Europe is facing the biggest humanitarian crisis due to war in Ukraine, with allegations of war crimes in cities other than Butchnya continuing and the international community further isolating Russia.
New drone footage published today by the website Meduza adds to the documents (such as the recent New York Times video) proving the horrific civilian killings took place in Butchnya before Russian troops left the city.
As the Russian website points out, according to the video archive's metadata, this footage was taken between March 23-30. In it, the bodies of civilians in the city can be seen along Yablonska Street, as well as in adjacent streets. Using geolocation techniques, the site was able to pinpoint the exact locations where the dead bodies of the people of Butchnya lay.
These locations "corresponded" perfectly with photos and videos taken by Ukrainian police and journalists in Butchnya on April 1 and 2, 2022, after the Russians left the city. "It is important to emphasize that in the footage taken from above, all the dead are not only lying in exactly the same places, but also have exactly the same posture that appears in the ground footage.", the report said.
11 million refugees and displaced by the invasion
The European Parliament on Thursday backed a total energy embargo on Russia, which has since been expelled from the UN Human Rights Council. 93 countries, including the US, voted in favour of the expulsion, with 24 against and 58 abstaining. Moscow expressed regret and asserted that it would "continue to defend its interests by all legal means."
The decision was weighed down by a new UNHCR report that puts the number of refugees at 4,319,494, while there are also 7.1 million displaced persons, as well as some 210,000 non-Ukrainian citizens who fled the country due to the Russian invasion.
Zelensky to the West: send weapons
In a late-night address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the West to further intensify sanctions against Russia, arguing that those imposed so far are not enough to achieve an end to the war, but appeared satisfied with Russia's expulsion from the UN Human Rights Council, calling the organization's decision "reasonable and absolutely fair."
Zelensky called for the West to strengthen Ukraine's defenses with "more weapons with which we will be able to win on the battlefield" and assured Moscow that the Ukrainian army would fight hard to repel the Russian offensive in Donbass.
The Ukrainian president had earlier called for atrocities by the Russian army to be investigated in Borodianka, a city northwest of Kiev from which the invaders withdrew days ago, leaving behind death and rubble, with civilian casualties, as in Bukhara.
"The situation in Borodianka is much more horrible than in Bukha, there are more victims," Zelensky said in a nightly address, stressing that "every crime will be solved and every executioner will be found."
Von der Leyen in Kiev
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen heads to Kiev today (Friday) for a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, while the European Union yesterday agreed a fifth package of sanctions against Russia. Ambassadors of EU member states agreed to a ban on imports of Russian coal, but also on access to EU ports for Russian ships. The package also includes sanctions in other sectors, such as industry and technology.
The West is already stepping up its international isolation of Russia, with the G7 announcing new economic sanctions against it, mainly in the economic and financial sectors, but is not currently considering measures on energy before at least "decoupling from Russian coal" goes ahead.
The European Parliament in a resolution adopted by 513 MEPs (22 against and 19 abstentions) calls for a "total and immediate" ban on imports of Russian coal, oil and gas. MEPs call for Russia to be excluded from international organisations such as Interpol, the World Trade Organisation, UNESCO and to be expelled from the G20.
No light for peace
With the international community further tightening the economic noose around Russia and military conflicts raging in eastern Ukraine with Moscow determined to achieve full control of the Donbass, peace still seems a long way off. Suspicion between the two sides is intense and the climate has been aggravated by allegations of war crimes.
Things are getting even more difficult, as yesterday's statements by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who accused the Ukrainian side of changing the text of an initial agreement reached at the Istanbul talks ten days ago, showed.
According to Lavrov, Kiev presented a new text of an agreement at last Wednesday's meeting of the negotiating teams, but it has significant deviations from the one of 29 March (presented in Dolma Bakhce). These exclusions relate to future security and territorial integrity guarantees for Ukraine, which in the original document did not include Crimea and Sevastopol, but are present in the new one, which cannot be accepted by Russia, which apparently wants another status for these regions, which it has controlled since 2014.
"The plan is clear and it is unacceptable," Lavrov said, who nevertheless noted, as did Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov a short time later, that the withdrawal of Russian forces from Kiev and Chernihiv was a goodwill gesture to facilitate efforts to reach an agreement.
Peskov, who admitted for the first time that Russian forces have suffered significant losses in Ukraine, stressed that "Russia is doing everything it can to create the right climate for negotiations to continue."
Source: protothema.gr
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