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11:10 5 Apr
Moscow protester binds hands like Bucha victims
A protester in Moscow has been pictured lying face down on the ground with his hands bound in tribute to the way the bodies of some Ukrainians have been found in cities near Kyiv that had, until recently, been occupied by Russian forces.

Shocking images of bodies in the streets of Bucha - some with their hands tied - have provoked an outpouring of international condemnation of Russia in recent days.

The photos of the protest have been shared by the Russian independent site, Holod.media. The site's staff have fled Russia and have frequently been targeted by the Russian authorities - but have not yet been blocked, unlike other publications.

The protester is pictured in various parts of the Russian capital including on a bridge near the city's Christ the Saviour cathedral.

Although protests in Russia have become increasingly restricted in recent years, numerous rallies and smaller-scale demonstrations have taken place since President Putin's invasion of Ukraine.


Twitter Link: https://twitter.com/holodmedia/status/1 ... 8082690053

(Russian users remember to use Onion/ Tor browser)

Холод
@holodmedia
Акция «Буча-Москва»

1. Александровский сад
2. Мост у Храма Христа Спасителя
3. Никольская улица
4. Старый Арбат

12:03 5 Apr
Some 18,500 Russians killed in combat, says Ukraine

Some 18,500 members of the Russian forces have been killed in combat since the invasion began, Ukrainian officials say.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a Facebook post that other Russian losses since the invasion on 24 February include 676 tanks, 1,858 armoured vehicles, 150 war planes and 134 helicopters.

The Russian defence ministry hasn't released its own figures since 25 March, when it said a total of 1,351 Russian servicemen had been killed and 3,825 wounded.

The BBC can't independently verify these figures.


12:22 5 Apr
Italy, Denmark and Sweden expel Russian diplomats

Reports of atrocities near Kyiv prompted France and Germany to expel Russian diplomats on Monday and Reuters news agency reports that Italy, Denmark and Sweden have now done the same.

Italy has expelled 30 Russian diplomats because of security concerns, it quotes a spokesman for Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio as saying.

And it says Denmark has expelled 15 of Russia's diplomats following emerging evidence of civilian killings in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, near Kyiv.

Sweden also says it will expel three Russian diplomats who aren't acting in line with the Vienna Convention's international rules, foreign minister Ann Linde is reported as saying.

Russia's former president and deputy security council chairman Dmitry Medvedev has responded by saying it will retaliate and "slam shut the door on Western embassies", Reuters adds.


13:37 5 Apr
Spain joins other countries in expelling Russian diplomats
Spain has become the latest EU nation to kick out Russian diplomats, amid a global outcry over alleged civilian killings by the Kremlin's troops in Ukraine.

Madrid's decision to expel 25 diplomats and embassy staff follows similar moves by Germany, France, Italy, Sweden and Denmark.

Spain's foreign minister says he expects Russia to respond with its own expulsions. Moscow continues to deny its troops committed atrocities in the Ukrainian city of Bucha and elsewhere.


14:30 5 Apr
Russia planning 'large-scale provocation' in Mariupol, says Ukraine
Ahead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's UN address, the country's security service, the SBU, has claimed Russia is planning a large-scale provocation in the southern city of Mariupol with the intention of blaming it on Ukrainian troops.

In a telegram post, the SBU said that data shows Russian forces "plan to gather bodies of Mariupol residents killed by the Russians themselves in one place and present them as mass victims of Ukrainian troops".

"The atrocities... in Bucha came as a shock to the whole world," the SBU said.

"So the main task of Russian propaganda today is to divert the attention of the audience, both international and domestic, as much as possible."

Russia denies any involvement in civilian killings in the town of Bucha, near Kyiv, claiming that the visual evidence has been faked - but its denials in the face of mounting evidence have been met with outrage.

14:38 5 Apr
EU outlines new sanctions against Russia

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has set out proposals for new sanctions targeting Russia's economy.

In a statement, she accused Moscow of “waging a cruel and ruthless war” and said its alleged atrocities in Ukraine “cannot and will not be left unanswered".

Her six measures include:

An import ban on coal from Russia
A full transaction ban on four key Russian banks - among them the country’s second largest, VTB
A ban on Russian ships and Russian-operated ships from accessing EU ports
Further bans on exports, targeting areas in which Russia is vulnerable, such as transportation equipment
New import bans on products including seafood, liquor, and wood
Additional targeted measures which include halting financial support for Russian public bodies
The plans require the approval of the EU's 27 member states.

Previously, there have been divisions within the EU about which action to take against Russia - with countries like Germany heavily reliant on imports of Russian fuels.

Moscow continues to deny any involvement in the alleged war crimes in Bucha and elsewhere.


Bucha killings: 'I wish they had killed me too'
By Joel Gunter
in Bucha, Ukraine
Published8 hours ago
Rodion Miroshynk and Daria Sipigina contributed to this report. Photographs by Joel Gunter.

Photo: Iryna Abramov
Image caption, Iryna Abramov stands outside her destroyed home in Bucha, where her husband was killed. 'I wish they had killed me too,' she said.

Volodymyr Abramov was desperately trying to put out the fire in his home, in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, calling out for his son-in-law to help.

Russian troops had smashed through the front gates of Volodymyr's home, opened fire at the house, and dragged Volodymyr, 72, his daughter Iryna, 48, and her husband Oleg, 40, out into the yard.

The soldiers took Oleg out beyond the gate onto the pavement, Volodymyr said, and threw a grenade in through the front door of the house that exploded with a deafening bang and set the house on fire.

Volodymyr grabbed a small fire extinguisher and tried in vain to extinguish the flames. "Where is Oleg? Oleg will help!" he shouted to his daughter.

But the reply came from one of the Russian soldiers, he said.

"Oleg will not help you anymore."

They found Oleg on the pavement outside the gate, and it was clear from the way he was lying that he had been forced to kneel and shot in the head at point blank range, Iryna said. He was a welder who lived a quiet life on the corner of Yablonska Street in Bucha, who was taken out of his home and killed in an apparent execution.

Volodymyr Abramov stands in the house once shared by his daughter and son-in-law
Image caption, Volodymyr Abramov stands in the house once shared by his daughter and son-in-law. "I felt empty when they killed Oleg," he said. "I only wanted to die."

The killing is one of scores - if not hundreds - being uncovered in Bucha after Russian troops withdrew from the Kyiv suburb recently. The mayor, Anatoliy Fedoruk, said on Monday that at least 300 civilians had been killed. There is no official tally yet.

Russia has denied any involvement in the atrocities. But its burned-out tanks litter the city. On the grounds of a church, there is an open mass grave with the dead still inside, some in black body bags, some loose in the sand. On the roads, there are bullet-riddled civilian cars - at least one with a body still inside. Houses are caved in by shelling, their driveways ploughed over by tanks. Residents have described Russian soldiers shooting civilians outside their homes with no provocation, and satellite imagery shows that bodies were lying in the streets while the Russians were still in control.

The Russian soldiers who killed Oleg Abramov "did not ask him anything", his wife Iryna said.

"They didn't ask anything or say anything, they just killed him," she said. "They only told him to take off his shirt, kneel down, and they shot him."

Volodymyr Abramov points to the spot on the pavement outside their house where he says his son-in-law was forced to kneel and shot in the head
Image caption, Volodymyr Abramov points to the spot on the pavement outside their house where he says his son-in-law was forced to kneel and shot in the head

She wept on Tuesday as she stood on the spot where he was killed, where a dark patch of blood was still visible on the street. When she ran out and found his disfigured body, the four Russian soldiers who dragged him out were standing casually drinking water, she said. She screamed at them to shoot her, and one raised his gun, then lowered it, then raised it again, and lowered it, until Volodymyr dragged her back inside the gate.

"Those soldiers told us we had three minutes to leave and they forced us to run in our slippers," Volodymyr said. "Bucha was like an apocalypse - dead bodies everywhere, the streets full of smoke."

Volodymyr and Iryna had no choice but to leave Oleg's body lying on the street and it lay there for nearly a month while they sheltered at a relative's house nearby. When it was safe to return, Volodymyr tried to bury his son-in-law on a rough patch of earth by the pavement, and the half-dug hole was still visible there on Tuesday.

But exhausted by the effort, and afraid of Russian soldiers, Volodymyr carried Oleg back inside the yard and laid him there. Later, Ukrainian soldiers loaded the body into a van, Volodymyr said, and took it away. "I have no idea how we are going to find it now," he said.

A mass gave on the grounds of a church in Bucha, where bodies were discovered when the Russians retreated
Image caption, A mass gave on the grounds of a church in Bucha, where bodies were discovered when the Russians retreated

Ukrainian authorities have now cleared the bodies off the streets of Bucha but there are fears more will be found in the basements and yards of private homes. Officials have only just begun the process of cataloguing the horrors. And so great is the damage in Bucha, it is hard to imagine the scale of the reconstruction needed to restore it to the attractive suburb it once was.

Along one road through the town on Tuesday, where burned-out tanks were piled up and almost every house was destroyed, 84-year-old Hryhoriy Zamohylnyi was sweeping the street, as if oblivious to the total destruction around him. Somehow, his home was intact - the only building left undamaged along the whole stretch of road.

"I saw the war with the Germans and now this war with the Russians," said Zamohylnyi, a former engineer, born and raised in Bucha. "What you see here is animal cruelty," he said.

Addressing the UN security council on Tuesday, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, accused the Russians of committing the worst crimes since World War Two, and called for those responsible to be tried as the Nazis were in Nuremberg.

"The Russian military searched for and purposefully killed anyone who served our country," he said. "They killed entire families, adults and children, and they tried to burn the bodies."

The ruins of the Abramovs' home in Bucha
Image caption, The ruins of the Abramovs' home in Bucha

Ukraine has begun a war crimes investigation into Russia's actions in Bucha and nearby Irpin. It says 410 bodies have been found across the two suburbs so far.

There are fears now that more atrocities will be found as the Russians retreat further and more suburbs are opened up - more bodies in the streets, more mass graves. Volodymyr and Iryna Abramov are only looking for one body, and their fear is that they will never find it.

"He was just a peaceful man, a family man, a welder, who struggled with a spine fracture and was disabled all his life," Volodymyr said.

"Just before he died, while I was in the yard, I saw him briefly through the open gate, on his knees, and he said his final words. He asked them why."


War in Ukraine: 'I saw a Russian soldier shoot my father dead in Bucha'
By Hugo Bachega
BBC News, Lviv, Ukraine
Published12 hours ago

Yuriy and his father, Ruslan
IMAGE SOURCE,FAMILY PICTURE
Image caption, Yuriy and his father, Ruslan, were trying to get humanitarian aid when a Russian soldier stopped them

At around 11:00 on 17 March, Yuriy Nechyporenko and his father, Ruslan, were cycling to Bucha's administration building where aid was being handed out. Electricity, gas and water had been cut, and essentials were in short supply in the town, one of the first to be occupied by Russian forces as they advanced on Ukraine's capital Kyiv.

Yuriy and his father hoped to pick up some medicine and food. Yuriy said a Russian soldier stopped him and his father on Tarasivska St. They immediately raised their hands.

Speaking to the BBC by phone alongside his mother, Alla, the 14-year-old gave his account of what happened next. "We told them that we weren't carrying any weapons and that we didn't pose any danger," he said.

"Then my father turned his head my way, and that's when he got shot… He was shot twice in the chest, right where the heart is. Then he fell."

At that point, the teenager said, the soldier shot him in his left hand and he fell too. While he was on the ground, he said, he was shot again, this time in the arm.

"I was lying on my stomach, I couldn't see anything that was happening around me," Yuriy said. The soldier, he said, shot again, aiming at his head. "[But] the bullet went through my hood."

Yuriy said the soldier shot again, this time at his father's head. But Ruslan was already dead. "I had a small panic attack, lying there with my wounded arm underneath me. I saw that my hand was bleeding," he said.

It was only after a while, when the soldier went behind a tank, that Yuriy got up and ran, he said.

Yuriy shows wounds that, he says, were caused by a Russian soldier in Bucha
IMAGE SOURCE,FAMILY PICTURE
Image caption, Yuriy shows wounds that, he says, were caused by a Russian soldier in Bucha

The BBC has not independently verified the details of Yuriy's account, but it comes as evidence grows of atrocities committed by Russian forces while they were in control of Bucha and other towns north of Kyiv.

In Bucha alone, bodies of dead men were found lying in the street, many with extensive wounds. Some had been shot through the temple, as if executed. Others had their hands or legs tied behind their backs. Some had clearly been run over by tanks.

Many of the bodies were seen along a stretch of Yablonska St, just 2km (one mile) from the street where Ruslan is said to have been killed.

Map of Bucha

Yuriy's mother Alla told the BBC how she had gone to see her husband after the teenager returned home and told her what had happened. She thought Yuriy could be wrong, and that Ruslan was wounded, in need of medical help.

"My son begged me not to," Alla said. "He said they would kill me too."

When she tried to walk down the street, she said, her neighbours stopped her. "[They] told me not to go further, saying the Russians were killing everyone in the territories under their control."

The next morning, Alla got her mother to help. Wearing white scarves, they went to the site of the shooting. Her mother talked to Russian soldiers and they managed to get through. They finally collected Ruslan's body, and brought it home.

A photograph of the partially covered body, taken by Alla and shared with the BBC, appears to confirm Yuriy's testimony. It shows a gunshot wound to the right side of the chest, near the heart.

Ruslan, a lawyer, was 49 when he was killed. He was "active in the community," Alla said. "He couldn't just sit in the shelter and wait. So, he was volunteering and helping people."

They buried him in the garden of the family home.

Yuriy said the soldier who killed him was clearly Russian. His uniform was dark green, he said, typical of the Russian army. "I saw that on his flak jacket it was written 'Russia' in Russian," he said.

"We were no danger to the military, we were civilians, wearing white scarves to show that," Yuriy said. "It's very stupid."

Additional reporting by Svetlana Libet

15:28 5 Apr
I will never forget images of Bucha bodies - UN Secretary-General

The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, has been speaking to the Security Council ahead of Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky's appearance.

Guterres says he will "never forget" seeing images of dead civilians in Bucha, adding that he was shocked by the emerging evidence of other war crimes allegedly carried out by Russia.

He says it's also his duty to call the council's attention to the serious consequences of the war in Ukraine on the global economy.

Some 74 developing countries are particularly vulnerable to spiking costs for food, energy and fertilisers, he says - and the council member states must do what they can to protect people.

"This is not a time for protectionism," he said.


15:38 5 Apr
'Perilous conditions' hampering aid efforts - UN humanitarian chief
Martin Griffiths, from the UN's department for humanitarian affairs, is up next at the Security Council.

He draws attention to the huge number of people who have fled Ukraine since Russia's invasion and the toll this has taken on neighbouring countries trying to accommodate refugees.

Griffiths, who is speaking to the meeting virtually from Geneva, says more than a quarter of the population of Ukraine has fled during the conflict.

These figures "will continue to rise until we can find a pause, and some peace", he adds.

Griffiths adds that "perilous conditions" are hampering the efforts of humanitarian workers to help the tens of thousands of people who remain trapped in the besieged port city of Mariupol.

Civilians must be able to move to safer areas without fear of attack, he urges.


15:45 5 Apr
Zelensky speaking to UN on 'behalf of victims of Russia'

Zelensky tells the UN Security Council he is addressing them on behalf of victims of Russia.

Speaking to the council for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine, he says Russian troops have killed civilians and raped women.

Zelensky's comments follow his visit to the town of Bucha on Monday, where the bodies of dead Ukrainian civilians were seen.

He accuses Russia of committing genocide.


16:16 5 Apr
Russia should not be on UN Human Rights Council, says US

The US has reiterated its call for Russia to be suspended from the UN Human Rights Council - saying Washington "has assessed" that war crimes have been committed in Ukraine.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, told the Security Council "Russia should not have a position of authority in a body whose very purpose is to promote respect for human rights".

She said Russian participation "hurts" the human rights council's credibility, following the "unprovoked war and the humanitarian crisis".

Turning to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, following his address to the security council, Thomas-Greenfield said: "We stand with the people of Ukraine as you face down this brutal attack on your sovereignty, your democracy, and your freedom."


16:29 5 Apr
Zelensky shows harrowing video at UN meeting
After some technical difficulties, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has just shown the UN Security Council a video of footage from Ukraine.

The clip lasted about a minute and showed image after image of dead Ukrainians - including some burned and disfigured bodies. The BBC has not independently verified the video.

Dame Barbara Woodward - the UK's representative on the council, who is sitting as the council's president - thanked Zelensky for sharing the video.

The images "are harrowing", she says.

"Speaking in my national capacity, we are appalled by what we have seen and reiterate our solidarity with Ukraine," she adds.


16:31 5 Apr
Russian representative addresses UN council
The Russian representative to the UN Security Council, Vasily Nebenzya, is now addressing the meeting.

He repeats the baseless Russian allegation that Ukraine's government - led by President Zelensky, who is Jewish - are Nazis.


16:47 5 Apr
Russia repeats debunked claims about Bucha footage
Russian representative to the UN Security Council, Vasily Nebenzya, has rejected accusations of war crimes by Russian troops in Bucha, arguing there are “flagrant inconsistencies in events shown by Ukrainian and Western media".

He claimed that corpses found by reporters in the Ukrainian city were not there right after the withdrawal of the Russian forces – adding that this was “confirmed by several videos”.

Nebenzya added: “The corpses in no way resemble those that could be lying on the street for three or four days.”

However, satellite imagery confirmed by the BBC appears to show bodies on the road in Bucha nearly two weeks before the Russians left the town.




17:42 5 Apr
More than 7.1 million people displaced by Ukraine war - report

More than 7.1 million people have been displaced by the war in Ukraine, a report by the UN's International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has found.

That's a 10% increase in the number of people displaced within the country since the first round of the survey on 16 March, the IOM said.

That number is part of the more than 10 million people who have now fled their homes in Ukraine because of the Russian invasion, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

More than half of the displaced households have children, 57% are with elderly family members, and 30% have people with chronic illnesses, the IOM report showed.

The income of displaced households dropped sharply since the war started according to the report, with more than a third of displaced households indicating they have had no income in the last month.

21:25 5 Apr
Medical charity staff 'saw Mykolaiv hospital bombing'
Volunteers and staff clean up the destruction left after the Russians targeted a hospital with a suspected cluster munition on April 04,
Copyright: Getty Images

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has said a hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv came under attack while one of its teams was visiting on 4 April.

They were at an oncology hospital, which has been treating the wounded since the war began, when there were several explosions over the course of about 10 minutes, Michel-Olivier Lacharité, MSF head of mission in Ukraine said.

The staff took cover and were not injured but "as they were leaving the area, the MSF team saw injured people and at least one dead body" the charity said in a statement.

The team added that the regional paediatric hospital, about 300 metres away, was also hit.

The BBC has not been able to independently verify these claims.

3:23 6 Apr
Mayor says Russians killed 320 civilians in Bucha

The mayor of the city of Bucha has told the BBC that some 320 civilians were shot dead by Russian troops during their occupation of the town.

Speaking on the Word Tonight, Anatoly Fedoruk said he had personally witnessed the executions of several people by Moscow's forces.

"I saw several episodes," Fedoruk said. "There were three civilian cars trying to evacuate themselves towards Kyiv and they were brutally shot. There was a pregnant woman whose husband was screaming asking not to shoot her but they just brutally shot her."

Fedoruk also alleged that Russian forces had been hunting local politicians during their occupation.

He called on Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who has denied allegations of war crimes by Moscow's troops, to "come over to the town of Bucha and to see the bodies of the dead people and to look into the eyes their families, mothers, husbands, kids who became orphans".


YouTube suspends channel of Chinese vlogger reporting on Ukraine
YouTube has suspended the account of a Chinese vlogger reporting on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Wang Jixian, a resident of Odesa for the past four years, said he had been posting videos of the Russian invasion to counter China's narrative of what was happening in the country. He says he had received multiple messages not to "provoke" Beijing.

China has been making concerted efforts to stifle strong views about the conflict in the country and has refrained from condemning Russia so far.

"I'm countering lies and panic by reporting from the front line," Wang told Radio Free Asia.

He says his YouTube account was suspended for posting "violent content" in a video from 28 March. Wang says his appeal against the suspension was ignored by the platform.

The BBC was able to confirm that although the channel is up, Wang is unable to post new videos.

Chinese censors have also cracked down on Wang's videos on the messaging app WeChat and Douyin, the country's version of TikTok.

Wang's Chinese social media accounts were previously banned after he spoke to CNN.


4:54 6 Apr
India supports Bucha killings probe in rare Russia condemnation

India said it “unequivocally condemned” the killings in Bucha and supported the call for an independent investigation into the "deeply disturbing reports".

The images of mass graves and bodies of civilians apparently executed in public places are the most shocking to emerge from Ukraine.

India's condemnation at the UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday is the country's strongest statement on Ukraine and Russia since the war began.

India has so far abstained from voting on resolutions at the UN Security Council, the UN General Assembly and at the UN Human Rights Council condemning Russian actions.

The country has a long history of pursuing a non-aligned strategy in international politics.

But its diplomatic balancing act is under pressure from Western countries to help rein in Russia.

India, which depends on Russia for oil imports, was criticised by the US and Australia last week for considering a Russian proposal that undermines Western sanctions.


6:01 6 Apr
Russia focused on controlling Donetsk and Luhansk - Ukraine army
Russian forces have focused their main efforts on an "aggressive" operation aimed at establishing complete control over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the General Staff of the Ukraine Armed Forces has said in its daily update.

There have also been continuous attacks in the eastern areas of the country, but without success, the update added.

It said Russian forces are also continuing their efforts to storm Mariupol, one of the most heavily bombed and damaged cities in Ukraine. Ukrainian troops had been fending off attacks on the city for over forty days.

It also alleged that Russia is continuing to actively use ammunition banned by international law.

The BBC has been unable to independently verify this.


6:17 6 Apr
Humanitarian situation worsening in Mariupol: UK MoD
Heavy fighting and Russian airstrikes have continued on the port city of Mariupol, according to the latest intelligence update from the UK's Ministry of Defence.

UK intelligence said the humanitarian situation in the city was "worsening".

"Most of the city’s 160,000 residents have no light, communication, medicine, heat or water. Russian forces have prevented humanitarian access, likely to pressure defenders to surrender," its latest statement said.

Mariupol has been encircled by Russian forces since the beginning of March. The Ukraine army said earlier today that its troops had been fending off attacks on the city for more than 40 days.

Last week, the International Committee of the Red Cross said it was forced to postpone an attempt to evacuate civilians from the besieged city after conditions made it impossible to proceed.

Life for civilians in Mariupol has been grim. Endless bombardments have left widespread destruction and the city's deputy mayor says people are dying from starvation and dehydration.

Russian forces have been advancing further into the centre of the city, but Ukrainian forces are still in control of some areas.


6:34 6 Apr
Destruction in the Ukrainian town of Borodyanka
Jeremy Bowen
BBC News, Borodyanka

Video content
Video caption: Standing amid the ruins of Ukrainian town Borodyanka

The town of Borodyanka may have faced some of the worst attacks since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.

Police in the town - about 60km (40 miles) northwest of Kyiv - say there could be hundreds of people buried under the rubble of civilian apartment blocks destroyed in Russian shelling attacks.


7:13 6 Apr
Hospitals bombed in Mykolaiv, says MSF chief

The international humanitarian charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) says hospitals, patients and medical staff must absolutely be spared from attack in Ukraine.

The call comes after the head of MSF's mission in Ukraine, Michel-Olivier Lacharité, told the BBC's Newsday programme that three hospitals were hit in the Black Sea port of Mykolaiv in the past two days.

He says the hospitals are in residential areas and he believes they may have been hit with cluster bombs.

"At the moment of the explosion there [was] a gas leak and smell. So our team tried to escape from the scene", he says.

"While they were escaping they saw dead bodies on the road and people wounded."

Video content
Video caption: Medical charity MSF says its team witnessed Russian strikes on three hospitals


8:38 6 Apr
Thousands flee as Russia steps up its push for eastern Ukraine
Jonathan Beale
BBC defence correspondent, Donbas

A man crosses a destroyed bridge near the village of Bohorodychne in the Donbas region on 5 April, 2022
Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

Thousands of people who live in the Donbas in eastern Ukraine are fleeing west.

We passed a 50-mile tailback of traffic as we headed in the opposite direction - towards the fighting.

This is where Russia is stepping up its offensive, having withdrawn forces from the north.

Ukrainian troops are at check points on all roads in and out of the region.

They’re also preparing defensive positions, with some of Ukraine’s most experienced troops in the area.

It’s where they’ve been fighting Russian-backed separatists for the past eight years.

Russian forces now occupy most of Luhansk and more than half of Donetsk. They’re slowly trying to surround Ukrainian forces.


8:48 6 Apr
Child death toll climbs across Ukraine
A shelled playground in Sievierodonetsk, in eastern Ukraine
Copyright: Getty Images

At least 167 children have been killed in Ukraine and 279 wounded in the Russian invasion, Ukrainian officials say.

Some 927 schools and other educational buildings have been damaged in shelling and bombardment, the Ukrainian prosecutor-general's office added in a message on Telegram this morning.

The biggest number of child casualties (81) was registered in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, followed by the wider region of Kyiv (78) and the Kharkiv region (64).

The BBC cannot independently verify these figures.


9:03 6 Apr
What's the EU's latest plan to sanction Russia?

European Union ambassadors are meeting today to decide whether to impose fresh sanctions on Russia.

Calls in the West for new measures to damage the Russian economy have intensified following allegations of war crimes in Ukraine. Moscow denies that its forces have committed atrocities.

Yesterday, European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen set out a list of proposals, including:

A ban on EU nations importing Russian coal worth €4bn (£3.3bn) a year, and a full ban on four top Russian banks
A ban on Russian ships entering EU ports (with some exemptions) and on Russian road transport operators
Bans on EU exports of some tech and machinery including advanced semiconductors, and on imports on Russian alcohol, seafood, and wood
A restriction on Russian companies competing for contracts across the EU
The EU was also working on other sanctions including on imports of Russian oil, von der Leyen said.

Fuel bans have so far proven a sticking point, with countries including Germany heavily reliant on buying from Russia.


9:16 6 Apr
Five humanitarian corridors planned in eastern region of Luhansk
Ukrainian authorities in the Luhansk region hope to evacuate civilians through five humanitarian corridors on Wednesday, ahead of a feared Russian offensive in the east, Reuters reports.

"We will take everyone out if the Russians allow us to get to the meeting places [for evacuation]. Because, as you can see, they don't always observe ceasefires," the Luhansk region governor Serhiy Gaidai writes on Telegram.

"I appeal to every resident of the Luhansk region – evacuate while it is safe... While there are buses and trains – take this opportunity."

In a separate video address, Gaidai says Russian forces haven't managed to break through Ukrainian defences in his region but are destroying "everything in their path".


9:31 6 Apr
More than 400 people missing from Hostomel, say local officials
Ukrainian officials say more than 400 people are missing from the town of Hostomel which, along with Bucha and Irpin, bore the brunt of Russia's offensive on Ukraine's capital Kyiv.

Local official Taras Dumenko says most of the bodies of Hostomel's residents were found in neighbouring villages and the town of Bucha.

He says the Russians must have abducted people and taken them away, many of them to be shot, reports the Interfax Ukraine news agency.


9:58 6 Apr
In eastern Ukraine, some don't blame Putin for the war
Jonathan Beale
BBC News, Donbas

Donbas region
Copyright: BBC
Image caption: We're very near the front line in this part of the Donbas

Thousands of people who live in the Donbas in eastern Ukraine are fleeing west, as Russia is stepping up its offensive.

There are still some signs of life in the villages, towns and cities we travel through in this region of eastern Ukraine - but they're quickly emptying out.

We visited the town of Lysychansk, about a mile from the front line. It's one of many residential areas to have been hit by Russian artillery over the past few days.

Shattered glass and blocks of concrete lay strewn across the streets, along with the twisted steel remnants of the shelling. We could still hear the occasional rumble of artillery in the distance.

A Ukrainian soldier led us through the mostly-deserted streets to an underground shelter.

Inside in a gloomy room we talked to two old women, who were trying to keep warm in front of an electric fire.

We asked them who they thought was responsible for shelling their town - astonishingly, neither blamed Russia or President Vladimir Putin. They thought their grim situation was as much the fault of Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The women, who'd grown up in the Soviet era, seemed to share Putin's nostalgia for the past.

Our translator explained they'd probably watched and believed what they'd seen and heard from Russian state media.

This wasn't the view of everyone we spoke to, but it highlights the closer ties eastern Ukraine has to Russia - as well as a generational divide.



10:35 6 Apr
More detail on humanitarian corridors from Luhansk
Ukraine's deputy prime minister has said in online comments that she's aiming for 11 humanitarian corridors to open today to help evacuate civilians, Reuters reports.

Five of these corridors are to get people to safety from the region of Luhansk, in eastern Ukraine, ahead of an expected Russian offensive.

The corridors will take civilians west from Sievierodonetsk, Lysychansk, Popasna, Rubizhne and Hirske to the town of Bakhmut, Ukrainian news site Ukrinform says.

Deputy PM Iryna Vereshchuk said on her Telegram channel that 3,846 people were evacuated yesterday including 1,080 people from the Luhansk region.


11:04 6 Apr
Pope condemns Bucha 'massacre' and kisses Ukrainian flag
Pope Francis kissing Ukrainian flag sent to him from the town of Bucha
Copyright: EPA
Image caption: Pope Francis kisses Ukrainian flag sent to him from the town of Bucha during his weekly general audience in Vatican City

Pope Francis condemned the "massacre of Bucha" and kissed a Ukrainian flag he said was sent to him from the town during his weekly audience at the Vatican's auditorium.

"Recent news from the war in Ukraine, instead of bringing relief and hope, brought new atrocities, such as the massacre of Bucha," Reuters quoted him as saying.

"Cruelty that is increasingly horrendous, even against civilians, defenceless women and children."

On Tuesday at the UN Security Council, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused the Russian military of carrying out the worst crimes since World War Two. The Kremlin has claimed there is no evidence Russian troops have carried out the atrocities they have been accused of.

Pope Francis with Ukrainian refugees
Copyright: Reuters
Image caption: Pope Francis asked a group of Ukrainian children refugees to join him

Pope Francis unfolded a Ukrainian flag he said had been brought to him from Bucha and held it up for the audience, which broke into applause.

He then asked a group of children refugees who arrived on Tuesday from Ukraine to come up to him.

"These children had to flee in order to arrive in a safe land. This is the fruit of war. Let's not forget them and let's not forget the Ukrainian people," he said, before giving each child a gift of a chocolate Easter egg.


11:15 6 Apr
EU must impose oil and gas sanctions on Russia 'sooner or later'
President of the European Council Charles Michel delivers a speech during a debate at the European Parliamentament in Strasbourg, France
Copyright: EPA
European Union leaders are facing growing pressure to sanction Russian energy exports following accusations its troops have carried out war crimes in Ukraine.

The EU Commission is proposing a ban on coal exports that'll be considered today as part of a wide-ranging fifth package of sanctions.

But the head of the European Council, Charles Michel, has told the European Parliament he thinks "measures on oil and even gas will also be needed sooner or later".

Other Western allies, including the United States and Britain, are expected to impose additional sanctions on Russia today.


12:47 6 Apr
25 women and girls say they were raped by Russian troops in Bucha - Ukrainian official
Lyudmyla Denisova, the Ukrainian Parliament's Human Rights Commissioner
Copyright: BBC
Twenty-five women and girls have said they were raped by Russian forces in Bucha, a senior Ukrainian official has told the BBC.

Lyudmyla Denisova, the Ukrainian Parliament's Human Rights Commissioner, said a telephone helpline offering support had received at least 25 reports of rape of women and girls aged between 14 and 24 by Russian soldiers.

She said Ukraine had evidence of "genocide of Ukrainian people" and of military crimes, adding that rape was "the new weapon" of Russian forces.

Denisova added: "Together there were 25 women aged 14-24 that were raped by Russian soldiers.

"That was happening for a month. We will keep documenting these terrible crimes, unfortunately, and every criminal will be punished."

Russia has denied carrying out atrocities in Bucha.


13:14 6 Apr
Russian airstrikes continue on devastated Mariupol - city mayor
Hugo Bachega
BBC News, Lviv

The mayor of the besieged Ukrainian port of Mariupol, Vadym Boychenko, says the humanitarian condition in the city is "terrible", and that Russian airstrikes have continued almost non-stop.

Boychenko has told the BBC that Russia launched more than 100 missiles on Tuesday alone.

The BBC cannot independently verify the claim as communication with the city is extremely difficult.

The mayor is no longer in the city, which has been surrounded by Russian troops for more than a month, and receives updates from remaining residents.

Pictures from Mariupol show a city devastated, with the city council estimating that 90% of buildings have been damaged or destroyed, a third of them beyond repair.

Boychenko estimated that at least 120,000 residents remain in Mariupol. Attempts by the Red Cross to allow the safe evacuation of civilians have failed in recent days.

"It's a real hell that Russia created in my city," Boychenko says. "They are war criminals and must be punished for what they’ve done. But all we have to do now is to safely evacuate people from the city".

The latest assessment by the UK Ministry of Defence says heavy fighting and Russian airstrikes have continued, and that the situation for civilians is worsening.


13:31 6 Apr
Red Cross meets convoy of people fleeing Mariupol
The International Committee of the Red Cross in Ukraine says it has met a convoy of private vehicles which had made its own way out of Mariupol and then accompanied the 500 people travelling from the besieged southern city to safety in Zaporizhzhia.

The organisation has not been able to reach Mariupol itself.


13:41 6 Apr
The families fleeing besieged areas of Ukraine
Tom Bateman
BBC News, Zaporizhzhia

Liudmyla with her young child
Copyright: BBC
Image caption: Liudmyla, a mother of five small children, is sharing a small room with another family

We're on the outskirts of the town of Zaporizhzhia in south-east Ukraine, heading back into the centre as we've heard a Red Cross humanitarian escort is due to arrive.

I've just been at a dormitory housing dozens of families who have escaped the besieged port city of Mariupol and other towns in the region.

A mother of five young children, Liudmyla, is sharing a small room with another family.

They managed to get out of the town of Huliaipole, which she says has been flattened by Russian bombardment.

The children told me they were terrified. They have been hearing the sound of shelling and explosions and they saw Russian tanks and soldiers at the end of their street. They spent three days in the basement, with food and provisions running out.

It's a story I’m hearing over and over again as more families manage to make it north from Mariupol and the areas nearby.

There are thought to be hundreds of people on the Red Cross convoy heading into Zaporizhzhia.

They had made their own way to a town near Mariupol as the aid team still can't access the city.


14:02 6 Apr
What's the latest on Nato talks?
Paul Adams
BBC diplomatic correspondent

As Nato foreign ministers gather in Brussels, the next phase of Russia’s war in Ukraine is very much on their minds.

Nato’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg thinks it will be some weeks before Russia's ready to launch its next big offensive in the Donbas.

Troops and equipment have only just been withdrawn from the area around Kyiv and will take time to be resupplied and relocated to the east.

Other forces including foreign fighters, mercenaries and conscripts are being added to the mix.

But when the offensive comes, Nato officials warn that it will be “horrendous and barbaric”.

They believe Russian President Vladimir Putin would like to be able to declare some kind of victory, however limited, by 9 May when Russia holds its annual Victory Day parade, marking the defeat of Nazi Germany at the end of the Second World War.

Nato members are determined to use the coming days and weeks to make sure Ukraine is as ready as it can be, and deny the Kremlin anything to celebrate.

14:14 6 Apr
No indication that Putin has changed his ambition - Nato
Nato's secretary general Jens Stoltenberg is just speaking in Brussels, where foreign ministers from the security alliance are gathering this afternoon.

"We have seen no indication that President Putin has changed his ambition to control the whole of Ukraine and rewrite the international order," he says.

The secretary general says that Nato needs to support Ukraine, sustain the sanctions on Russia and strengthen its own defences and deterrents.

He says the conflict may last a long time "and we need to be prepared for that".

14:27 6 Apr
Red Cross escorts shell-shocked civilians from Mariupol to relative safety
Tom Bateman
BBC News, Zaporizhzhia

Eight buses escorted by the International Committee of the Red Cross have arrived in the the town of Zaporizhzhia, carrying civilians who have fled Mariupol and towns nearby.

A little boy is leaning out of a window, waving at us.

This is the first official convoy to make it through Russian lines since the Red Cross team was held by police in Russian-occupied territory outside Mariupol on Monday.

People are disembarking. They are exhausted and shell shocked. There’s a tent here where families are starting to gather and are being given a hot meal, water and tea.

Mother and daughter Tetiana and Yulia made it to the city in their own vehicle shortly before the convoy. They tell me how they had to survive by drinking dirty water from a well in Mariupol.

“There are starving people,” says Yulia. “People are having mental breakdowns."

"People are being buried in the streets. Shallow graves, half a metre deep at best. [There are] dead bodies all over the streets.”

The BBC has not been able to independently verify this account.

Yulia
BBCCopyright: BBC
Yulia made her own way out of Mariupol with her mother and daughters


14:53 6 Apr
'Evacuate eastern regions while there's still time'
Ukrainian evacuees in Kramatorsk
Copyright: Getty Images
Image caption: Large numbers of people are already trying to leave the Donbas

Ukraine's deputy prime minister has warned people in large parts of eastern Ukraine to evacuate while it's still possible.

Iryna Vereshchuk said that military leaders in the Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk regions were asking local people to try to leave and that they were doing all they could to make this happen "in an organised way".

If people did not leave, she said, they would soon find themselves under fire and under threat of death.

"There is nothing that they can do against this, and we won't be able to help them," she added.

Russia has said it is refocusing its military operations on the Donbas, comprising both the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city, is close to the Russian border and has been targeted by Russian forces since the beginning of the war.


16:14 6 Apr
More than 1,000 people escorted to safety, Red Cross says
Pascal Hundt
Copyright: BBC
Image caption: Pascal Hundt said it had been a complex operation

As we reported earlier, the International Committee of the Red Cross said it today helped escort people who had been the besieged city of Mariupol to safety in the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia.

The ICRC led a convoy made up of private vehicles which had made their own way out o­f Mariupol after the organisation had been unable to enter the besieged city itself.

Giving more details of the operation to BBC News, the ICRC's Pascal Hundt said the organisation had got within 20km of Mariupol but had been unable to proceed because of the security conditions in Mariupol.

He said yesterday evening the ICRC collected people leaving Mariupol and also from the southern city Berdyansk.

Other buses and private cars went onto join the convoy, he said, meaning that more than 1,000 people ended up reaching Zaporizhzhia just after noon local time.

He added: "It was a difficult operation, complex operation, but we really feel relieved that more than 1,000 people managed to leave from hell where they wanted to go."

He said he hoped more rescue operations would happen in the days to come, adding that the ICRC would "spare no efforts" to make this possible.


16:26 6 Apr
Why does Putin want to control the Donbas?
A child on a train at Kramatorsk central station.
Copyright: Getty Images
Image caption: A child on a train at Kramatorsk central station as families flee the city in the Donbas region

People living in the east of Ukraine have been urged by the government to evacuate while they have the chance. But what is Russia planning in the region?

Moscow has pulled troops away from Kyiv and shifted its focus to the old coal and steel-producing Donbas – which comprises two big eastern regions, Luhansk and Donetsk.

The Russian leader has repeatedly made the unfounded accusation that Ukraine has carried out genocide in the east.

When the war began, two-thirds of the eastern regions were in Ukrainian hands. The rest was run by Russian-backed separatists.

President Putin has recognised the two eastern regions as independent of Ukraine.

The next step would be to annexe Donbas, just like Putin did with Crimea after a discredited referendum in 2014.


17:49 6 Apr
Russia facing expulsion from UN Human Rights Council

The United Nations will hold a vote in New York on Thursday on whether to expel Russia from its Human Rights Council.

Yesterday, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told a UN meeting that the Kremlin’s troops had killed Ukrainians “for pleasure”. The Russian ambassador denied accusations of war crimes by his country.

The council is formed of 47 member states, and works to promote and protect human rights around the world.

The proposal to kick out Russia – made by the US and UK – would need the support of two-thirds of the UN’s 193 members to be passed on Thursday.

An earlier UN resolution to denounce the Russian invasion of Ukraine met the approval of 141 countries last month.


18:08 6 Apr
UK security guard accused of spying for Russia
A security guard at the British embassy in Berlin who is accused of spying for Russia has been charged with nine offences under the Official Secrets Act, the UK's Met Police have said.

David Smith, 57, a British national, was extradited from Germany to the UK on Wednesday and will appear at Westminster Magistrates' court on Thursday, Scotland Yard said.

Smith, who had been living in Potsdam, Germany, is accused of seven offences of collecting information with the intent of sending it to the Russian authorities, one of attempting communication and one of providing information to a person he believed was a member of the Russian authorities.

The alleged offences were committed between October 2020 and August 2021.

The Met said its investigation was being led by its Counter Terrorism Command.

Borodyanka: 'There are a lot of people left under the rubble'
By Jeremy Bowen
BBC News, Borodyanka
Published21 hours ago

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

The destruction in the centre of Borodyanka is the worst for its size I have seen in any of the towns around Kyiv, including Irpin and Bucha, which were much fought over.

Down the main street from the roundabout at the entrance to the town there is a massive amount of damage. Destroyed and burnt-out buildings, homes turned to rubble, the twisted wreckage of cars, and then more collapsed buildings.

Borodyanka, which is not far from the border with Belarus and was on the main axis of the Russian advance on Kyiv, has been very heavily shelled.

It is not the kind of shelling that happens in a couple of bombardments. This takes application.

Map showing buildings on the main street of Borodyanka which are damaged beyond repair and an image of a collapsed apartment block.
Several witnesses told the BBC that Russian troops stopped attempts to dig survivors out of wrecked buildings, threatening people who wanted to do so at gunpoint.

Ukrainian officials say that the Russians may have committed worse atrocities in Borodyanka than in Bucha, where bodies of men who looked to have been summarily killed were found lying in the street after the Russians pulled out, and several hundred other bodies were in a mass grave.

At the moment, though, the extent of what was done to civilians in Borodyanka during the Russian occupation is not yet clear.
The reason is that the rubble of bomb sites has not yet been moved. Those in the town believe that corpses of civilians are lying under them, but the number is not known.

Image shows destroyed building
Image caption, Local residents say they were prevented from digging for survivors after buildings were turned into rubble

The worst killing in Borodyanka might have come when several large blocks of flats were destroyed.

In a line of big cream-coloured buildings, several have been flattened. The fire-blackened gaps that they occupied are like missing teeth.

Tons of concrete and steel collapsed into the cellars under the flats. Several people said dozens of civilians were lying dead under the rubble. The police said it could be hundreds. They are waiting for cranes and heavy lifting gear to start moving huge amounts of rubble to recover bodies.

Dmytro Stashevskyi, a middle-aged man, is lucky to be alive. I met him when he was cleaning up a smashed and looted shop he rented out as a pharmacy.

Image shows two men in destroyed shop
Image caption, Dmytro shows Jeremy Bowen and his BBC team what remains of the destroyed pharmacy he once ran

His family left Borodyanka on 24 February when the Russians invaded. Dmytro stayed on to safeguard their property. The Russians were moving tanks and men through the town, so with his neighbours, he spent much of his time in the cellar under their building, day as well as night.

By the evening of 1 March he decided that he had to sleep somewhere less exposed to the Russians, so went to another shelter on the edge of town.

When he returned in the morning the building was rubble and the cellar where he had been staying with friends and neighbours was filled with twisted concrete and steel.

"I came back at 08:30 in the morning and the apartment was already destroyed. My mum, my wife and daughter were all praying for me. Before it all happened, there was talk of Russian tank columns moving through the city and shooting at everything. I didn't believe it at first, but then I saw them shooting at civilian houses."

Image shows destroyed apartment building
Image caption, One witness told the BBC that they saw civilians being killed by Russian sniper attacks

Dmytro's wife Svetlana was trying to clear up his mother's destroyed flat in the building next door, which was still standing. She said the Russians stopped attempts to rescue any survivors.

"They were all our neighbours", she said. "Shortly after the attack, people nearby heard some voices, Russian soldiers stopped them digging. They threatened to shoot if they tried."

"There are a lot of people left under the rubble," confirmed another woman, Maria, who was busy sorting mirrors and pictures that could be salvaged and throwing the rest into a skip behind her apartment block. "My soul hurts. I knew all those people. We knew they were there from the first day, but they wouldn't let us get them out."

Maria and many others told us that Russian troops looted their property.

The Russians "stole everything that glittered," she said. "They even took my lingerie. They beat everything, they gutted everything… it's all smashed."

Many people left Borodyanka when the invasion began on 24 February. A few who have come back were walking around the ruins, dazed and distressed by what they were seeing.

Svitlana Gontar, who had just returned on Tuesday morning, sobbed as she saw what had become of her hometown.

"It was so green. It was really nice. Kids studied here. We had three schools, a technical and a music college. Now, we don't have anything. Children have lost their childhood, their memories, everything."

Image shows crying woman
Image caption, Svitlana returned to her hometown of Borodyanka on Tuesday morning

Outside the golden-domed Ukrainian Orthodox church, a local priest, Father Dmytro, was supervising the distribution of bread. He said he had witnessed Russian snipers killing civilians.

"It was the 2 March near the petrol station. We were driving along, followed by two civilian cars. They just shot them - it was an execution."

"Since the Russians left, we have tried to provide humanitarian aid - mostly supplies from western Ukraine. But it has to be food that will keep. Most people still don't have any power or heat."

The biggest bomb sites in Borodyanka could only have been hit by air strikes or ballistic missiles. The laws of war state civilians are protected and killing them is a crime unless they are involved with military action.

Unless it can be proved that the blocks of flats were military sites, then their destruction and the death of the hundreds whose bodies local police fear lie underneath, could amount to a war crime.

Reports of actions by Russian forces in Ukraine that could be crimes of war are accumulating. One question is what redress, if any, will be available for victims and their families.

Image shows destruction of buildings before and after

The best recent example was the war crimes tribunal in The Hague that prosecuted some of the worst perpetrators in the wars of former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. That was authorised by the UN Security Council.

But Russia is a veto-wielding permanent member, so that avenue is likely to be closed for Ukraine.

Father Dmytro has no doubt about what Russia's actions in his country amount to. "[The Russians] did everything possible to destroy the country of Ukraine. This was not a war between armies - this war was against the entire country of Ukraine."

Apr18:46 6 Apr
US and UK hit Russia with new sanctions – a recap
A destroyed house and debris in the Ukrainian city of Bucha
Copyright: Reuters
Image caption: President Biden said Russia was paying the price for alleged atrocities in Bucha

As we’ve been reporting, the US and UK have today ramped up their sanctions against Russia in response to its forces' actions in Ukraine.

The measures are designed to harm the Russian economy and pressurise President Putin to end the war. Here's a snapshot of what’s been announced:

Both countries have moved to block the activities of top Russian financial institutions - including the country’s largest bank, Sberbank
Businesses in both the US and UK have also been banned from investing in Russia
The UK has committed to ending its dependency on Russian coal and oil by the end of the year – and to halt gas imports "as soon as possible thereafter"
High-profile Russians have also been targeted - with the US sanctioning President Putin's adult children and the family of Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov
American President Joe Biden said Russia was paying a "severe and immediate price" for its alleged atrocities in Bucha - atrocities that Moscow denies.

The EU is expected to confirm its own response to the alleged war crimes, although Reuters reports that there's been a delay amid concerns from Germany over fuel import bans.

18:59 6 Apr
Kharkiv governor denies evacuation order

Earlier we reported that Ukraine's deputy prime minister had warned people in three regions in eastern Ukraine to evacuate while it's still possible.

She said military leaders in Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk were trying to help people leave "in an organised way".

But now we're heard from the head of the Kharkiv regional administration, who says "we are not carrying out any centralised evacuation measures in Kharkiv".

“We know that the enemy hasn’t changed its plans, but we believe in our Ukrainian armed forces, in the strength of our defences," Oleh Sinehubov said in a Telegram post.

But he said two towns close to the Donetsk region - Barvenkove and Lozoviy - should be evacuated.


20:45 6 Apr
Bucha killings ‘appear to be premeditated’ - US senior defence official

Policemen and forensic personnel catalogue 58 bodies killed in and around Bucha.
Copyright: Getty Images

Attacks on civilians by Russian forces in the Ukrainian town of Bucha “appear to be premeditated”, a US senior defence official has said.

“Just looking at the imagery – when you see individuals with their hands tied behind their backs and evidence of being shot in the head, that certainly appears to be premeditated,” said the White House official.

“It appears to be planned. It certainly appears to be very, very deliberate.”

Moscow has denied involvement and described reports as fake news.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said what happened does not “look far short of genocide”.

The Biden administration also confirmed on Wednesday that Russian forces have completely withdrawn from areas around Kyiv and Chernihiv.


23:25 6 Apr
Finland raises military spending as Nato debate intensifies

Paul Kirby
BBC News Online Europe editor

Finland has responded to Russia's war in Ukraine by announcing a €2.2bn (£1.8bn) increase in funding over the next four years. The extra money will pay for hundreds of extra professional soldiers, better border security and weapons including missiles and ammunition.

Finland has a 1,340km (830-mile) border with Russia and Russia's invasion of Ukraine has prompted increasing support for joining the West's defensive military alliance Nato.

Prime Minister Sanna Marin said at the weekend that the war meant that Finns had to "seriously mull over our own stance and approach to military alignment" and decide carefully but quickly during the course of this spring.

Finnish Chief of Defence Timo Kivinen says Russia's invasion has underscored Finland's need to have rapid operational readiness, regardless of the Nato membership debate, and investment in the military will start immediately.

Finland already takes part in Nato exercises but a YLE opinion poll last month suggested 62% of Finns backed full membership. That's a dramatic shift as until the invasion, opinion polls indicated Finns were opposed to joining.



1:40
Russia's withdrawal from Kyiv and Chernihiv complete - Pentagon
A Ukrainian soldier retrieves a wedding photo from his flat in the town of Hostomel, outside Kyiv
Copyright: Getty Images

US defence department officials have said that Russia's withdrawal from the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions is now complete.

"Russian forces near Kyiv and Chernihiv have completed their withdrawal from the area to re-consolidate and refit in Belarus and Russia," a Pentagon official told reporters on Wednesday.

"We are not showing Russian forces in or around Kyiv or in or around Chernihiv," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby later added, saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin "has achieved zero of his strategic goals".

"He’s really only taking control of a small population centers....They haven’t taken Kharkiv."

It comes days after Russia announced that it would focus its efforts on Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.

A senior Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the Russian troops may be heading back to Kyiv in the future, and that it remains unclear if the retreating troops will return.

According to the Institute for the Study of War think-tank, the Russian units retreating from around Kyiv are unlikely to "regain combat effectiveness for some time".

Of the 130 Russian battalions that have been sent to Ukraine, more than 80 still remain in the country, the official said.

The Associated Press, citing a US defence official, reported that the number of withdrawing Russian troops amounts to at least 24,000 men.


2:13
Fighting begins to escalate in Ukraine's east

Jonathan Beale
BBC News, Luhansk Oblast
Russia's military offensive in eastern Ukraine is already intensifying. You can see it in the long queues of traffic driving west towards relative safety; you can feel it in the deserted streets as you drive through the towns and cities of the Donbas; and you can hear it with the increasing sound of Russian artillery.

Russia and its proxies now control around 90% of Luhansk and more than half of Donetsk - the old industrial heartlands of Ukraine. There is smoke rising across a landscape already scarred by mining and factories.

Ukrainian forces have been fighting a war here for the past eight years. Their units include some of the country's most battle hardened troops. Western officials say Ukrainian forces stationed in the Donbas are the best trained and equipped units.

As the Russian offensive pushes from the north, east and south there is a real danger they may soon be encircled and cut off.

Ukraine has already lost ground to Russia. But they are digging in for the fight. As we travelled east towards the frontline we saw new defensive positions and trenches being dug.

The sound of Russian artillery grew louder as we drove to a Ukrainian frontline position in Luhansk. The rumble of shelling interspersed with the occasional burst of small arms fire. We were within 500 metres of the Russian positions.

This may be a conflict in the 21st century but, at times, it feels more like something from the First World War.

4:58
Russian forces trying to take full control of Donbas - Ukraine
Russia troops "are regrouping and conducting reconnaissance" for an offensive in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, which includes Donetsk and Luhansk, the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in an update on 42nd day of fighting. The update also said:

The main efforts of Russian troops is to "break through the defences" of Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk region.
They are also trying to take full control of the city of Mariupol.
Russian forces continue to shell Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine.
Russian troops are using railway lines to quickly move military cargo. Weapons and other equipment arrived at the Kupyansk railway station in northeastern Ukraine from Valuyki station in Belgorod, Russia.
Ukrainian forces have taken back Osokorivka near Kherson in the south of Ukraine from Russian troops.
The BBC hasn't independently verified these claims.

5:30
Canada to summon Russia ambassador over Bucha killings
Canada will summon Russia's ambassador over the reported killings of civilians in the Kyiv suburbs of Bucha and Irpin, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly has said.

There is mounting international anger over the killings.

“There’s a level of inhumanity in what we’ve seen in Bucha,” Ms Joly told reporters at the Nato headquarters in Brussels, where ministers from member countries are meeting to discuss sanctions against Russia.

Ms Joly said that she had instructed her deputy minister to make sure Russia’s ambassador to Canada, Oleg V Stepanov, is presented with images of what happened in Bucha and Irpin.

Earlier this week, Canada imposed sanctions on nine Russian and nine Belarusian individuals "for having facilitated and enabled violations of Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence".


6:09
Russia criticises vote on its UN Human Rights Council membership

The UN will hold a vote on Thursday to determine whether Russia should be kicked off the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) over the reports of atrocities committed in areas of Ukraine that it had occupied.

The resolution was introduced by the US after evidence of civilian killings emerged in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha.

Russia has warned countries that attempts to throw it off the 47-member panel will be viewed as an "unfriendly gesture," according to a letter to diplomats seen by Reuters.

Russia's mission to the UN in New York called on countries to "speak out against the anti-Russian resolution". A two-thirds majority is required to expel Russia from the group.

In a statement to Tass news agency, the head of Russia's UN mission said: "If the resolution is adopted, the Westerners will be able to freely impose on the rest of the countries the concepts and their vision of human rights that please them and their Western accomplices."

"The suspension of Russia's rights as a member of the Human Rights Council will discredit the principle of the Council's universality, harm its effectiveness, and completely undermine trust not only in the Human Rights Council, but in the entire UN human rights system," said Gennady Gatilov.


6:56
Chernihiv residents tell of death and destruction
Yogita Limaye
BBC News, reporting from Chernihiv

The city of Chernihiv in the north-east of Ukraine was under siege by the Russian military until a few days ago.

A local official told us that they barely had any food or water supply, and lived without electricity for weeks.

Some areas have been completely destroyed. We saw a football stadium that Ukrainian officials say Russian aircraft dropped bombs on in the second week of March. One completely destroyed part of the stands, which is now a mangled mess of broken plastic seats and metal railings.

In the middle of the field is a big crater created by another bomb. By the side of the stadium, a children's library housed in a building has also been destroyed. We also saw residential neighbourhoods that have literally been flattened.

Residents have told us about their friends being killed. One woman showed us her destroyed home, and told us her daughter was seriously injured.

"Russia is lying. This is a civilian neighbourhood. Not military. I want President Putin to rebuild my house."


8:07 analysis
Kyiv's successes do not mean imminent victory
John Simpson
World Affairs Editor, in Lviv

Some commentators in the West seem to think the Ukrainian war is pretty much won.

One American military historian says he knows of no parallel to a major power like Russia invading a country at the time of its choosing and failing so utterly.

Here in Ukraine, though, people aren't nearly so confident.

They think they're in for a long slog, which will end either with a clear defeat for Russia, or - alternatively - when President Vladimir Putin feels he has gained enough Ukrainian territory to be able to claim victory.

Members of the Ukrainian military walk past destroyed Russian military machinery on the street, in Bucha
Copyright: EPA - European Pressphoto Agency epa09874821

Precisely because they believe they are in for a long and difficult war, Ukrainian politicians from President Volodymyr Zelensky down are getting angry with what Ukraine sees as Nato's pathetically slow delivery of weapons supplies.

The governor of Lviv Maksym Kozytsky, a close ally of the president, says: "In my opinion, from the West there is a policy of double standards and cowardice.

"It's cowardice not to call a spade a spade. And cowardice not to take any position. And cowardice leads to tragedies."


8:54
Video shows Russian forces dug trenches in highly radioactive area near Chernobyl - Ukraine

A video posted by the Ukrainian military appears to show trenches in a highly radioactive area
Copyright: Ukranian Military

The Ukrainian military has shared a drone video which appears to show trenches and tank tracks in the Red Forest, one of the most radioactive locations on Earth, in the Chernobyl exclusion zone.

"Video proof - Russian command did order its soldiers to dig fortifications near the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in the radioactive Red Forest in March 2022," the Ukrainian military tweeted, with a post of the video.

The Red Forest is just 500m from the Chernobyl nuclear complex. It was hit by the immediate fallout from the 1986 explosion and fire in the nuclear plant's number-4 reactor.

Russian troops seized Chernobyl at the beginning of their invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.

Last week, Russian forces occupying the site left, Ukraine's state nuclear company Energoatom, said.

The company also confirmed reports that Russian troops had dug trenches in the most contaminated part of the Chernobyl exclusion zone, receiving "significant doses" of radiation.

The BBC could not immediately verify the date and origin of the video.


9:11
What is Nato?

Ministers from Nato's member states are holding a second day of talks in Brussels to decide how best to continue to help Ukraine defend itself from Russia's invasion.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is a military alliance formed in 1949 by 12 countries, including the US and the UK. It was set up to counter the threat of post-war Russian expansion in Europe.

Members agree to come to one another's aid in the event of an armed attack against any individual member state.

Ukraine wants Nato countries - of which there are now 30 - to send troops to help fight Russia, but Ukraine is not a Nato member so there's no obligation for this to happen.

Nato has so far resisted Ukraine's calls to help in this way, as it fears doing so could lead to an all-out conflict between Russia and the West.

Nato members have helped Ukraine in other ways though - such as by sending weapons and money to fund Ukraine's armed forces.

Ukraine's foreign minister is joining the talks in Brussels to urge Nato to help Ukraine with the "three most important things" it needs to win the war - "weapons, weapons, and weapons".


9:30
Russian forces focused on progressing in eastern Ukraine - UK's MoD
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has just tweeted its latest intelligence update on the fighting in Ukraine. Here are the key takeaways:

Progressing military operations in eastern Ukraine is the main focus of Russian forces
Artillery and air strikes are continuing in the Donbas region - with infrastructure targeted in an apparent Russian effort to hinder the ability of the Ukrainian army to resupply
But the update also asserts that the Kremlin's troops are still facing “morale issues and shortages of supplies and personnel”


10:14
What Russian citizens have heard about Bucha

Jenny Hill
BBC News, Moscow

The Kremlin denies it all: the footage of bodies lying in the streets in Bucha, the mass graves and the terrible testimony of witnesses. And state TV parrots the narrative.

Since evidence of apparent Russian atrocities emerged from the settlements around Kyiv, programme editors have gone to extraordinary lengths to discredit the reports as a fabrication, a lie concocted by Ukraine and the West.

To switch on Russian TV has, for weeks now, been to step into a weird parallel universe where glossy presenters and well-dressed pundits chronicle a successful "special military operation" in Ukraine. There is no war, just heroic Russian soldiers defending the motherland while taking care to avoid targeting civilians.

The horrific images from Bucha have been broadcast, but viewers are told that the gruesome scenes were staged by Ukrainian officials, with help from the West.

"This was done by professionals, probably British. They're the best in the area of information operations," said commentator Gevorg Mirzaryan. "[They know how] to place the bodies correctly, do everything correctly, create a nice picture for the necrophilic Western consciousness."

Talk show host Olesya Loseva even suggested that the town of Bucha had deliberately been chosen because President Joe Biden had recently used the word butcher to describe Vladimir Putin, so "for Americans this word should be clear".

It is a classic Kremlin tactic in the face of such accusations - deny, dismiss as fake and, if possible, blame someone else.


11:24
Russian forces used civilians as human shields, BBC told

Maryana and Marharyta
Copyright: BBC
Image caption: A tearful Maryana says she's still frightened for her daughter Marharyta

Russian troops used villagers in northern Ukraine as human shields to try to protect themselves from a counter-attack from Ukrainian forces, the BBC has been told.

Our correspondent Jeremy Bowen has been visiting communities north of Kyiv that have, until recently, been occupied by Russian forces.

Villagers from Obukhovychi, just south of the exclusion zone around the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, told him that on the night of 14 March Russian soldiers were losing men and armoured vehicles to a counter-attack from Ukrainian forces.

Russian troops then went door-to door to round up about 150 people at gunpoint and held them in a freezing cold school gym as protection for Russian forces, villagers said.

Using civilians to shield armed forces from attack is against international humanitarian law.

"They took us from the cellars where we were hiding and forced us out," local Lydmila Sutkova, one of many people interviewed, said.

"Old ladies, children, everyone. It was terrifying. They broke open the doors of anyone who wouldn’t open up."

Lydmila Sutkova
Copyright: BBC
Image caption: Lydmila Sutkova was one of those held overnight in the school gym

Another woman, Maryana, said her daughter was still showing signs of anxiety since the night in the school.

"A two-year-old girl should not see this," she said.

"I was afraid that we would all be shot in that gym. I was scared for my daughter. I don't have the words."

12:33
G7 condemns Russia's 'brutal' war

"Haunting" images of tortured bodies, apparent executions and reports of sexual violence "show the true face of Russia’s brutal war" against Ukraine, the G7 has said.

Foreign ministers for each of the G7 (Group of Seven) countries released a joint statement after meeting their Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba.

The group said "massacres" in the city of Bucha, and other Ukrainian areas that have been under Russian occupation, will be listed as severe violations of international law.

It warned Russia against any "further blatant abuses" of law, calling for President Vladimir Putin to allow humanitarian workers into conflict zones to deliver aid and safely evacuate civilians.

The group added it was ready to give Ukraine's armed forces more money and military equipment to defend themselves.

The G7 is an organisation of the world's seven largest so-called "advanced" economies, which dominate global trade and the international financial system. They are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the United States.

Russia joined in 1998, creating the G8, but was excluded in 2014 after its takeover of Crimea.

It has denied that its forces have carried out atrocities in Bucha.


13:06
Estonian government opts to dump Russian gas
Paul Kirby
BBC News Online Europe editor

Days after Lithuania declared it had completely stopped imports of Russian gas, another Baltic state, Estonia, has decided to do the same, in principle.

The government in Tallinn says it aims to end Russian gas imports in time for the start of the "heating season" in the autumn. Ministers say they've agreed with Finland to lease a floating terminal to enable imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

"Today we made a decision to stop buying Russian gas. It's not possible to go ahead by feeding a Russian war machine," Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas told a press conference.

Although only 7% of Estonia's energy comes from gas, almost all of it comes from Russia.

Lithuania has called on the rest of the EU to follow its example and get rid of its dependence on Russian gas. It's spent several years investing in LNG. Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins has vowed to abandon Russian supplies too.

The head of Latvia's natural gas storage operator says Russian gas stopped flowing into the Baltics at the start of April anyway, because there are plenty of reserves stored underground. The question is whether Latvia and Estonia will be able have enough supplies by next winter.


13:34
Besieged Mariupol is 'hell' - mayor

Hugo Bachega
BBC News, Lviv

Fighting continues in the besieged port city of Mariupol, where efforts to set up humanitarian corridors for the safe evacuation of civilians have failed.

In an interview with the BBC on Wednesday, the city’s mayor, Vadym Boychenko, describes the situation as "hell" - estimating that at least 120,000 residents remained trapped with no electricity, running water and gas.

The city’s population at the start of the war was more than 400,000.

"All we have to do now is to safely evacuate people," Boychenko says.

Pictures from Mariupol show a city devastated, and Boychenko says at least 5,000 people there have been killed in weeks of relentless Russian bombardment.

He adds that staff and patients from a major hospital in the city had recently been forcefully taken to Russian-controlled territory.

The mayor also claims, without providing evidence, that Russian forces were trying to hide possible evidence of crimes by removing bodies from the streets and even using mobile cremation vehicles in the city.

The BBC is unable to independently verify these claims.

The mayor is no longer in Mariupol, which has been surrounded by Russian troops for more than a month, and receives updates from remaining residents.


13:45
Klitschko: 'I saw tortured and executed civilians in Bucha'
Video content
Video caption: Wladimir Klitschko tells Radio 5 Live about seeing the bodies of civilians in Bucha.Wladimir Klitschko tells Radio 5 Live about seeing the bodies of civilians in Bucha.

Heavyweight boxer Wladimir Klitschko has been fighting the Russian invasion in Ukraine.

Speaking to Radio 5 Live, he says there are "many dead civilians" who have been "tortured and executed" in Bucha after Russian forces withdrew.

"I never thought other humans could do that to someone who was not showing any resistance," he says.

The former world heavyweight champion went on to call for the world to do more to oppose the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

"If you are remaining passive and you're just observing what's going on, you're part of this aggression, you're supporting this aggression," he says.

"Blood of the civilians is on your hands. If you're passively observing, you need to take an active part."


13:59
What is a war crime?
Closeup of bullet-riddled vehicle in Bucha
Copyright: EPA
Image caption: A destroyed vehicle in the city of Bucha - a site of alleged atrocities by Russian forces

A vote will be held at the United Nations in New York later on whether Russia should be thrown off the UN's Human Rights Council for its actions in Ukraine.

US President Joe Biden and other Western leaders have labelled the alleged deliberate killing of civilians in the city of Bucha as "war crimes".

But how exactly do you commit a crime in the context of a war?

Even combat has its "rules". They’re contained in treaties called the Geneva Convention.

This - and other international agreements - set out the limits of what can be done on the battlefield, and look to give protection to civilians during times of conflict.

Crucially, civilians cannot be deliberately attacked
Certain arms – like chemical weapons – are banned because of the appalling suffering they cause
The sick and wounded must be cared for – and injured soldiers have rights even when captured by their enemies
"Genocide" is a specific war crime, referring to an effort to wipe out people from a particular national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. Ukraine’s President Zelensky has accused his enemy of this.

Moscow has denied such claims - but the US has called for President Putin to be prosecuted.

Ukrainian troops have also been accused of their own abuses, with the New York Times reporting that video footage has appeared to show servicemen shooting dead captured Russian soldiers.