Freedom of Information

[DaffyVina]

10:32
Almost impossible to find food and water in Mariupol - MP
Pro-Russian troops walk in front of destroyed buildings in Mariupol
Copyright: Reuters
Image caption: Pro-Russian troops walk in the street during fighting in Mariupol

"The city's under total siege. The shelling and bombing never stops," Ukrainian MP Dymtro Gurin told BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning, describing the situation in the south eastern city Mariupol.

Gurin believes more than 100,000 civilians are left in the strategically important port city, which has been under heavy fire since Russia's invasion started.

A map showing the advance of Russian forces on Mariupol
Image caption: Mariupol has been "burned to ashes", Ukraine's president claims

He said there was little doubt that the Russians were guilty of genocide because their aim was very clear - to rid the world of Ukraine and its people.

Gurin also compared mass killings in the city, and across other areas of Ukraine, with the atrocities seen under the Nazis at Auschwitz.

As we've been reporting, there are growing signs Russia could be on the brink of fully capturing Mariupol.



10:44
In pictures: Russian troops in Mariupol

A photographer from news agency AFP has been embedded with Russian forces in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which Moscow claims it is close to capturing following a weeks-long siege which created a humanitarian crisis.
The trip was organised by the Russian military. The photos show well-armed Russian troops patrolling through the ruined city, as well as interacting with locals.

Fighting has raged in and around Mariupol since the beginning of the war in late February. Russia has been accused of war crimes for its intense shelling of the city.
The mayor has said that about 21,000 civilians have been killed, with another 100,000 still waiting for evacuation.

Russian forces have targeted Mariupol with intense artillery and rocket fire, as well as airstrikes.


10:56
Ukraine dismisses Russian claims of Mariupol surrender
As we've been reporting, Russia claims more than 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers have surrendered in the besieged south-eastern port city Mariupol.

But a top advisor to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the marines have broken through to connect with the Azov battalion - a group with strong ties to the far-right - and that Mariupol is still standing.

Oleksiy Arestovych said on Facebook that the city's defence system has increased and strengthened.

It's very difficult to verify what is happening in the city - but we will keep a watch on this and update you as and when.


11:37
Russia plans 'victory day' parade in Mariupol - mayor's aide
Russia may be planning a "Victory Day parade" in the devastated Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, Petro Andryushchenko, an aide to the city's mayor, has said on Telegram.

He said Kostyantyn Ivashchenko, whom Russian troops put in charge of the parts of Mariupol under their control, was ordered "to clear a part of the city's central district of rubble and dead bodies to ensure that a parade can be held on 9 May".

"Judging from the whole array of data, the occupiers are planning to hold a 'victory carnival' in Mariupol in case their 'special operation' is successful," Andryushchenko has said.

He added: "The good news is that there are no vehicles or people in the city to carry out such events."

The parade would coincide with Russia's biggest public holiday, Victory Day, which is held annually on 9 May to celebrate triumph over Nazi Germany in the Second World War.



12:24
If Mariupol falls, what will become of those defending it?
Emily McGarvey
BBC News Live reporter

As we've been reporting, Russia claims more than 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers have surrendered in the key southern port city of Mariupol. This remains unconfirmed and Ukraine claims some marines have actually broken through to fight alongside the Azov battalion - an ultra-nationalist militia now part of the Ukrainian armed forces.

Azov fighters and the marines have managed to defend pockets of the besieged city over the past few weeks despite dwindling resources and a fierce Russian onslaught.

If marines were surrendering en masse it would not be surprising, says Dr Aglaya Snetkov, lecturer in International Politics at University College London.

"Their supplies have been degrading, they've run out of food, ammunition and water - Ukrainian soldiers have posted online that their only option is either surrender or death but Kyiv authorities shut that claim down" she said.

But if thousands of Azov fighters are similarly forced to surrender, they would face a "horror show" at the hands of Russian soldiers, she added.

"Many will be killed and many will be made to go in front of Russian TV cameras to recount what they’ve done.

"It will effectively be the end of the Azov battalion which is a major part of the Russian narrative as to why they’re engaged in what they’re doing in Ukraine....to fight the 'Nazis'."

Gaining full control of Mariupol would be a major strategic gain for Russian forces. It would allow them to redeploy thousands of troops further east to focus on the new offensive planned there.



12:52
What is the Azov battalion?
The defence of Mariupol has involved the Azov battalion - a force smaller than 1,000 men, who make up a tiny part of Ukraine's overall forces, but who've been in the headlines ever since Russia's war began.

Their presence in Mariupol has been a key focus of Moscow's propaganda war.

Russia refers to its invasion as a "special military operation", claiming it is to "demilitarise" and "denazify" Ukraine.

The Azov battalion take their name from the Azov Sea on which Mariupol lies. It did start out as an ultranationalist militia in 2014, when it was formed to resist Russian-backed separatists who seized part of eastern Ukraine.

But it has since been brought under the oversight of the Ukrainian government as part of the National Guard. It has attracted a mix of nationalists, ultranationalists and other young men united by their loathing of Russia, and many of them are Russian-speaking themselves.



13:35
'Making towns safe again will be a huge job'

Anna Foster
Reporting from Kyiv

Video content
Video caption: The scale of destruction in Borodyanka, in the Kyiv region, is extraordinary

The Presidents of Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have just visited Borodyanka, on the outskirts of Kyiv, to survey the damage caused by five weeks of Russian occupation.

Every building in sight has had its windows shattered. Deep holes in the road mark where Russian shells hit during the fierce fighting.

While I was there, the sound of loud crashing echoed around the square as a digger pulled large slabs away from the side of a badly-damaged, blackened building. The centre of it has collapsed completely.

One man swept the black dust from the sides of the road into small, neat piles. It’s the smallest detail, but it makes a difference. It helps this place feel like it’s fixing itself.

There’s a team of engineers on call ready to deal with reports of unexploded ammunition.

On the way to Borodyanka we passed a ditch at the side of the road, with around 20 unexploded shells neatly placed in it. A single thin ribbon of plastic tape ran around the perimeter of the ditch to protect the unaware from stumbling in.

Making these towns safe again for people to return to will be a huge job.


13:55
1,500 unclaimed Russian corpses in Dnipro mortuaries - deputy mayor

As the scale of devastation and death in towns around Kyiv emerges, the deputy mayor of Dnipro, in central Ukraine, says the city's mortuaries are crammed with the unclaimed bodies of Russian soldiers.

Mikhail Lysenko said there were more than 1,500 corpses in four refrigerators, the AFP news agency reported.

He said city officials did not want to cremate or bury them in mass graves.

Lysenko appealed to the mothers of Russian soldiers to speak to their dead sons' commanders so as to claim back their bodies.


14:25
Nato decision within weeks, not months - Finnish PM

Finland will make a decision within weeks on whether to join Nato, its prime minister has confirmed.

Sanna Marin was speaking at a joint news conference in Stockholm with her Swedish counterpart, Magdalena Andersson.

Previously, most Finns had not wanted to join Nato, but latest polls have suggested a change in opinion.

Sweden is also considering signing up to the 30-member Western military alliance.

Russia has warned both countries against the idea, arguing that it would not bring stability to Europe.

Moscow said it launched its invasion in part to try and deter Ukraine from joining the alliance.

[DaffyVina]

14:39
Ukraine is a crime scene - ICC


The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor Karim Khan, who has been visiting the Ukrainian town of Bucha, has said the country was "a crime scene".

"We're here because we have reasonable grounds to believe that crimes within the jurisdiction of the court are being committed," he told reporters.

"We have to pierce the fog of war to get to the truth. That requires independent, impartial investigation," he said.

He added an ICC forensic team was to begin work in the town.

Bucha is said to have been the scene of hundreds of civilian killings which Ukraine has blamed on the Russian forces which occupied it for several weeks. Russia denies responsibility for the deaths.

[DaffyVina]

Collecting the dead in Bucha
Words and photographs by Joel Gunter in Bucha, Ukraine
Published1 day ago

Photo: Police in Bucha examine a body unearthed in a field. At least 500 dead have been found since the Russians left.

When the Russians retreated from Bucha, a massive operation began to find and document the dead. BBC News joined the local police officers and bereaved families as they carried out their grim task.

Warning: This article contains graphic images.

Police Chief Vitaliy Lobas was sitting at a child's desk in an abandoned school in Bucha, collecting the details of the bodies.

Every few minutes, Chief Lobas, who has broad shoulders and short dark hair, and rarely uses an unnecessary word, received a call on his mobile phone, and the brief conversations went the same: a location, a few details, a phone number of a relative or friend.

Before the Russians came, Lobas was an ordinary local police chief, the head of Buchanksy District 1, who spent his days dealing with ordinary local crime and the occasional murder. Since the liberation of Bucha, he has spent his days in this abandoned school classroom, where school posters still hang on the walls, coordinating the massive operation to find the dead.

In front of Lobas on the school desk there was a map of Bucha, a once peaceful and little-known suburb of Kyiv that is now a sprawling crime scene. The area was occupied by Russian forces for a month as they attempted to assault Kyiv, and its liberation a little over a week ago has begun a slow and painful process of uncovering horrors.

Each time the phone rang, Lobas consulted the map in front of him, and on a plain piece of paper he wrote down the necessary information in neat handwriting, one line per body. By mid-morning, he had filled one side of A4 and moved on to the reverse. The previous day there had been 64 bodies, he said. The day before, 37. He did not know how many there would be that day, but he was expecting the number to jump by around 40 because a mass grave was being dug up nearby. Lobas is only in charge of one part of this region, and many more bodies are being found outside his jurisdiction.

Photo: Vitaliy Lobas, the head of Buchansky District 1 police department, takes a call in his command post in a school classroom.

Lobas paused occasionally to go to the school playground for a cigarette, but even these moments were interrupted by calls about bodies or problems relating to the collection of bodies. It was raining in Bucha, and one of the vans that ferried corpses to the morgue had become stuck in the mud. A tractor needed to be found quickly, because there was a limited number of vans and a large number of bodies. Lobas generally delegates the field work to his deputies, but in cases of particularly grave crimes he goes himself.

"When people have been shot in the head with their hands tied behind their back, for example, I will go," he said.

"When the bodies have been burned I also go."

About mid-morning, a call came in from Dmytro Kushnir, a 24-year-old police deputy in one of Lobas's units, to log a body that had been reported behind an apartment building on the outskirts of Bucha.

When Kushnir arrived at the building, which stood alone on an otherwise undeveloped green area on the edge of woodland, he found two men behind the building at the place where the property line met the woods. They were wearing blue surgical gloves and standing over the partially decomposed body of a man who appeared to have been shot in the back of the head. The body lay on a stained white duvet decorated with red flowers and was surrounded by empty bottles of beer and spirits. The blue surgical gloves initially gave the men the appearance of medical officials, but they introduced themselves as Volodymyr and Serhiy Brezhnev, the dead man's father and brother. Lying on the blanket was Vitaliy Brezhnev, a 30-year-old former cook who, until the Russians arrived, lived a peaceful life with his girlfriend on the sixth floor of the apartment building that now towered over his corpse.

Photo: Serhiy Brezhnev stands over his brother's body. "He was a kind-hearted man, he gave his all," Serhiy said.

Photo: The passport picture Serhiy carried while he searched for his brother

Volodymyr and Serhiy had lost contact with Vitaliy a month earlier, when the Russians seized control of Bucha and communications went down. It was impossible to enter the suburb to check his building, so they searched for him for a month online, scouring social media in vain for evidence that he was alive.

When the Russians finally retreated, a little over a week ago, Serhiy got a call from Vitaliy's girlfriend and she told them the story. The Russians had assaulted the apartment building and blasted their way into every apartment with a shotgun, she said, demanding people handed over their SIM cards and keys. They interrogated her and Vitaliy in separate rooms, beat them, and shot their dog, she said. Then they took her down to the basement with a group of other residents and bolted the door, but took Vitaliy away separately and told her she wouldn't see him again, and she didn't.

As soon as the Ukrainian army declared Bucha safe to re-enter, Volodymyr and Serhiy set out for the apartment building. Inside, they found blood smeared on the floor in the stairwells and personal photographs from people's apartments strewn around. On every door you could see the holes from the shotgun blasts - sometimes one, sometimes four or five. Doors with steel plates had been crowbarred. On one wooden door, where the lock hadn't given way to repeated shots, the Russian soldiers appeared to have become frustrated and blown a hole right through the middle of the door into the apartment. Behind another door, it was clear the homeowners had pushed a heavy table up against the frame in a failed attempt to keep the invaders out.

Photo: Every door in Vitaliy Brezhnev's apartment building had been blown open with a shotgun.

When Volodymyr and Serhiy reached the sixth floor they saw that the shotgun had been used on the door of Apartment 83. A rank odour came from inside. The Russians had trashed the apartment and pried open the air vents and even the bathroom drain, looking for money, Serhiy guessed. When he entered Vitaliy's bedroom he suffered the first of several blows to his hopes of finding his brother alive. On the pillow there was a deep blood stain and blood was sprayed up the walls behind the bed. Among the mess on the floor there were two 7.62mm bullet casings - the calibre used by the Russian army in their rifles.

"You could see that a man had been killed here," Serhiy said. "But there was no body."

So Volodymyr and Serhiy began to search for Vitaliy, knowing that their search was now probably for a body and not a son and brother they could hold again in their arms. Serhiy was carrying a passport photograph of Vitaliy. "We searched and searched," he said, "and at first we were looking for his face."

Warning: Readers may find some of the following images distressing

Photo: The scene inside Vitaliy's bedroom. "You could see a man had been killed here," Serhiy said.

Photo: Vitaliy Brezhnev's body was found behind his apartment, where the property line met the woods.

Behind the building, next to the woods, they found what appeared to be a shallow grave, and they began to dig. It took time to exhume the remains there. First they saw a flower-patterned duvet they didn't recognise and their hearts found some hope. But when they brought the body up they saw that inside the duvet there was a curtain from Vitaliy's apartment. Then they saw the dead man's shoes and thought they recognised them. The light was fading by that point and they had to be home before curfew, so they covered the body with the sheet. Embers of hope remained.

"Today was the final touch," Serhiy said, the following day, looking down at the body. "Today we took his shoes off and we saw his feet."

Because Vitaliy's feet had been inside socks and shoes they were better preserved than the rest of his body after a month in the earth.

"We saw the shape of his feet," Volodymyr said.

"Then we looked at the shape of the nose and the hands," Serhiy said. "And we knew it was our bloodline."


Photo: Volodymyr replaces the thin sheet that covered the body where it lay

Photo: Volodymyr and Serhiy waiting for the van that collects the bodies. Eventually they gave up.

Volodymyr had purchased the small apartment in Bucha two years earlier - an investment in his son's future. Vitaliy had been a cook in a restaurant in Kyiv, until the pandemic hit and he was laid off. He did some work in construction and was looking for something more stable, but he had a girlfriend he loved and a dog, and now an apartment in a nice neighbourhood. He loved to fish and hunt, and forage for mushrooms in his spare time, and cook.

"He was living a peaceful life here," Serhiy said. "He was a normal guy, that's all, a kind-hearted man. He gave his all."

"He was a son and a brother," Volodymyr said, trying to hold back his tears.

At the front of the apartment building, Officer Kushnir was filling out his police report. Volodymyr went to his car and took two small pieces of cardboard and wrote his name and phone number and Vitaliy's name and address on each. Then he asked some neighbours for clear tape to cover the ink, because the rain was beginning to fall harder on Bucha, and he went back to the body, without surgical gloves this time, to tie one piece of card to Vitaliy's ankle and one to his wrist.

"I do not want to lose my son," he said.

Officer Kushnir finished his report and called it in. Chief Lobas would arrange for the van that collected the bodies to stop by. Volodymyr and Serhiy took shelter from the rain and waited for the van to arrive.

Photo: Families in Bucha attached tags to their loved ones or put passports in their pockets, so as not to lose them again.

As the day wore on, Chief Lobas's classroom command post got busier. Officers came and went, filing crime scene reports. The list on Lobas's desk got longer and his phone kept ringing.

A dead woman had been found in a well next to a destroyed column of Russian tanks. There was a body on the ninth floor of an apartment building. A driver of one of the vans called to say he couldn't find the body he had been sent to collect. A woman came in to the classroom in person to report that her neighbour was dead. "I understand everything," Lobas told her, keen to move on. "We will try to collect him today." Lobas's father called. "Dad, I am too busy," he said. "Everything is OK."

Two of Bucha district's police departments had been destroyed in the Russian assault and Lobas was struggling for resources. There were not enough body bags. His team had also been whittled down over the preceding days to those who had shown themselves capable of withstanding this new work. "Those who were weak went at the very beginning," he said. There was little room for sentiment amid the scale of the task.

Lobas received another call. "Nine?" he said. "Where?"

The call was coming from a unit in a neighbouring police department. Nine bodies were buried in a field nearby. Lobas hung up and dialled one of his mobile units. "The team there is exhausted and they have no body bags left," he said. "They have been collecting bodies all day. Please go and help them now. Find body bags and help them to pack the bodies."

Photo: Nine graves, dug by neighbours behind apartment buildings in Bucha.

The nine graves were laid out neatly in a row at the edge of the field, behind a corrugated fence at the end of a dirt track. The dead had been buried by their neighbours during the Russian occupation and now they were being exhumed by their neighbours, with the help of the police.

"Some of these people died because they could not get medicine and some were killed by Russians," said Gennadiy, a 45-year-old Ukrainian from one of the buildings by the field, who had helped to bury the the bodies and was doing the most work now to bring them up.

"These were our neighbours," Gennadiy said, a look of deep anger set in his face. "Here is Uncle Tolya from the building next door and a neighbour of his. Here is another person I knew from the next building. This man has a bullet wound, we didn't know him but we found a passport on his body. This elderly woman had severe diabetes and we tried to take her out of Bucha but there was no green corridor, so she died. This man went for a walk with his dog and didn't come back. We are not pathologists but it looks like he was shot."

Photo: Gennadiy, a resident who buried his neighbours, helps to bring them up from their graves.

The work to remove the bodies was hard. They had been buried well in deep graves, and the rain was soaking into the mud and making it slippery. Gennadiy, in a green plastic rain cape, climbed into each grave, one after the other, and shovelled the earth from around the bodies so that thick straps could be tied around them to hoist them up.

Each body had been wrapped in whatever was at hand - curtains, blankets of different colours and patterns. They were examined by the police and any obvious wounds photographed with an iPhone. Enough body bags had been found, and after a while the van arrived. In the dirt on its back doors, someone had scrawled '200' - the military identifier for the transport of the dead. The bodies were loaded inside. The sky was grey and the rain kept falling.

At Vitaliy's apartment building, Volodymyr and Serhiy had waited as long as they could for the van to arrive. It was getting dark and they needed to get home. Vitaliy's body would have to spend another night on the ground. They were too late now to make the 9pm curfew in Kyiv, but at the military checkpoints along the route they showed the death report and were waved through.

At sunrise the next morning, the father and son got up and began the drive back to Bucha. They could not wait for the van any longer, and they loaded Vitaliy's body into the back of their car and set out for a morgue in the town of Boyarka, about an hour's drive south.

Before the invasion, the staff at the Boyarka morgue were used to handling about three bodies a day, the vast majority of them deaths from natural causes. Since Bucha was liberated, they have been autopsying about 50 bodies a day, 80% of which were violent deaths, said Semen Petrovych, 39, who has been the forensic expert there for 16 years.

Photo: The Boyarka morgue used to receive three bodies a day. Now it is autopsying about 50.

The morgue, a small outbuilding at the back of a hospital on the edge of town, where Boyarka meets the forest, had just acquired two rented refrigerator trucks and both were full of bodies. Body bags lay on the floor by the trucks and against the fence nearby and either side of the entrance to the morgue.

"There are not enough staff and there is not enough room," said Petrovych, the forensic expert. "Even if we had more people, where would we put the bodies?"

Normally he would do a careful autopsy on every body and print a death certificate. "Now we just dissect them quickly and write something simple by hand," he said.

Volodymyr and Serhiy were not alone in bringing a body themselves. Private cars pulled up to the morgue and bodies were brought out wrapped in blankets and rugs. Relatives and friends came searching. Tatiana Zhylenko was looking for the body of the father of a friend who was abroad. "He had his passport on his chest," she told the staff. Oleksander Zakovorotnyi came for his father-in-law, who, when the Russians cut the gas supply in the depth of winter, rigged up a makeshift heater using a gas cylinder, but fell asleep and was poisoned when the flame went out.

Photo: Serhiy Brezhnev helps carry Vitaliy's body bag out from the morgue, to await fingerprinting.

Volodymyr and Serhiy waited outside until they were called in to identify Vitaliy. They stood inside the cramped, low-ceilinged morgue, where there were bodies on the floor and on every gurney and the smell was overpowering. They had to squeeze between two gurneys, beside an open corpse, to get close to Vitaliy's body, and they searched it for scars they could remember. They repeated to the pathologist that they thought they recognised his feet. Volodymyr looked away and looked back. He was wrestling with doubt and hope.

Afterwards, he walked behind the refrigerator truck and stood alone sobbing, his chest heaving with his tears. Vitaliy was brought out, his body bag tagged number 552 - the 552nd body processed by this small morgue since the beginning of the year, nearly double the figure in a normal year, the extra hundreds all condensed into one week.

The police took fingerprints and told Volodymyr and Serhiy that the formal identification would take around a month, because of the backlog, but otherwise they were free to take him to the cemetery to be buried.

Photo: The line of body bags at the Bucha cemetery, waiting to be processed and buried.

Photo: Because Vitaliy was already identified, he was placed by his family straight into a casket.
Image caption,
Because Vitaliy was already identified, he was placed by his family straight into a casket.

Rather than wait for the body van, Volodymyr and Serhiy lifted Vitaliy carefully again into the back of their car and drove him the hour or so back to Bucha, past the rows of destroyed homes and places where bodies had laid in the streets for weeks. At the cemetery, which was already full, new graves were being dug outside the boundary fence on a thin strip of earth along the side of the road. A priest intoned the funeral rites over a coffin. The mother of the dead man wailed. In the near distance, past the line of the forest, enormous booms sounded as unexploded ordnance was detonated. Volodymyr and Serhiy drove into the cemetery and unloaded Vitaliy next to a long line of body bags arrayed on the ground.

Because Vitaliy had already been identified and would be buried here in Bucha, he was placed into a simple wooden casket with maroon fabric and afforded the small dignity of resting inside a brick building on the cemetery grounds. He would be buried in two days' time.

Volodymyr and Serhiy left the cemetery and Volodymyr decided that, even though it was far from their home in Kyiv, he would buy a plot there for his wife Lily, Vitaliy's mother, who was suffering from end-stage cancer, so that when the time came she would be near to her son.

Two days later, on a bright, cold morning in Bucha, the family gathered at the cemetery. Once again, Volodymyr and Serhiy took the lead and went inside the brick building to prepare to carry the casket. Lily sat outside on a bench, smoking a cigarette, alone among the body bags. The casket was carried to a stone plinth and the family gathered around it while the priest read the funeral rites and two elderly women from the church held the incense burner and sang. Then Vitaliy was taken by the van marked 200 to one of the fresh graves along the roadside outside the cemetery and laid to rest. Volodymyr was still wrestling with doubt. "I am still hoping that the fingerprints will show this was not my son," he said.


Photo: The family gathers for a small funeral service for Vitaliy

Photo: Vitaliy Brezhnev was buried on Monday 11 April, in a fresh grave by the road

Later that day, back at the abandoned school in Bucha, Chief Lobas was sitting at his schooldesk, listening carefully to a man who had come in person to ask for help finding a relative he heard was in a mass grave. The man had been to the large mass grave by the church, he said, but they redirected him to the police. He wanted to give Chief Lobas a picture, but Lobas explained that this was not the way things were done. "We cannot go around opening all the body bags holding this picture," he said. "Do you understand? It would waste too much time."

Lobas explained that they had to begin burying the unidentified bodies, because there was not enough space at the morgues. But he assured the man that fingerprints and photographs were being taken and would be kept. "Even though the people themselves are buried the information remains," he said. "The photographs remain."

The calls kept coming in - a body on Yablunska Street, another body next to a school. "We have cleared these two addresses already, give us more to collect," Lobas said. He saw a window for a cigarette and went to the playground. The number of bodies each day was beginning to fall, he said. He thought that the job might be finished soon. "There are no weekends here now, we will keep working until the collection of the bodies is complete," he said. He flicked his cigarette away. His phone was ringing.

[DaffyVina]

Posted at 17:55 13 Apr17:55 13 Apr
WHO head: Ukraine shows black and white lives not equal

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has said the world does not give equal attention to emergencies affecting black and white people.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who comes from Ethiopia's war-torn region of Tigray, said only a fraction of the help given to Ukraine was given to humanitarian crises elsewhere.

The AFP news agency quoted him as saying:

I don't know if the world really gives equal attention to black and white lives.

The whole attention to Ukraine is very important of course, because it impacts the whole world.

But even a fraction of it is not being given to Tigray, Yemen, Afghanistan and Syria and the rest. A fraction.

I need to be blunt and honest that the world is not treating the human race the same way. Some are more equal than others."


Ukraine attention shows bias against black lives, WHO chief says
Published1 day ago

The head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) says the world does not give equal attention to emergencies affecting black and white people.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said only a fraction of the help given to Ukraine was given to other humanitarian crises.

Assisting Ukraine is "very important" because it "impacts the whole world", he said.

But Tigray province in Ethiopia, Yemen, Afghanistan or Syria are not receiving the same attention, he said.

"I don't know if the world really gives equal attention to black and white lives," Mr Tedros told a news conference.

"I need to be blunt and honest that the world is not treating the human race the same way. Some are more equal than others. And when I say this, it pains me. Because I see it. Very difficult to accept but it's happening," he added.

Tedros, who is from Tigray, said the United Nations had determined that 100 trucks per day of life-saving humanitarian supplies were needed for the Ethiopian region.

War broke out in Tigray between the TPLF - a group that dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly three decades - and the government in November 2020 following months of simmering tension.

The fighting has seen thousands killed - including civilians - while millions are in desperate need of humanitarian aid, with the federal government accused of hampering relief efforts.

All warring parties have allegedly carried out extrajudicial killings and used sexual violence.

Media caption, "There was no law - I was alone."

The UN calls Yemen the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

In Afghanistan, the UN says 24 million people need humanitarian assistance to survive.

Syria has been at civil war for 11 years. Around half a million people have been killed and millions have been displaced in the conflict.

Why has the Syrian war lasted 11 years?
Russia invaded Ukraine 50 days ago on Thursday.

War crimes prosecutors visiting the site of civilian killings in the town of Bucha have called Ukraine a crime scene, while US President Joe Biden has accused Russian forces of committing acts of genocide in the country.

[DaffyVina]

Ukraine war: Is Russia committing genocide?
By George Wright -BBC News
Published1 day ago

Atrocities committed by Russian forces in Ukraine have sparked widespread accusations of war crimes - with some voices arguing that Moscow has gone even further.

"That is real genocide, what you have seen here," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said from Bucha, where at least 500 people have been found dead since the Russians left.

Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki agrees that the killings in Bucha and other towns near the capital Kyiv "must be called acts of genocide and be dealt with as such".

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said attacks on civilians in Bucha do not "look far short of genocide".

Now US President Joe Biden has accused Russian forces of committing acts of "genocide" in Ukraine. He said Russian President Vladimir Putin was trying to "wipe out the idea" of a Ukrainian identity.

But many countries have stopped short of using the word to describe what's happening in Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron says he is reluctant to use the term and warned against an "escalation of rhetoric".

So is there a case for accusing Russian forces of committing what has been called the "crime of all crimes"?

What is genocide?
Genocide is widely seen as the most serious crime against humanity.

It is defined as a mass extermination of a particular group of people - for example, the murder of six million Jews in the Holocaust of World War Two.

The UN Genocide Convention defines genocide as committing any of the following "with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group":

• Killing members of the group

• Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group

• Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part

• Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group

• Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

Has Russia committed genocide in Ukraine?
There is no consensus on this.

Eugene Finkel, an associate professor of international affairs at Johns Hopkins University, believes genocide is underway in Ukraine. He says there is evidence of killings, carried out in Bucha and other places, of people based on their Ukrainian identity.

"It's not just killing people, it's targeting a national identity group," he says.

However, it's the rhetoric coming from Moscow that tips over into genocidal intent, Mr Finkel says.

He points to an article titled "What should Russia do with Ukraine?" published last week by Russia's state-owned media Ria news agency.

The article argues that Ukraine "is impossible as a nation state" and even its name "apparently cannot be retained"; the Ukrainian nationalist elite "need to be liquidated, its re-education is impossible", argues the article's writer, Timofei Sergeytsev.

He bases his theory on the baseless claim that Ukraine is a Nazi state, arguing that a significant section of the population is guilty too because they are "passive Nazis", and therefore accomplices. After a Russian victory these people would require re-education lasting at least a generation and it would "inevitably mean de-Ukrainisation".

"For me, the shift in tone in recent weeks in Russia, and especially among the elites, was the tipping point that we call the threshold of intent, not just to destroy the state... but to destroy an identity," says Prof Finkel.

"The goal of the war is de-Ukrainisation... they are not focusing on the state, they're focusing on Ukrainians."

A funeral service employee sits next to bodies of civilians in Bucha
IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS

Gregory Stanton, founding president and chair of Genocide Watch, says there is proof "that the Russian army is in fact intending to destroy, in part, the Ukrainian national group".

"That's why they're targeting civilians. They're not just targeting combatants and military."

He says President Putin's claims in the lead-up to the invasion, that the eight-year war in Ukraine's east looked like genocide, were what some scholars call "mirroring".

"Often the perpetrator of genocide will accuse the other side - the targeted victims - of intending to commit genocide before, in fact, the perpetrator does so. That's what happened in this case."

'Evidence not strong enough yet'
But other experts in the field of genocide say it's too early to define Russian atrocities as being in that category.

According to Jonathan Leader Maynard, lecturer in international politics at King's College London, says the evidence is still too unclear under the strict wording of the Genocide Convention.

That doesn't necessarily mean genocide is not taking place - he says it's "very clear" that atrocities are happening - just that the bar has yet to be cleared.

"It's possible that those atrocities could be genocidal or could escalate in future to genocide, but the evidence is not strong enough yet," he says.

However, he points to the "deeply troubling" rhetoric of Russia's president denying Ukraine's historical existence as an independent nation. It illustrates a "genocidal way of thinking", he says, where Vladimir Putin believes Ukraine "isn't real, so they don't have the right to exist".

Putin in 2018
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Image caption, Mr Putin has, in speeches, talked down Ukraine's existence as an independent nation

The risk of genocide is increasing due to that kind of talk, he says, "but we cannot automatically assume that such rhetoric is going to lead to actions carried out on the ground".

For Philippe Sands, there appears to be evidence of war crimes given the targeting of civilians and the siege of the port city of Mariupol appears to be a crime against humanity.

However, Prof Sands, who is director of the Centre for International Courts and Tribunals at University College London, says in order to prove genocide under international law, a prosecutor must establish an intent to destroy a group, in whole or in part. And international courts have set a very high threshold for proving that.

Intent can be established by direct evidence where the perpetrators say they are killing people in order to destroy the group. But Prof Sands believes that is unlikely to exist in Ukraine's case.

Intent can also be inferred from a pattern of behaviour, "but that's a tough call", he adds. Not enough is known yet of the intentions of those Russians alleged to have carried out atrocities.

"Going into a village and executing a significant proportion of adult males from one national or religious group on an apparently systematic basis - if that is what happened in Bucha - could be an indicator of a genocidal intent," he says.

"But at this stage we have insufficient evidence to know what precisely happened and why. I think it's right to be extremely alert to signs of genocidal intent, as the war moves to the east of Ukraine and becomes increasingly brutal."

Prof Sands says that the term genocide is often "being used in a political rather than legal sense", and that he has "no objection to President Zelensky and President Biden evoking a possible genocide to garner attention toward the horrors that are being perpetrated".

Alex Hinton, director of the Centre for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights at Rutgers University, says "a lot has changed in a week" and that it is "quite likely" that Russia is committing genocide in Ukraine. He points to killings and rape as potential evidence.

President Putin is displaying genocidal rhetoric, Mr Hinton says, but this will need to be clearly linked to atrocities on the ground to prove genocidal intent.

If Ukrainian government reports are confirmed that Ukrainian children are being separated from their parents with a view to having them adopted by Russian families, that would constitute a genocidal act, he says.

Whether or not Russia is committing genocide should not cloud what Alex Hinton sees as clear atrocities being committed by Russian forces in Ukraine.

"We know atrocity crimes are taking place and that compels action. It shouldn't be a case where we think it has to be genocide to do more."

[DaffyVina]

Ukraine war: Kyiv's battle for justice over alleged Russian war crimes
By Mark Lowen
BBC News, Bucha and Borodyanka, near Kyiv
Published1 day ago

Investigators prepare body bags for victims at a mass grave in Bucha, near Kyiv
Image caption, Ten victims - some completely charred - were discovered in one mass grave in Bucha

Ukraine's fightback against Russian aggression is not just in the battlefield - but in the legal field too.

Across this shattered country, testimony is being gathered and evidence collated for a goal that may only come long after the guns fall silent - international justice.

The pursuit of it is being led by Ukraine's Prosecutor General, Iryna Venediktova, appointed two years ago as the first woman to hold the office.

She watched the exhumation of another mass grave this week, beneath a gold-domed church in Bucha, where the darkest of sins were discovered - 10 victims this time, some completely charred. Their remains were placed into body bags and taken off for an attempt at identification.

As she stood at the edge of the deep pit, she told me more than 6,000 cases of war crimes have already been opened.

"A lot of people speak about the genocide of the Ukrainian people - and we actually have grounds to talk about genocide," she said. "Vladimir Putin is the president of the aggressor country killing civilians here in Ukraine. He's responsible."

The Kremlin continues to deny such allegations.

Iryna Venediktova
Image caption, Iryna Venediktova says it's Ukraine's ultimate goal to see President Putin being prosecuted

The challenge for prosecutors will be to draw a direct line of responsibility from the top of the Russian state to the atrocities on the ground - and show that they weren't just committed but ordered.

Russia is not party to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague, having withdrawn in 2016. Nor, in fact, is Ukraine, although it does accept the court's jurisdiction for crimes committed within its territory.

The possibility of ever seeing President Putin himself in a tribunal is thought to be extremely slim.

But Ms Venediktova insisted it was her government's ultimate aim. "It's very important, not just for Ukrainians," she said, "it's important for the whole world to stop dictators."

The efforts of the Ukrainian state are being helped by a network of volunteer investigators, deploying across the country in a grassroots quest for justice.

Among them is an NGO called Truth Hounds, whose staff have been trained by former prosecutors from the ICC.

Rescue teams clear debris near destroyed houses in Borodyanka, Ukraine
Image caption, Borodyanka was virtually wiped out as a town by heavy Russian shelling

We followed them to the town of Borodyanka, some 50km (31 miles) north-west of Kyiv, which has been gutted by a month-long offensive and occupation.

The destruction is immense. Apartment blocks have been wrenched apart or blown open. Entire streets lie in ruins. And amidst the devastation of shattered glass and mangled metal lie the remnants of cluster bombs, whose use is banned under an international convention.

Roman Koval from Truth Hounds said they had gathered eyewitness accounts that the Russians gave orders to attack buildings once they were already in control here.

"They knew this city was full of civilians, with no combatants left, and they tried to raze it to the ground," he said.

The investigators' work, he added, went beyond documentation of attacks; it was one of establishing the truth - and of collective memory.

"We're trying not to let Russia formulate their lying narratives about the war in Ukraine," he said. "We're trying to show people that the war crimes that Russian troops are committing became a pattern of their behaviour, not just in Bucha or Borodyanka, but all over the occupied territories."

He picked his way through the ruins of an apartment belonging to Oksana and Nicola Laba, which was ravaged by the shock waves of an airstrike next door. Much of it has been reduced to rubble.

Oksana Laba
Image caption, Oksana says that "Russia will not stop until it destroys our country"

Crouching amid the debris - fragments of broken glass covered any place to sit - he listened to their testimony and took notes. The details will be added to a central database as the war crimes case against Russia builds.

Oksana told of how her mother managed to flee just before the airstrike hit.

"Our home was our cosy nest, where we were planning our children's birthday," she recalled. "It's hard to describe our terror - it's more like hate."

Storytelling here carries with it the hope that accountability will be pursued.

"It's very important to say what happened," Oksana said, "because these are not just war crimes: Russia will not stop until it destroys our country."

On the scarred street outside, diggers have started to clear up the wreckage of homes and once-happy lives. The freedom and safety that Ukrainians cherished has been destroyed.

But their solace now would be to see - and believe - that there will be punishment for those who have broken this country.

Media caption,
Watch: Destruction in the Ukrainian town of Borodyanka

[DaffyVina]

The Olympic champion who turned his back on the Russian regime - and why few in sport will follow
By Alexandra Vladimirova
BBC Sport
Last updated on13 April 202213 April 2022.

Aleksander Lesun
Aleksander Lesun won Olympic gold for Russia in modern pentathlon at the Rio Games of 2016

Aleksander Lesun doesn't remember much about the Soviet Union, but that's where he was born in 1988, three years before its collapse. It's still the country listed in his passport.

Growing up in Belarus in the 1990s, much of his formative years was spent looking back for inspiration, back to the days of Soviet sporting achievement.

Sometimes he even felt jealous listening to the stories of how things used to be for athletes as he dreamed of one day becoming an Olympic champion too.

Sport was a huge priority for the USSR, but newly formed post-Soviet countries such as Belarus could not afford the same investment. For Lesun, trying to make it as a young sportsperson meant struggling for survival. When the chance to switch to representing Russia came up in 2009, he jumped at it, not only because it meant better funding.

"I was proud to compete under the Russian flag," the 33-year-old says. "My grandmother is Russian, I have a lot of relatives in Russia.

"Russia was always something dear to my heart, something strong, great. And I am not talking about politics or the army, I am talking about people, about natural beauty. I always felt connected to it."

After 2009, Lesun won 14 World Championship medals for Russia in modern pentathlon, four of which were gold. In 2016 in Rio, he became Olympic champion.

In late February 2022, he decided never to compete for Russia again.

"I quit all my sports positions on 22 February and in two days all the events [in Ukraine] began," he says.

"What did I feel? Can I use swear words in this interview? To say that I was shocked is to say nothing. I understood that the world would never be the same again."

Lesun had no 'plan B'. He describes his decision as impulsive. He had no other offers, nobody offering to fly him out of Russia. He has instead started another job not directly connected to sport.

He is one of very few Russian sportspeople to speak out against the war in Ukraine. Even fewer have taken the kind of action he has - removing himself from representing his country as a way of expressing opposition.

Speaking out is very risky and can have serious consequences. Thousands have been detained at anti-war protests. A new criminal law bans describing what the Russian government calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine as an invasion or war. Throughout our interview Lesun carefully avoids using those words.

He adds: "The situation inside Russia is becoming extremely severe.

"Before you might have been detained for 15 days for taking part in a 'no war' public protest. Now it can be up to three years. Or even 15 years for some other kinds of protest."

This has a bearing on the number of public figures speaking out, and what they choose to say. Some, including tennis player Maria Sharapova, have limited themselves to an expression of hope for a peaceful resolution to what is termed "the crisis in Ukraine".

Fellow Russian tennis player Andrey Rublev, the world number six, wrote 'No war please' on a TV camera lens after a match in Dubai in February. World number two Daniil Medvedev spoke of "promoting peace". This was before the new law that can lead to up to 15 years in jail for spreading anything the authorities consider to be 'fake news' about the military. Most Russian sportspeople have stayed silent since.

Medvedev and Rublev have been able to continue playing as individuals under a neutral flag, while many international sports bodies have banned Russians from competing outright. There has been some recent discussion over whether Russians should be allowed to compete as neutrals in the UK, with sports minister Nigel Huddlestone saying players such as Medvedev should provide a "written declaration" that they are "genuinely neutral".

Even if there is a larger number of Russian sportspeople who privately oppose the war in Ukraine, they fear the consequences of making that public. Doing so could make them a criminal in their native country. Some might fear reprisals against family members.

Then there are those who subscribe to the Kremlin's version of events.

Some Russian sportspeople come through special 'closed' sports training centres, where athletes are taught to follow orders without question. The majority of the most successful coaches are famous for their authoritarian methods.

From childhood many develop a deep dependency on others making even the most minor decisions for them. They are not exposed to independent news outlets - which are currently blocked in Russia. Many do not understand English.

Such athletes often echo the Kremlin's response to the sporting sanctions imposed around the world: that sports and politics should be kept separate.

Alexander Bolshunov, who won three gold medals at the 2022 Winter Olympics, reacted to the International Ski Federation's ban on Russian athletes in March by proclaiming: "Sport should be about peace."

A week later, he and several more Olympic champions took part in a rally to celebrate the 2014 annexation of Crimea at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, where the 2018 World Cup final took place.

The official name of this rally was: 'For the world without Nazism! For Russia! For the President!' It included many depictions of the letter 'Z', a pro-war symbol of the invasion of Ukraine.

The rally showed both the power of Russian propaganda and the power Russia holds over some athletes' lives and fortunes. Success at the Olympics might mean bonuses such as luxury cars, money, apartments and awards. Some may have understood that this year attendance at the rally was part of the bargain. Most of those who were present receive their main income from the state, which fully sponsors their training and travelling expenses.

The American-born snowboarder Vic Wild, who has competed for Russia since 2012 and won Winter Olympic gold at Sochi 2014, was not at the rally. But a few weeks earlier the 35-year-old had been due to meet Putin.

In 2014, the Russian president awarded Wild the Order 'For Merit to the Fatherland' after his Sochi success. At the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February, Wild won bronze.

"I was supposed to be in quarantine as we were gonna have a big meeting [with Putin at the Kremlin] and we needed to self-isolate for two weeks before," Wild says.

"Then on 23 February we were told that the quarantine was over and we could go home, everything was cancelled. That is how I got a feeling that something bad was going to happen the next day. And sure it was - the next morning it was on."

Soon after, Wild was asked to meet sports minister Oleg Matytsin and ice hockey legend Viacheslav Fetisov, now serving in the Russian State Duma as a member of Putin's United Russia party.

Fetisov once helped to break the barriers preventing Soviet hockey players joining the NHL, playing for the New Jersey Devils and the Detroit Red Wings. In March 2022, he was among those sanctioned by the United States over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Wild says: "Fetisov told me that 'things are different now'. He told me: 'Now you are not just the Sochi guy. Now you are a role model. You can't be a kid any more, you are an adult.'"

In Wild's case, it is difficult to know whether that meeting - and the reminder to Wild that he is "a role model" - had the desired effect, or whether it was even necessary.

Wild describes himself as "a wolf looking around, trying to understand more" rather than "one of the sheep getting led" when it comes to misinformation. He describes Russian state media as "ridiculous" and the Russian government as "fearful" towards any opposition, but still says of the war in Ukraine: "I'm just so tired that everyone acts like there is a good and a bad here."

Lesun turns 34 in July. His decision to cut ties means he has effectively retired. He feels powerless and isolated, and believes there is little hope of others following his lead.

He says: "Sportspeople in Russia are like a tool. A tool of propaganda.

"But nobody thinks about the effect their actions can have on the lives of others. Nobody thinks that their actions will lead to the death of boys and girls, men and women, elderly people.

"Of course, every person should decide for themselves what to do. OK - but now they will need to live with it.

"I am sorry to admit that Russian sportspeople can't influence the situation. And a lot of them do not even understand what is happening."

[DaffyVina]

0:47 14 Apr
BREAKING
Russia says ammo aboard famed warship detonated

Ammunition stockpiles aboard a Russian ship that was famously defied by Ukrainian troops early in the war have detonated, according to a statement from the Russian defence ministry.

A fire caused the explosion on the Moskva, the statement in Russian media said, adding that all sailors had evacuated beforehand.

The statement said: "The cruiser Moskva's ammunition has detonated as a result of a fire on the warship.

"The vessel is seriously damaged. The entire crew have been evacuated. The cause of the blaze is being investigated."

It did not specify the cause of the fire.

But earlier on Wednesday, the flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet was hit by Ukrainian rockets, according to the governor of Odesa.

Ukrainian officials said Russia was struggling to rescue the estimated 510 crew members on board.

The Moskva warship rose to fame early in the war when Ukrainian defenders of Snake Island refused calls to surrender and told the Russian ship to "go to hell", before they were ultimately taken prisoner.

1:09 14 Apr
Russian cruiser was hit by missiles - Ukraine

More on Russia's Moskva missile cruiser, which Moscow says has been badly damaged by a fire.

Ukraine earlier claimed the warship was hit by Ukraine-made Neptune missiles.

Ukrainian presidential aide Oleksiy Arestovych said Russian rescuers were unable to reach the vessel, which could have had as many as 510 crew members on board.

"It has been confirmed that the missile cruiser Moskva today went exactly where it was sent by our border guards on Snake Island!" Odesa regional governor Maksym Marchenko wrote in his Telegram post.

He was referring to an incident that reportedly happened on the first day of the Russian invasion on 24 February.

The Moskva cruiser back then approached Ukraine's Snake Island, a rocky outcrop in the Black Sea, demanding that a small border guard garrison immediately surrender.

But the border guards refused to do so, with one of them telling the warship: "Go to hell!"

Ukrainian officials initially said all the border guards died - but later reports suggested they were taken prisoner to Russia-annexed Crimea.

The incident has since become a famous war meme in Ukraine.

1:50 14 Apr
What is known about the damaged Russian cruiser?

The Moskva missile cruiser was constructed in the early 1980s in what was then the USSR.

It was actually built in Ukraine's southern city of Mykolaiv, which has been regularly shelled in recent days by Russian troops.

The 186m-long vessel was the lead ship of theSoviet navy's Project 1164 Atlant class. It was initially called Slava, but later renamed Moskva (Moscow).

The warship's main armaments are P-1000 Vulkan anti-ship missiles.

The cruiser - which became the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet in 2000 - played a key role during Russia's military campaign in Syria, which began in 2015.

3:41 14 Apr
The latest headlines
If you're just joining our live coverage or need a refresher, here are the latest developments:

Damaged Russian ship

Russia's defence ministry said that an explosion aboard Moskva, the flagship of the country's Black Sea Fleet, "seriously damaged" the vessel
Russia did not say the cause of the fire, but earlier Ukraine said it was struck by their own Neptune missiles
Earlier in the war, Ukrainians stationed on Snake Island in the Black Sea defied an order to surrender from the ship, telling the Moskva to "go to hell"
US military aid

The US has pledged another weapons shipment to Ukraine which President Biden said would give Ukrainian forces "new capabilities" in the fight against Russian invaders
The shipment includes helicopters, backpack-worn Switchblade drones - also known as "kamikaze drones" - and howitzer cannons, armoured vehicles and other supplies
'Crime scene' call

In Bucha, war crimes prosecutors visiting the site of civilian killings have called Ukraine a crime scene. "We have reasonable grounds to believe that crimes within the jurisdiction of the court are being committed," the International Criminal Court's Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan said
A major European security organisation says there are clear patterns of Russian troops violating international humanitarian law. A panel of OSCE experts said it had found credible evidence of torture and other punishments
Mariupol latest

Earlier, Russia said more than a thousand Ukrainian marines had surrendered in the besieged port of Mariupol. But a Ukrainian presidential adviser insisted the city had not fallen
Fighting in Mariupol, which has been left in ruins after a six-week assault, appears to be continuing around the Azovstal industrial district. If Russia takes the area it would reportedly have full control of the city
This is Jude Sheerin in Washington DC and Max Matza in Seattle signing off. Our colleagues Vikas Pandey and Andrew Clarance in Delhi will be bringing you all the latest developments.

[DaffyVina]

8:27 14 Apr
'I see signs of fatigue' with conflict in Russia, says commentator
Andrey Kortunov, director general of the Russian International Affairs Council and a former adviser to the committee on international relations in Russia's parliament, has spoken to Radio 4's Today programme about how President Vladimir Putin may proceed with the war.

Putin needs something he can present at home as a victory, he says. "The question is how much is enough?"

If you follow his most recent statements, says Kortunov, just two days ago, he made the argument that the sole mission of the operation in Ukraine was to protect the people of Donbas. This implies it's not about regime change in Ukraine - but rather about securing the gains that Russia has achieved in the east of the country, he says.

Kortunov also believes any escalation might require some kind of mobilisation and the "political risk for the Russian leadership will increase".

"People in Russia do not really want to go fighting against Ukrainians.

"Public support for the leadership might go down if this whole thing escalates or if this whole thing lasts for too long."

He adds: "I see signs of fatigue... Maybe it's too early to say that the Russian public is changing its views on the conflict, but definitely it cannot last for too long."

8:42 14 Apr
Eastern towns likely targets for urban attacks, says UK's MoD
The towns of Kramatorsk and Kostiantynivka are likely to be targets for similar levels of violence seen in other urban centres as Russia focuses its war on eastern Ukraine, says the UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD).

In a tweet this morning, it says President Putin’s speech on Tuesday highlighted his continued interest in the area known as Donbas "where Russia is striking Ukrainian forces in preparation for a renewed offensive".

The MoD says: "The combination of widespread missile and artillery strikes and efforts to concentrate forces for an offensive represents a reversion to traditional Russian military doctrine."

But the MoD adds: "However, this will require significant force levels.

"Ukraine’s continued defence of Mariupol is currently tying down significant numbers of Russian troops and equipment."

9:01 14 Apr
Ukraine claims 300 were kept hostage in Yahidne school basement
Ukraine's defence ministry has claimed around 300 people were kept hostage for four weeks in the basement of a school near Chernihiv, in northern Ukraine.

Writing in a tweet, it said that Russian troops had taken villagers hostage in Yahidne, 140 km (80 miles) north of Chernihiv, and that 18 people had allegedly died during the Russian occupation.

The tweet included a picture of a wall, which it said was used by the hostages to keep track of the days they were there and to write down the names of those who allegedly died.

The BBC cannot verify these claims. But last week, our correspondent Yogita Limaye travelled to Yahidne where villagers spoke of their ordeal.

At the time, villagers estimated that around 130 people had been cramped into the room roughly 65 sq m (700 sq ft) in size.

9:14 14 Apr
Ireland's foreign minister to visit Kyiv in show of solidarity

Ireland's foreign and defence minister Simon Coveney will become the latest official to visit Kyiv today, as nations continue to show support for Ukraine.

Coveney will visit areas in the Ukrainian capital directly affected by the Russian invasion, and he'll meet his counterparts - Ukraine's foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba and defence minister Oleksii Reznikov.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said Coveney's discussions with the Ukrainian government would focus on how Ireland can continue to "provide political, security and humanitarian support to Ukraine; assist Ukraine in its application for EU candidate status; take forward further EU sanctions on Russia; and hold Russia to account for its brutal and unjustified invasion".

Ireland has provided Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees with 20 million euro in humanitarian aid, as well as 33 million euro in non-lethal assistance to the Ukrainian military.

9:30 14 Apr
197 children killed in Ukraine - Ukraine's prosecutor general's office
197 children have died since the war in Ukraine started, according to Ukraine's prosecutor general's office.

In a press release, it added that 351 children had also been injured.

It said the highest child death rates were in the regions of Donetsk, Kyiv and Kharkiv.

It added that the numbers were not final.

[DaffyVina]

9:50 14 Apr
The demise of the Moskva will be seen as poetic justice in Ukraine

Frank Gardner
BBC Security Correspondent

This is a significant setback for Russia’s war effort, for both military and morale reasons. The Moskva is an old, Soviet-era missile cruiser but it has been the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet since 2000.

The 12,500-tonne warship has been part of a Russian fleet loitering offshore and menacing the Ukrainian port of Odesa.

Ukrainians know it as the ship that ordered their defenders of Snake Island to surrender and were told by them to “go to hell”.

So whatever caused the major fire onboard - and Ukraine says it was two missiles fired by its forces - the demise of the once mighty Moskva will be seen as poetic justice in Ukraine.

In more practical terms, this incident is likely to result in Russian warships having to move further offshore for their own safety.

It follows an earlier explosion onboard a Russian amphibious landing ship, believed to be the result of a covert Ukrainian attack.


11:04 14 Apr
What's the situation in Ukraine's east?
Some of the most active battles are currently taking place in the Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson regions, according to Ukrainian online newspaper Ukrainian Pravda.

It says it's collected data from the heads of administration in those regions, and that Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine, has been subjected to periodic shelling. Four people were killed and 10 were injured in the city overnight, the region's governor says.

The report goes on to say that there is no change in Mariupol, as the besieged city continues to be hit with shelling by Russian aircraft and artillery.

The newspaper adds: "The Russians do not let people out of the city".

The BBC has not been able to confirm this independently.


11:25 14 Apr
Russian warship still afloat - Russian MoD
Russia's defence ministry has just released a statement on the Moskva. It says:

"The fire on the cruiser Moskva is under control. There are no flames visible. Ammunition supplies are no longer exploding.

"The cruiser Moskva is still afloat. The main missile armoury has not been damaged.

"The crew of the cruiser were evacuated to Black Sea Fleet vessels nearby. Measures are being taken to tow the cruiser into port.

"The causes of the fire are currently being established."


12:04 14 Apr
Ukraine military claims Moskva started sinking
A short while ago we heard from the Russian military, who say the Moskva is still afloat.

Now the Ukrainian military claims the Russian flagship started sinking after it was hit with Neptune missiles.

Posting on its Facebook page, the southern military command says the vessel suffered significant damage and a fire started after the strike.

Russian rescue ships were then hampered by ammunition exploding on board as well as bad weather that "overturned the cruiser and it began to sink", it adds.


12:23 14 Apr
What are Neptune missiles?
Ukrainian military officials say they struck the Moskva with a Neptune missile.

The Neptune cruise missile system was designed by Kyiv military engineers in response to the growing naval threat posed by Russia in the Black Sea, following its annexation of Crimea in 2014.

According to the Kyiv Post, the Ukrainian navy only received its first delivery of the 300km-range (186 miles) missiles in March last year.

Since the invasion began Ukraine has received an influx of military aid from Western allies, including £100m worth of anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles that the UK announced it would be sending last week.


12:40 14 Apr
How Russia is reporting the Moskva story
Steve Rosenberg
BBC Russia editor

We filmed the Moskva three years ago off the coast of Crimea, the peninsula Moscow annexed from Ukraine.

That day the missile cruiser was leading Navy Day celebrations. Among the Russian warships assembled there, the 12,500-tonne Moskva was an imposing sight.

Now the Russian military has admitted that the Moskva has been seriously damaged by a fire that caused ammunition to detonate.

No word about the cause, and the ministry later reported that the fire had been brought under control.

The incident has not been dominating news bulletins here. Russian TV’s Channel 1 led its lunchtime news with claims of more Ukrainian soldiers surrendering to Russian forces. The programme devoted just a few seconds to what happened to the Moskva.

Whatever the cause, the damage to the Moskva is bad news for Moscow. It is the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. And, as such, a symbol of Russia’s military power.


13:26 14 Apr
Kyiv coming back to life - Klitschko

Wladimir Klitschko, the brother of Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, has been speaking to the BBC and says the capital is slowly coming back to life.

The former boxing champion says traffic is increasing, more people are on the streets and fewer air-raid sirens are going off.

But he warns that the rate of people returning needs to slow down, saying that if everyone comes back at once it's going to "cause complications".

Klitschko says the situation in Kyiv is difficult due to damaged infrastructure and issues with food and water supplies. Roads are still blocked to prevent Russian forces from invading.

He also warned that there is still a danger of Russian rockets landing in the capital.


13:42 14 Apr
We'll bolster defences if others join Nato - Russia

Russia would have to bolster its defences if Sweden and Finland joined Nato, Deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council Dmitry Medvedev says.

He adds that if the two countries joined the alliance, then there could be no more talk of a "nuclear free" Baltic, as "the balance must be restored".

"Until today, Russia has not taken such measures and was not going to," Medvedev says.

Both Finland and Sweden have expressed their eagerness to join Nato, and US officials have said the two countries could become part of the alliance as soon as summer.


13:55 14 Apr
I'm inclined to believe Ukraine did strike warship - analyst
We've heard two claims about damage to the Russian warship Moskva today: Ukraine says it carried out a strike on the vessel using Neptune missiles, while Russia claims ammunition on board blew up.

Shashank Joshi, defence editor at the Economist, says it's possible that a missile struck the ship and then ammunition exploded.

"And of course, when magazines on ships explode, the results tend to be absolutely devastating for the ships concerned. This is huge amounts of explosives that can completely destroy a ship - they can certainly render it combat-ineffective for a long period.

"On balance, I'm more inclined to believe the Ukrainians did strike the ship."

He notes that Ukraine has in total hit four Russian warships so far.

Asked about the significance of the incident, Joshi explains that Moskva was providing air cover for other ships which may now be more at risk of aerial attack.

He said it also had missiles that could "strike quite far inland in Ukraine".


14:28 14 Apr
Russia accuses Ukraine of border attack
Jenny Hill
Reporting from Moscow

Russian investigators say that Ukraine carried out air strikes on a residential area in Russia earlier today.

Officials say two low-flying military helicopters equipped with heavy arms attacked the town of Klimovo, injuring seven people including a child and damaging six houses.

Reports of the attack – which has not been independently verified – came after Moscow announced it would bomb targets in Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine if Ukrainian forces continued to attack its territory.