpses in civilian clothes. Many appeared to have been shot at close range, and some had their hands tied or their flesh burned. A mass grave in a church held corpses wrapped in plastic. The Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine said that the bodies of five men with their hands tied were found in the basement of a children’s sanatorium where civilians were tortured and killed.
High-resolution satellite images from the trading company Maxar Technologies showed that many of the bodies were in the countryside for weeks, during the period when Russian forces were in the city. The New York Times first reported images showing the dead.
Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly has vowed that “these terrorist acts will not go unpunished” and US President Joe Biden has said that Russian President Vladimir Putin should be tried for war crimes.
Millions have fled their homes in Ukraine
“Only non-humans can do that,” said Angelica Chernomor, a refugee from Kyiv who went to Poland with her two children and saw the photos from Bucha. “Even if people live under a totalitarian regime, they should maintain emotions, dignity, but they do not.”
Chernomor is among more than four million Ukrainians who have fled the country since the February 24 invasion. More than seven million more people have been displaced inside Ukraine, according to the UN Immigration Service.
People arrive at Lviv Central Station from Zaporizhzhia on Tuesday. More than four million people have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion and millions more have been internally displaced. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
Russia has denied the allegations, with officials repeatedly saying the evidence was fabricated. Moscow said it would discuss Buha at the UN on Tuesday, saying its representatives would be present at least part of the meeting.
Russia has tried to counter similar allegations against its forces in the past, accusing its enemies of falsifying photos and videos and using so-called crisis agents. Western officials and freelance journalists say Russia is spreading misinformation to cover up its actions.
CLOCKS Russia rejects photos of dead in Bucha as fake:
Russia says photos of dead Ukrainians in Bucha are fake
Journalist Stuart Smith, who reports under restraint from Moscow, says Russia’s official position on the video of the dead in Bucha, Ukraine, is that it was manipulated and possibly created by troll factories and public relations agencies to discredit Russia. . 2:17
Western countries deport Russian diplomats
As Western leaders condemned the Bucharest killings, Italy, Spain and Denmark expelled dozens of Russian diplomats on Tuesday, following moves by Germany and France. Hundreds of Russian diplomats have been sent to their homes since the invasion began, many accused of being spies. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peshkov described the deportations as a “short-sighted” measure that would complicate communication during the crisis and warned that “reciprocal steps” would be taken. CLOCKS Biden says Putin should be tried for war crimes:
World leaders condemn Russia for alleged killing of civilians in Bucha
Amid condemnation from world leaders, US President Joe Biden did not mince words – calling for a war crimes trial against Russian President Vladimir Putin over the civilian deaths in Bucha. Despite the growing evidence, it is still unclear whether Putin could be prosecuted. 1:49
In another show of support, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen plans to travel to Kyiv to meet with Zelensky this week. The EU of 27 nations has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24 and has already launched four rounds of sanctions. A fifth round is being considered this week.
But Western nations are divided over how far they should go. Some are calling for a boycott of Russian oil and gas imports, while Germany and others fear such a move could plunge the continent into a severe economic crisis. And NATO allies have refused to hand over some of Zelensky’s most powerful weapons, such as fighter jets.
The supply of other weapons and equipment was credited with helping Ukraine develop a tougher-than-expected resistance to Russia’s superior firepower.
A Ukrainian soldier walks with children passing by damaged cars in Bucha on Monday. (Rodrigo Abd / The Associated Press)
This resistance prevented the Russian forces from occupying the capital and their troops are now retreating from areas around Kyiv. About two-thirds of Russian troops around the city have left and are either in Belarus or on their way there, said a U.S. defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an intelligence assessment.
The official said they were probably getting more supplies and aid. Other Western and Ukrainian officials have warned that many are just regrouping. Some are already redeploying to the east, where Russian-backed separatists have been battling Ukrainian forces in the Donbas region since 2014.
People live in a courtyard as smoke rises into the air in the background after the bombing of Odessa on Sunday. (Petros Giannakouris / The Associated Press)
The Ukrainian president is calling for more weapons
Zelensky again called on Monday for more weapons to counter this impending attack.
“If we had already got what we needed – all these planes, tanks, artillery, missiles and anti-ship weapons – we could have saved thousands of people,” he said.
The president’s videos to European capitals, in which he sought to garner diplomatic, financial and military support for his country, became almost a daily occurrence and he was expected to address the Spanish parliament on Tuesday.
But the speech to the Security Council could be even more dramatic, with all eyes on the reaction of the Russian representatives present.
Viktoria Mukhina, 33, is planting tulips with her daughter Miroslava near a dilapidated apartment building in the southern port city of Mariupol on Monday. (Alexander Ermochenko / Reuters)
The Ukrainian military says that in Donbas, Russia has focused on occupying the cities of Popasna and Rubizne in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and the port of Mariupol in the Sea of Azov, where there have been weeks of fierce fighting its inhabitants.
“The enemy is regrouping troops and focusing its efforts on preparing an offensive operation in the east of our country,” it said in a statement. “The aim is to establish full control over the territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions,” which Russia has recognized as independent.
The Ukrainian governor of Luhansk on Tuesday urged residents to stay inside, close windows and doors and prepare wet face masks after a Russian strike on a nitric acid storage tank near Rubizhne, which the Russians are trying to capture.
Serhiy Haidai warned that the chemical, which is used in fertilizers and explosives, “is dangerous if inhaled, swallowed and comes in contact with the skin and mucous membranes.” The Russian military has not commented on the alleged attack and could not be independently verified.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said seven humanitarian corridors would open on Tuesday, including from the besieged Mariupol, where 1,500 civilians were able to escape in private vehicles on Monday, and from the Russian-controlled Berdyansk.
CLOCKS Residents of besieged Mariupol struggle in daily life:
Residents of Mariupol, Ukraine bury their dead, fighting for survival
Residents of the besieged Ukrainian port of Mariupol are struggling in daily life, burying the dead, seeking food and water and trying to stay in the midst of intense fighting. 1:32
But it was not immediately clear whether Russia had agreed to stop fighting along the corridors. Previous attempts to secure civilians through humanitarian corridors have failed due to new conflicts.
An international Red Cross team left Mariupol at least for Tuesday, after several days of trying to deliver aid to the besieged city and help escort civilians outside.
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