Ukrainian Military Says Some Towns in Chernihiv Region Retaken to Reopen Aid
The Ukrainian military says that its forces have retaken some towns in the Chernihiv region and that humanitarian aid is being delivered.The news agency RBK Ukraina says the road between Chernihiv and the capital of Kyiv is to reopen to some traffic later Monday.
Chernihiv is a city 80 miles north of Kyiv and it had been cut off from shipments of food and other supplies for weeks. The mayor said Sunday that relentless Russian shelling had destroyed 70 percent of the city.
Russian forces also withdrew from the Sumy region, in Ukraine’s northeast, local administrator Dmitry Zhivitsky said in a video message carried by Ukrainian news agencies Sunday. The troops had occupied the area for nearly a month.
In other areas recently retaken from Russian troops, Ukrainian officials say they have recovered hundreds of slain civilians in the past few days. Ukraine’s prosecutor-general says the bodies of 410 civilians have been recovered from Kyiv-area towns.
Ukraine’s Leader Asks Help in Grammys Video
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appeared in a video at the Grammy Awards asking for support in telling the story of Ukraine’s invasion by Russia.During the message that aired on the show Sunday night, he likened the attack to a deadly silence threatening to extinguish the dreams and lives of the Ukrainian people, including children.
Zelenskyy told the audience: “Fill the silence with your music. Fill it today to tell our story. Tell the truth about the war on your social networks, on TV, support us in any way you can any, but not silence. And then peace will come to all our cities.”
Following Zelenskyy’s message, John Legend performed his song “Free” with Ukrainian musicians Siuzanna Iglidan and Mika Newton and poet Lyuba Yakimchuk as images from the war were shown on screens behind them.
Ukraine: 410 Civilian Bodies Found Near Kyiv
Ukraine’s prosecutor-general says the bodies of 410 civilians have been removed from Kyiv-area towns that were recently retaken from Russian troops.Iryna Venediktova says on Facebook that the bodies were recovered Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. She says 140 of them have undergone examination by prosecutors and other specialists.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk says the mayor of the village of Motyzhyn in the Kyiv region was murdered while being held by Russian forces. Vereshchuk adds that there are 11 mayors and community heads in Russian captivity across Ukraine.
Russia’s Defense Ministry has rejected the claims of atrocities against civilians in Bucha and other suburbs of Kyiv.
UN Chief Calls for Independent Probe of Civilian Deaths in Ukrainian Town
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday said he was “deeply shocked” by images of dead civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, and he called for an independent investigation that “leads to effective accountability.”Guterres posted his comments on Twitter a day after witnesses and officials said that Russian troops killed almost 300 civilians as they withdrew from the town near Kyiv.
“I am deeply shocked by the images of civilians killed in Bucha, Ukraine,” Guterres said, joining Western officials in expressing outrage.
“It is essential that an independent investigation leads to effective accountability,” he said.
The Russian defense ministry denied that Russian forces killed civilians in Bucha, saying that videos and photographs of bodies were “yet another provocation” by the Ukrainian government.
West Promises More Sanctions Against Russia Amid War Crime Allegations
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States is seeking accountability after photos emerged over the weekend that allegedly showed a massacre near Ukraine’s capital as European Union officials promised more sanctions.“We will … make sure that the relevant institutions and organizations that are looking at this, including the State Department, have everything they need to assess exactly what took place in Ukraine, who’s responsible, and what it amounts to,” Blinken told CNN on Sunday.
Top Ukrainian officials on Sunday said that Russian forces massacred civilians in Bucha, located near Kyiv, while Russia’s Ministry of Defense denied those charges. Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense posted a Twitter video allegedly showing the deceased civilians while claiming they were executed with their hands tied behind their backs. The Epoch Times could not verify either Ukraine’s or Russia’s claims.
Slovakia Economy Minister Says Country Willing to Pay for Russian Gas in Rubles
Slovakia cannot stop buying natural gas from Russia and is willing to pay in rubles as demanded by Moscow, said the central European country’s top economy official.The statement comes days after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered ruble payments for natural gas purchases by companies registered in “unfriendly” countries. Slovakia, which imports approximately 87 percent of its natural gas and two-thirds of its oil from Russia, is on a list of 48 countries the Kremlin considers “unfriendly.”
Richard Sulik, Slovakia’s minister of economy, said his country is willing to comply with the demand.
Russia Says Peace Talks Not Ready for Leaders’ Meeting: Chief Negotiator
Russia said on Sunday that peace talks with Ukraine had not progressed enough for a leaders’ meeting and that Moscow’s position on the status of Crimea and Donbass remained unchanged.“The draft agreement is not ready for submission to a meeting at the top,” Russian chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said on Telegram. “I repeat again and again: Russia’s position on Crimea and Donbas remains UNCHANGED.”
The two sides have held periodic talks since Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24 but there has been no breakthrough and they remain far apart on the question of territory.
Medinsky said that Ukraine had started to show a more realistic approach to peace talks.
He said Ukraine had agreed it would be neutral, not have nuclear weapons, not join a military bloc and refuse to host military bases.
But on the questions of Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and two Russian-backed rebel regions in the eastern Donbass that President Vladimir Putin recognized as independent in February, Medinsky indicated there had been no progress.
Lithuania Ceases All Russian Gas Imports
Lithuania has stopped all Russian gas imports, becoming the first country in the European Union to do so.The country’s gas transmission system has been operating without Russian gas imports since the start of the month, the Lithuanian Energy Ministry stated on April 2.
Minister of Energy Dainius Kreivys said that Lithuania is the first EU country among those supplied by Russian state-owned gas giant Gazprom to gain independence from Russian gas supplies. He said the move “is the result of a multi-year coherent energy policy and timely infrastructure decisions.”
The shift is a response to “Russia’s energy blackmail in Europe and the war in Ukraine,” the energy ministry said. Russia recently demanded to receive payment for gas shipped to Europe in rubles, the official currency of Russia.
Russia Denies Killing Civilians in Ukraine’s Bucha
Russia on Sunday denied Ukrainian allegations that it had killed civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, describing footage and photographs of dead bodies as a “provocation” and a “staged performance” by Kyiv.Ukraine has accused the Russian military of massacring residents of Bucha, a town northwest of the capital Kyiv, an area Ukrainian troops said they recaptured on Saturday.
“All the photos and videos published by the Kyiv regime, allegedly testifying to the ‘crimes’ of Russian servicemen in the city of Bucha, Kyiv region, are another provocation,” Russia’s defense ministry said in a statement.
It called the footage “another staged performance by the Kyiv regime for the Western media.”
Images of dead civilians strewn across the town prompted Western countries to call for those responsible for war crimes in Ukraine to be punished.
The Russian defense ministry said that all Russian military units had left Bucha on March 30, and that civilians had been free to move around the town or evacuate while it was under Russian control.
“During the time that Russian armed forces were in control of this settlement, not a single local resident suffered from any violent actions,” it said.
Moscow has previously denied allegations that it has targeted civilians, and has rejected accusations of war crimes.
Ukraine Says Russian Troops Have Completed Their Pullback From the Country’s North
The Ukrainian military says Russian troops have completed their pullback from the country’s north.The military’s General Staff said in Sunday’s statement that Russian units have withdrawn from areas in the country’s north to neighboring Belarus, which served as a staging ground for the Russian invasion.
The Ukrainian military said its airborne forces have taken full control of the town of Pripyat just outside the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the section of the border with Belarus. It posted a picture of the Ukrainian soldier putting up the country’s flag with a shelter containing the Chernobyl reactor that exploded in 1986 seen in the background.
US Fully Backs Sending Ukraine Weapons, Aid
White House chief of staff Ron Klain says the United States remains fully committed to providing a full range of economic and military support to Ukraine in its war against Russia, which he describes as “far from over.”Klain credits Ukrainians for fighting off Russian troops in the northern part of Ukraine and says the United States and its allies are sending weapons into the country “almost every single day.”
But he also tells ABC’s “This Week” that there are signs that Russian President Vladimir Putin is redeploying Russian troops to the eastern part of Ukraine.
Klain says while it will be up to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to decide if the political endgame is to allow Russia to occupy the eastern part of Ukraine, from the U.S. standpoint, the “military future of this attack has to be push back.”
Poland Open to Permanent Stationing of US Nuclear Weapons in Eastern Europe
Poland’s most powerful politician says he is open to the permanent stationing of U.S. nuclear weapons in Eastern Europe.Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of Poland’s ruling conservative party, Law and Justice, said Sunday in an interview with German weekly Welt am Sonntag that “in principle, it makes sense to extend nuclear participation to the eastern flank.”
Kaczynski added that “if the Americans asked us to store U.S. nuclear weapons in Poland, we would be open to it. It would significantly strengthen deterrence against Moscow.”
Kaczynski acknowledged that “at the moment, this question does not arise, but that may change soon.”
The Polish leader also called for a much stronger presence of U.S. soldiers in Europe in the future, especially on NATO’s eastern flank.
Russia Says It’s Struck Odesa Fuel Depot, Oil Plant
The Russian military says it has struck an oil processing plant and fuel depots around the strategic Black Sea port of Odesa.Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj.-Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Russian ships and aircraft fired missiles on Sunday to strike the facilities, which he said were used to provide fuel to Ukrainian troops near Mykolaiv.
Konashenkov also said Russian strikes destroyed ammunition depots in Kostiantynivka and Khresyshche.
The Russian Defense Ministry also shared footage of what it said was attack helicopters Ka-52 of the Russian Aerospace Forces claiming to destroy camouflaged positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Kremlin Says Western Sanctions ‘Beyond Reason’
The Kremlin says that by imposing sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin the West has demonstrated it has abandoned its sense of reason.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in televised remarks Sunday that the sanctions against Putin were going “beyond the edge of reason,” adding that they showed that the West is “capable of any stupidities.”
Peskov added that Putin’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is “hypothetically possible” once negotiators from the two countries prepared a draft agreement to be discussed.
Lithuanian Film Director Kvedaravicius Killed in Mariupol
Lithuanian film director Mantas Kvedaravicius was killed on Saturday in Ukraine’s Mariupol, a city whose fate he had documented for many years, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s information agency and a colleague.“While trying to leave Mariupol, Russian occupiers killed Lithuanian director Mantas Kvedaravicius,” the agency wrote on Twitter on Sunday.
The Epoch Times could not immediately verify the report.
“We lost a creator well known in Lithuania and in the whole world, who until the very last moment, in spite of danger, worked in Russia-occupied Ukraine,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said on Sunday.
Kvedaravicius, who was to turn 46 this year, was best known for his conflict-zone documentary “Mariupolis,” which premiered at the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival.
The film paints a portrait of Mariupol, a strategic port is in the breakaway region of Donetsk where pro-Russian fighters have been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014.
Ukraine Accuses Russia of Civilian ‘Massacre’
Ukraine on Sunday accused Russian forces of carrying out a “massacre” in the town of Bucha.The images from the town, 37 kilometers (23 miles) northwest of Kyiv’s city centre, emerged after Ukraine said on Saturday its forces had reclaimed control of the whole Kyiv region and liberated towns from Russian troops.
“Bucha massacre was deliberate,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter.
The mayor of Bucha said 300 residents had been killed by the Russian army.
