The Ukrainian military claimed Russian forces were preparing for an operation in Ukraine’s southeast on Tuesday, as President Volodymyr Zelensky prepared to address the United Nations Security Council amid uproar over proof that Moscow’s soldiers killed civilians deliberately.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government is sending troops into Ukraine’s east to seize control of the Donbas, the country’s industrial heartland. This comes after a Russian pullout from cities surrounding Kyiv, which resulted in the finding of bodies, triggering accusations of war crimes and calls for stronger sanctions against Moscow.
According to the General Staff’s Facebook page, Russian soldiers are concentrating on capturing the cities of Popasna and Rubizhne in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as the Black Sea port of Mariupol. Russian-backed rebels rule Donetsk and Luhansk, which Moscow recognizes as sovereign nations. Access to Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, has been barred, according to the General Staff.
“The enemy is reorganizing soldiers and focusing its efforts on preparing an offensive operation in our country’s east,” the statement stated. “The goal is to gain complete control of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions’ territories.”
In response to calls for a probe into alleged war crimes, Zelensky intended to address Security Council diplomats on Tuesday.
As a result, Germany and France expelled scores of Russian diplomats, accusing them of being spies. Putin should be tried for war crimes, according to President Joe Biden.
“This guy is a thug, and what’s going on in Bucha is disgusting,” Biden added, referring to the area northwest of the capital where some of the crimes occurred.
President of the European Union, Ursula von der Leyen, has stated that she will visit Kyiv this week to meet with Zelensky, according to her spokesman Eric Mamer.
Before Zelensky talks, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, his political chief, Rosemary DiCarlo, and U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths, who is attempting to organize a cease-fire, will brief the world’s most powerful organization. Griffiths is scheduled to visit Ukraine after meeting with Russian authorities in Moscow on Monday.
Reporters in Bucha counted dozens of bodies, many of whom were dressed in civilian clothes and appeared to be without weapons, many of whom had their wrists chained or their flesh burned.
Zelensky promised in a video speech that Ukraine would collaborate with the European Union and the International Criminal Court to identify Russian fighters implicated in any atrocities after seeing Bucha neighborhoods and speaking to starving survivors lining up for bread.
“There will come a moment when every Russian will know the complete truth about who among their fellow compatriots murdered, who provided orders, and who turned a blind eye to the crimes,” he said.
The scenes outside Kyiv were denounced by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as a “stage-managed anti-Russian provocation.” The photographs contained “evidence of video fraud and different fakes,” according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Previous charges of crimes by Ukraine have been dismissed by Russia as fabrications.
At least 410 citizens dead have been discovered in areas near Kyiv that were regained from Russian forces, according to Ukrainian officials.
One of the rooms uncovered in Bucha was termed a “torture chamber” by the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office. The bodies of five men with their wrists bound were discovered in the basement of a children’s sanatorium where citizens were tortured and slaughtered, according to a statement.
At least 13 dead were observed by reporters in Bucha, including at least 13 in and around a building that locals said was used as a base by Russian troops. Three more victims were discovered in a stairwell, and a group of six was set on fire.
Bodies wrapped in black plastic, piled on one end of a mass grave in a Bucha churchyard, were among the deceased seen by journalists. Attempting to exit the city, several of the victims were shot in cars or murdered in explosions. The churchyard was the only location to put the deceased because the morgue was packed and the cemetery was inaccessible, according to Father Andrii Galavin.
After her husband was detained by the Russian military, Tanya Nedashkivs’ka said she buried him in a garden outside their apartment building. His body was one of the many that had been piled up in a stairwell.
“Please, she stated, “It’s me, a Ukrainian woman, a mother of two children and one granddaughter, speaking.” Make peace on Earth for all the spouses and moms so that no one ever grieves again.”
Another Bucha resident, Volodymyr Pilhutskyi, claimed that Russian soldiers detained his neighbor Pavlo Vlasenko because his military-style pants and the uniforms that Vlasenko claimed belonged to his security guard son appeared suspicious. Vlasenko’s body was eventually discovered with burn marks from a flamethrower, according to his neighbor.
At a news conference on Monday, Russia’s U.N. envoy, Vassily Nebenzia, asserted that “not a single local person has experienced any harm” while Bucha was under Russian authority.
During the time when Russian forces were in Bucha, however, high-resolution satellite footage from commercial vendor Maxar Technologies revealed that many of the remains had been lying in the open for weeks. The satellite photographs of the dead were initially revealed by the New York Times.
Russia has already been accused of war crimes by Western and Ukrainian authorities. The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has already launched an inquiry. The latest reports, however, have increased the level of censure.
The photographs from Bucha, according to German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, depict the “unbelievable barbarism of the Russian government and those who follow its propaganda.”
In Bucha, French President Emmanuel Macron stated that there is “concrete proof of war crimes” that necessitates new sanctions.
“I support a new round of sanctions, especially on coal and gasoline.” He declared on France-Inter radio that “we need to act.”
Despite their fury, the European allies appeared to be at odds about how to respond. While Poland pushed Europe to wean itself off Russian energy as soon as possible, Germany indicated it would continue to phase out coal and oil imports over the next several months.
After failing to conquer the capital quickly, Russia withdrew many of its men from the area around Kyiv. Instead, it has sent troops into Ukraine’s southeast.
According to a senior US defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an intelligence assessment, about two-thirds of the Russian troops in the Kyiv area have left and are either in Belarus or on their way there, likely to collect more supplies and reinforcements.
According to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, more than 1,500 citizens were able to flee Mariupol on Monday, despite the limited quantity of private automobiles accessible. Some of the war’s most intense fighting has taken place in the besieged southern port city.
However, a Red Cross-accompanied convoy of buses, which had been thwarted for days in a bid to provide supplies and evacuate civilians, was once again unable to enter the city, according to Vereshchuk.
Elsewhere, regional governor Vitaliy Kim stated in a video message on social media that Russian shelling killed 11 people in the southern city of Mykolaiv.
As Russia prepares additional offensives, Zelensky called for greater armament.
“We could have saved hundreds of people if we had previously had everything we needed — all these planes, tanks, artillery, anti-missile, and anti-ship weapons,” he claimed.
