Ukraine Daily

Tuesday, 5 April 2022

Want to get the news faster? Follow our website: kyivindependent.com.

Russia’s war against Ukraine

Zelensky to address UN Security Council on April 5. President Volodymyr Zelensky said he would address the UN Security Council on Tuesday and predicted that further, worse instances of mass killings of civilians by Russian forces would be discovered.

NYT: Satellite imagery suggests bodies lay in Bucha for weeks, despite Russian claims. Russia’s claim that civilians were massacred after their soldiers left was debunked by the images provided by Maxar Technologies. The images provided to the New York Times show that a number of dead bodies had been on the street of Bucha since March 11, when Russia, by its own account, occupied the town. Russia called the images of atrocities in Bucha “another hoax” and called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting on what it called “provocations of Ukrainian radicals.”

Pentagon says it’s ‘fairly obvious’ that Russian forces are responsible for the atrocities in Bucha. However, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby stated at a briefing on April 4 that they were not sure which units specifically were responsible, Reuters reported.

355 dogs die in animal shelters in Borodyanka during Russian occupation. Food and water couldn’t be brought to the shelters. Only 150 dogs survived the occupation, according to animal rights organization UAnimals. The town in Kyiv Oblast was severely damaged by Russian military.

Russian forces shell chemical plant in Donetsk Oblast. Artillery rounds hit the building seven times, according to Ukraine’s military, damaging manufacturing equipment. There is believed to be no threat to local residents as a result of the plant being hit.

More than 3,000 people evacuated on April 4. Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said that 3,376 people, mostly from Mariupol, Berdyansk and Zaporizhia region, have been safely evacuated. However, a convoy of refugees from Mariupol has been blocked by Russian forces on an agreed upon route.

Pro-Russian party stages fake mayor elections in partially occupied Mariupol. Kostyantyn Ivashchenko, a local council member from the pro-Russian party Opposition Platform, was pronounced “mayor” of Mariupol on April 4 during a meeting of party members. According to Petro Andryushchenko, an advisor to the real mayor of Mariupol, the Russian military who control part of Mariupol, were assisting him.

Governor: Russian troops leave Zhytomyr Oblast. Vitaliy Bunechko said there are no more Russian troops in the region’s territory but mines pose a continued danger and there are still threats of possible Russian missile attacks.

Mayor: About 130,000 people trapped in besieged Mariupol. Mayor Vadym Boichenko said that about 70,000 have been able to escape the city to nearby villages. About 90,000 residents fled Mariupol on their own vehicles using a route that leads to Zaporizhzhia.

Defense Ministry: Russia aims to capture Kharkiv. Defense Ministry spokesperson Oleksandr Motuzianyk said the Russian forces have concentrated their efforts to attack Ukrainian troops in Donbas and capture Kharkiv, the second-biggest city in Ukraine with a pre-war population of 1.4 million people.

President Volodymyr Zelensky (C) walks in the town of Bucha, just northwest of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on April 4, 2022. - Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said on April 3, 2022 the Russian leadership was responsible for civilian killings in Bucha, outside Kyiv, where bodies were found lying in the street after the town was retaken by the Ukrainian army. (Photo by RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFP) (Photo by RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)

Read our exclusive, on the ground stories

Following one of the darkest days of the war, one that truly shocked the Ukrainian nation and the whole world, President Volodymyr Zelensky gave the kind of address that “presidents don’t usually give.”

“Concentrated evil has come to our land,” he said. “Murderers, butchers, rapists, looters, who call themselves an army and who deserve only to die after what they have done.” Check out 40 days of Russia’s war against Ukraine in photos. (GRAPHIC IMAGES)

The Kyiv Independent has learned that Germany’s software giant SAP keeps its Russian clients despite claims it shut down cloud services in Russia. Find our investigation here.

Editorial: Give Ukraine everything it asks for and now. With our outrage fresh and our hearts broken by the images from Bucha, we demand that Ukraine receive what it needs to survive, and Russia gets what it deserves. Read our latest editorial here.

The human cost of Russia’s war

Russia’s war kills at least 161 children, injures 264 others. According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, since Feb. 24, over 425 children are victims of the Russian invasion. The actual number of victims is expected to be higher due to the lack of information from front-line cities, such as Mariupol.

Bodies of tortured civilians found in Sumy Oblast. Sumy Oblast Governor Dmytro Zhyvytsky reported on April 5 that in Konotop district of Sumy Oblast, the Ukrainian military found the bodies of at least three tortured civilians in places where Russian forces had been stationed. Russians withdrew from Sumy region on April 3.

Russians’ torture chamber discovered in basement of children’s health resort in Bucha. Law enforcement officers found the bodies of five murdered men. Their hands were tied and they appeared to have been tortured.

Russians shell Mykolaiv with cluster munitions: 10 people killed, 46 injured. According to Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych, besides residential areas, Russians shelled two hospitals, an orphanage, 11 kindergartens, and 12 schools. During the day, 120 people were evacuated from the city: to the city of Odesa and to the neighboring Moldova.

Ukraine’s Prosecutor General: Borodyanka has most victims among liberated cities in Kyiv Oblast. The number of victims has not been disclosed yet. Borodyanka is a city of 12,000 people located 25 kilometres north-west of Bucha.

Prosecutor General’s Office: 8 dead in Russian shelling of south Ukraine. As a result of the Russian attack on Ochakiv, seven people were killed, and another 20 were injured, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office. In Mykolaiv, one person was killed, and 14 others were wounded, including one child. The shelling damaged residential buildings, vehicles and infrastructure.

International response

US State Department supporting efforts to document Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine. An international team of prosecutors is heading to Ukraine to collect, preserve and analyze evidence that will hold Russia accountable.

After Bucha massacre, Biden calls Putin ‘war criminal’ who needs to be put on trial. U.S. President Joe Biden called for evidence to be gathered to put Russian dictator Vladimir Putin on trial for war crimes that his troops committed in Ukraine. Putin is “brutal, and what’s happening in Bucha is outrageous, and everyone’s seen it,” he told reporters.

US to ask UN General Assembly to suspend Russia from UN Human Rights Council. The decision was made following the massacre of hundreds of civilians by Russian troops in Bucha and other towns in Kyiv Oblast. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, called Russia’s membership in the organization a “farce.” She expects the General Assembly to vote this week.

Ukrainian Canadian Congress proposes a ‘Ukraine Victory Fund.’ The UCC, a group representing over 1.3 million Ukrainian-Canadians, set forth the idea to include the fund in the federal government’s budget. If successful, the fund would provide additional financing for fighter aircraft, weapon systems and munitions along with a financing program similar to the Marshall Plan implemented after World War II.

Russians and Belarusians unable to book rentals on Airbnb. The company has ceased operations in Russia and Belarus, according to Airbnb’s statement. The new measures are effective as of April 4. Guests worldwide will no longer be able to make new reservations for stays in Russia or Belarus.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier admits mistakes in his policy on Russia. Among the biggest ones was the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project between the two countries. “We have failed to integrate Russia into the common security architecture,” he said. Steinmeier added that he underestimated Putin’s readiness to go to “complete economic, political and moral ruin of his own country for his imperial mania.”

Germany expels 40 Russian diplomats in response to Bucha massacre. The Federal Foreign Office informed Russian Ambassador Sergei Nechaev that diplomats must leave Germany within five days. FM Annalena Baerbock said that the pictures from Bucha showed “incredible cruelty of the Russian leadership and those people who follow the propaganda, the desire for destruction that has no limits.”

Lithuania expels Russian ambassador, closes Moscow’s consulate in Klaipeda. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsberg said his country has downgraded its diplomatic ties with Russia “in full solidarity with Ukraine” and strongly condemned Russia’s atrocities in various cities in Ukraine during its occupation.

Merkel believes she made the right decision to block Ukraine’s NATO membership in 2008. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s press secretary spoke to the German Press Agency in response to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s criticism that Russia’s atrocities in Ukraine are the result of Europe’s years-long concessions to Moscow. She did not respond to Zelensky’s invitation to visit Bucha to see how Ukrainians were tortured but supported international efforts to end Russia’s war.

Want to get the news faster? Follow our website: kyivindependent.com.

Today’s Ukraine Daily was brought to you by Asami Terajima, Natalia Datskevych, Thaisa Semenova, Veronika Strashko, Anna Myroniuk, Sergiy Slipchenko, Olena Goncharova, Oleksiy Sorokin, Olga Rudenko, Toma Istomina and Brad LaFoy.

If you’re enjoying this newsletter, consider becoming our patron on Patreon or donating via GoFundMe. Start supporting independent journalism today.