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[DaffyVina]

EXCLUSIVE-Photos show Russian attacks on Ukraine grain storage -U.S. official
By Steve Holland and Michelle Nichols
Reuters

WASHINGTON/UNITED NATIONS, March 31 (Reuters) - U.S. government images seen by Reuters showed what a U.S. official said was damage to grain storage facilities in eastern Ukraine and was indicative of the severity of Russian attacks that are impacting the global food supply.

The two black-and-white images showed long rectangular buildings in eastern Ukraine, first seen intact in January and then with damaged roofs and what a key calls "impact craters" in March.

The U.S. official, commenting on the unclassified images, said the United States has information that Russian forces are repeatedly damaging grain storage facilities in eastern Ukraine.

"As of late March, at least six grain storage facilities had been damaged as a result of these attacks," the official said.

The development comes as officials around the world worry about the fallout to the global food supply from the invasion of Ukraine, the world's fourth largest grain exporter in the 2020/21 season.

"Russia’s reckless damaging of these grain silos is a clear-cut example of how Putin’s war directly affects civilians in Ukraine and threatens food security around the world," the official said.

"With countries across Africa and the Middle East reliant on Ukrainian wheat exports, the destruction of these food stocks and storage facilities could result in shortages and drive up prices in already vulnerable economies," the official said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin describes his country's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine as a "special military operation" that aims to destroy Ukraine's military infrastructure.

Local residents carry foodstuff while walking past an apartment building damaged during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine March 31, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko

The Biden administration has repeatedly shared its intelligence publicly to put pressure on Putin over his invasion of Ukraine.

Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, at a U.N. Security Council meeting on Ukraine on Tuesday, said Russia has bombed at least three civilian ships carrying goods from Black Sea ports to the rest of the world, including one chartered by an agribusiness company.

Sherman said Ukraine had told counterparts that “Russia is actively targeting grain silos and food storage facilities.”

The Black Sea is a major shipping route for grain, oil and oil products. Its waters are shared by Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia and Turkey, as well as Ukraine and Russia.

Sherman said the Russian navy is blocking access to Ukraine’s ports, essentially cutting off exports of grain and reportedly preventing approximately 94 ships carrying food for the world market from reaching the Mediterranean.

"It’s no wonder many shippers are now hesitant to send vessels into the Black Sea, even to Russian ports, given the danger posed by Russian forces," she said.

Russia's U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, refuted Sherman's statement. He accused Ukrainian troops and "nationalists" of shooting at fleeing civilians, then added: "And yet today, we're being told that we're allegedly bombing vessels with grain as well as grain storage warehouses."

Ukraine accused Russia on Wednesday of planting mines in the Black Sea and said some of those munitions had to be defused off Turkey and Romania as risks to vital merchant shipping in the region grow.

Reporting by Steve Holland and Michelle Nichols; Editing by Heather Timmons and Leslie Adler

[DaffyVina]

Ukraine war: Gruesome evidence points to war crimes on road outside Kyiv
Published54 minutes ago - BBC News

soldier stands by car and corpse (not shown)
IMAGE SOURCE,JEREMY BOWEN
Image caption, Corpses and burned out cars litter this stretch of the E-40 highway

Footage of Russian troops shooting a man with his hands up on a highway outside Kyiv at the beginning of March was shared around the world. Now the Russians have been pushed out of the area and the BBC's Jeremy Bowen has been to see the grim aftermath of their short-lived occupation.

This report contains material some viewers will find disturbing

We counted 13 bodies on a nightmarish stretch of road not much more than 200 yards long, between Mria and Myla, villages whose Ukrainian names translate as Dream and Sweetheart.

Two of the dead are confirmed as Ukrainian civilians who were killed by the Russians. The others have not been identified yet - they lie where they were killed - but only two are wearing recognisable Ukrainian military uniforms.

Our BBC team was able to get to the area, on the main E-40 highway as it approaches Kyiv, because Ukrainian forces had captured the sector only 10 hours earlier.

The marks of battle and of heavy shelling were everywhere. Petrol stations and a hotel that was well-known for its spa and restaurant were in ruins. Shell holes and craters pockmarked both carriageways.

Ukrainian troops changing a wheel in the ruins of a roadside garage said the Russians were about 4km (2.5 miles) away and had pulled their remaining men and armour back after a hard fight, lasting several days, in the early hours of the morning.

Warning: Graphic image ahead

Left behind in the heart of the desolation were the dead bodies, and a mass of questions and concerns about who they were and how they died.

Unidentified body on road
IMAGE SOURCE,KATHY LONG
Image caption, The BBC saw numerous dead bodies along the stretch of highway, hours after Russian forces were ousted from the area

Some answers already exist for a couple who were killed by the Russians and left to decompose on 7 March. Their rusty, shrapnel riddled car lies in the road next to one of the petrol stations, reduced to a shell by fire. Next to it are the burnt and twisted remains of a body that is just about recognisable as the remains of a man. A wedding ring is still on the corpse's finger. Stretched out inside the hulk of their car is what is left of the incinerated body of a woman, the mouth opened in what looks like a scream.

Their deaths were filmed by a Ukrainian drone on 7 March, operated by the Bugatti unit of Territorial Defence. The unit released the video, which was republished by news organisations around the world. It caused outrage because it showed the cold-blooded killing of a man who had raised his arms to show he was harmless, in the classic gesture of surrender.

The bodies, the BBC discovered in an investigation this month, are of Maksim Iowenko and his wife Ksjena. They were part of a convoy of 10 civilian vehicles who were trying to escape the Russians and get to Kyiv.

Maksym and Ksjena Iowenko
IMAGE SOURCE,SUPPLIED
Image caption, Ksjena and Maksim Iowenko were civilians and should have been protected

As they drove down the road, they spotted a Russian tank in position, dug into the grass verge. The drone video shows it was clearly marked with the letter V, one of the identifiers used by the Russian armed forces. The other cars did quick U-turns and drove away at speed. But Maksim's car stopped, most likely because it was hit.

As soon as the car stopped, Maksim leapt out and raised his hands. Within seconds he was shot dead. His wife was killed in the car. Also in the car were their six-year-old son and the elderly mother of one of Maksim's friends. Both of them survived and were eventually released by the Russian soldiers.

They were found walking back down the road, and the woman told her family that Maksim was shouting that a child was in the car when he was killed. Both survivors, according to the Bugatti drone unit, are now safe but deeply traumatised.

Warning: Graphic images ahead

The car is now burnt out, but it was not on fire after the attack. One hypothesis must be that the bodies and the car were set on fire by the Russians to destroy the evidence of what they had done. The Bugatti Unit has submitted its drone video to the Ukrainian authorities and to the Metropolitan Police in London.

More burnt cars and dead bodies line the road for the next few hundred yards. No video has emerged to show what happened. A credible working assumption for any investigation must be that the other dead people were killed by the tank crew, or other Russian soldiers.

GRAPHIC: CORPSE (BLURRED) WITH TYRES
IMAGE SOURCE,JEREMY BOWEN
Image caption, Some of the evidence the BBC gathered is too disturbing to show in full. Here a dead man has been covered by rubber tyres

GRAPHIC: UKRAINIAN SOLDIER GESTURES TOWARDS CORPSE (BLURRED)
IMAGE SOURCE,JEREMY BOWEN
Image caption, Here a Ukrainian soldier gestures towards sets of charred human remains by a burned out vehicle

Attempts have been made to destroy the other bodies. Some have been left to rot where they were killed. But other corpses have been piled up and surrounded by tyres. Charred clothing indicates attempts were made to set fires around them. Tyres are flammable and must have been placed there as an accelerant.

The emplacement where the tank was dug in has a clear arc of fire across the area where the 13 bodies are lying. The tank has gone but debris was left by the its crew, including Russian army field rations. In the woods nearby is at least one other tank, which has been burnt out after being hit by anti-tank missile.

A Ukrainian soldier produced a wallet he had found in the tank. He emptied out Russian identity papers, bank notes in the Russian currency, the rouble, and small change in Belorussian coppers. The major thrust to the north-west of Kyiv came from invaders who had crossed the border from Belarus, Moscow's ally.

Close by the knocked out tank are the remains of a chaotic camp, with dugouts, chairs and a long table piled high with the remains of food and drink. They are all surrounded by big piles of garbage, rotten food and empty bottles of alcohol. Ukrainian soldiers said shops at the petrol stations were looted.

Ukrainian soldier examines stuff left behind by Russian troops
Image caption, An abandoned Russian camp: the soldiers are said to have looted petrol stations

Next to the table is a large pair of bolt-cutters. Piles of unburied rubbish scattered in a forward position are usually a sign of undisciplined soldiers.

We decided to drive two or three kilometres further down the road, after Ukrainian soldiers said more Russian armour had been destroyed.

In a small village, a Russian tank and two armoured personnel carriers were broken and burnt. Some of the wreckage was still smoking. The force of weapon that destroyed the tank blew off its turret and main gun, which lay upside down and half buried in a crater around 15 yards away.

In the pine woods on either side of the road Ukrainian soldiers were digging trenches and fox holes with shovels. Others were patrolling. It was far too early to say whether the Russians were gone for good, or whether they would be back.

What is clear though is that Russian forces, under continued pressure from Ukrainian soldiers, have been forced to yield strategic territory around Kyiv. Every time they move back, the Ukrainian capital and its people become a little safer.

Video
Media caption, Video captured by a Ukrainian aerial reconnaissance group appears to show Russian forces shooting at civilians

As and when the Russians leave, more evidence is likely to emerge of civilians having been killed - backing up the many stories that have emerged of such incidents.

The gruesome scenes on the road were more than simply the terrible deaths of human beings who had become victims of President Putin's decision to invade. It is also a crime scene, with evidence that should be collected and preserved for an investigation whenever this war ends.

Under the laws of war civilians are protected, and when they are killed in defiance of those laws, their deaths amount to war crimes.

[DaffyVina]

8:51 1 Apr
Red Cross convoy leaves for Mariupol
Wyre Davies - BBC News, Zaporizhzhia

The small International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) convoy of just three vehicles has left Zaporizhzhia, travelling towards Mariupol with the aim of trying to facilitate the evacuation of civilians from the besieged city, after receiving security guarantees from all sides.

This trip to Mariupol has been described as "desperately important" by the Red Cross, with tens of thousands of people still trapped inside the city that has been relentless bombarded by Russian troops.

But the delayed mission is by no means guaranteed of success.

Previous attempts to establish humanitarian corridors haven’t worked because tentatively agreed ceasefires didn’t hold.

It’s understood the primary purpose of this small Red Cross convoy will be to facilitate and accompany the evacuation of civilians from Mariupol in buses provided by the Ukrainian government.

They want to do the operation in a day, hopefully meeting with the buses further along the road.


10:41 1 Apr
Red Cross evacuation plan approved at "top-level"
Returning to Mariupol evacuation efforts the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said the plan has been approved by "top-level authorities" from Ukraine and Russia, Reuters news agency reports.

The organisation is hopeful the evacuation can take place on Friday and it plans to lead 54 Ukrainian buses and private cars in a convoy out of the beleaguered city.

But the ICRC has not received permission to take humanitarian aid and has departed without the pre-positioned medical and other supplies, a spokesman said.

ICRC spokesman Ewan Watson told reporters in Geneva: "This effort has been, and remains, extremely complex.

"There are a lot of moving parts and not all of the details are yet in place to ensure that this happens in a safe manner."

He added that it was hoped "thousands" could be brought to safety.

[DaffyVina]

12:40 1 Apr
What's the latest in the Ukraine war?
BBC - If you're just joining us, here's a recap of what's been happening today:

On the ground:
Russia says Ukrainian helicopters attacked an oil depot in Belgorod - a Russian city just north of Ukraine. Kyiv has not claimed responsibility
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the alleged strikes do not create "comfortable conditions" for peace talks
Top-level Ukrainian and Russian authorities have approved a plan for further evacuations from Mariupol, the Red Cross says
The humanitarian organisation has said it plans to lead a convoy on Friday of 54 Ukrainian buses and private cars out of the city, which has faced weeks of bombardment
Russian forces are withdrawing from the Chernihiv region of northern Ukraine but have not yet left entirely, the local governor has said
The UK's Ministry of Defence says Ukraine has continued to make "succesful but limited" counterattacks to the east and north-east of Kyiv

On the diplomatic stage
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is in India as part of attempts by Moscow to strengthen ties with Delhi
Today sees the start of new rules brought in by Russia to force foreign buyers of Russian gas to buy using roubles by opening special bank accounts

[DaffyVina]

13:07 1 Apr
'We're running out of adjectives for horrors of Mariupol' - ICRC
Red Cross vehicles
Copyright: BBC

We have some more from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on their evacuation mission to Mariupol.

A spokesman for the group says it will act in a neutral intermediary role to lead the convoy out from Mariupol and to another Ukrainian city.

"We remain hopeful, we are in action moving toward Mariupol, but it’s not yet clear that this will happen today."

He goes on to say: "We're running out of adjectives to describe the horrors that residents in Mariupol have suffered.

"The situation is horrendous and deteriorating, and it’s now a humanitarian imperative that people be allowed to leave, and aid supplies be allowed in.

"The people of Mariupol have suffered weeks of heavy fighting, with dwindling water, food and medical supplies."

The ICRC says that piecing together safe passage for the route with the parties has been "extremely complex" and "ensuring that all the details are agreed upon and well understood by all sides, and then communicated down the chain of command, and to the residents of Mariupol, is a challenge".

[DaffyVina]

16:14 1 Apr
Why is the Belgorod oil attack significant?
Jonathan Beale
BBC defence correspondent

If confirmed - and Ukraine is yet to confirm it carried out the attack on the Russian oil depot - it would be the first known time Ukrainian aircraft have flown into Russian airspace to strike a target.

Ukrainian helicopter pilots have plenty of experience of flying low and fast to avoid being detected by military radar and air defence systems. They’ve been doing exactly that in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine for years.

I experienced and witnessed the extraordinary skills of the Ukrainian military pilots in 2018 – flying barely metres above the tree line and telegraph poles.

Low-flying helicopters are vulnerable to short-range air defence systems. Flying at night would have lessened that risk, but heightened the danger of hitting an object near the ground.

This alleged attack alone will not dramatically alter the battle. But it could show Ukraine has managed to keep its air force functioning, and give a huge boost to the morale of its military.

[DaffyVina]

16:24 1 Apr
Controversial Russian journalist dies in Donetsk - reports
Andrey Babitsky
Copyright: Getty Images

Russian journalist Andrey Babitsky - a former fierce critic of President Putin who has backed the Russian authorities since 2014 - has died aged 57, Russian media report.

Babitsky was branded a traitor for his reporting of Russia's war in Chechnya from the rebel side for Radio Liberty - and at one stage was held in captivity by Russian troops.

But eight years ago he was sacked from Liberty after expressing support for Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

He moved to the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine, and in 2015 helped to launch a TV station in the rebel-held area.

The cause of death, in his apartment in the city of Donetsk, is unknown.

[DaffyVina]

16:54 1 Apr
Ukraine and Russia exchange captured troops
Ukraine and Russia have exchanged captured troops, the Ukrainian president's deputy chief of staff has said, according to the AFP news agency.

As a result of the exchange, 86 servicemen - including 15 women - are "already safe", Kyrylo Tymoshenko is quoted as saying in a video message on Telegram.

The Kremlin has not yet responded.

It is not yet clear if Russia has also regained the same number of troops.


17:18 1 Apr
Ukraine's deputy PM tells captured troops to 'stay strong'

More now on the exchange of captured troops announced by Ukraine in the past hour. Ukraine said it was regaining 86 troops, including 15 women.

The country's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said the troops are "already being taken home".

"I would like to address all our [people] who are still being held prisoner: We will fight for each of you! And will bring you home.

"Stay strong."

[DaffyVina]

17:30 1 Apr
Russia has broken promises on Mariupol aid, Donetsk governor says

The governor of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region has accused Russia of breaking its promise to allow humanitarian aid to reach the besieged city of Mariupol.

"Humanitarian deliveries, despite all the agreements and promises of the Russian side, are not being carried out," Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said in a televised address.

He added the humanitarian corridor "is essentially not operational."

There are now fears a Red Cross convoy travelling to Mariupol may not make it to the city today.

17:34 1 Apr
BREAKING
Red Cross postpones Mariupol evacuation attempt
The International Committee of the Red Cross says it has postponed an attempt to evacuate civilians from the besieged city Mariupol.

"The ICRC team that had been on its way to Mariupol on Friday to facilitate the safe passage of civilians had to return to Zaporizhzhia after arrangements and conditions made it impossible to proceed," the ICRC said.

"The ICRC team, which consists of three vehicles and nine personnel, did not reach Mariupol or facilitate the safe passage of civilians today.

"They will try again on Saturday to facilitate the safe passage of civilians from Mariupol.

"For the operation to succeed, it is critical that the parties respect the agreements and provide the necessary conditions and security guarantees.

17:54 1 Apr
Red Cross: 'Our presence would be a humanitarian marker'
Here's a little more from the ICRC statement, explaining why it has postponed its planned civilian evacuation of Mariupol.

"Our presence will put a humanitarian marker on this planned movement of people, giving the convoy additional protection and reminding all sides of the civilian, humanitarian nature of the operation.

"The parties to the conflict would also need to fulfil the agreements reached to allow for this operation to happen."


"If and when the safe passage operation does happen, the ICRC’s role as a neutral intermediary would be to accompany the convoy out from Mariupol to another city in Ukraine."

[DaffyVina]

18:01 1 Apr
Russian troops take 200 Chernobyl guards prisoner - mayor

More now on the news that Russian troops have withdrawn from the now-defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, which they seized on 24 February - the first day of the war.

The mayor of Slavutych, the town where most of Chernobyl's workers live, told the BBC that around 200 Ukrainian national guard members - who were among those stuck at the power plant while it was under Russian control - have likely been taken prisoner by the Russian troops as they left.

"We consider them prisoners of war," Yuri Fomichev said, adding that they have been out of contact since Thursday. "We are working on a prisoner swap."

It is not yet clear if Russian troops had left the entire Chernobyl exclusion zone, or just the immediate area around the power plant, Fomichev said.

"The whole Chernobyl zone is very big. We can't monitor it all - we only know what is happening directly around the power station where our workers are."

According to the mayor, the situation around the power plant is too uncertain to allow current workers at the site to be relieved by a new group of employees.

Chernobyl was the site of the world's worst nuclear accident in 1986, when one of the reactors exploded.

A 4,000-sq-km (2,485 sq-mile) uninhabited exclusion zone was set up around the plant to protect the population from the radiation.