By The Related Press
LAS VEGAS — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appeared in a video on the Grammy Awards asking for assist in telling the story of Ukraine’s invasion by Russia.
Throughout the pre-recorded message that aired on the present Sunday evening, he spoke in English, likening the assault to a lethal silence threatening to extinguish the goals and lives of the Ukrainian individuals, together with youngsters.
In his phrases: “Our musicians put on physique armor as a substitute of tuxedos. They sing to the wounded in hospitals, even to those that can’t hear them. However the music will break by means of anyway.”
The Recording Academy, with its companion World Citizen, previous to the ceremony highlighted a social media marketing campaign known as “Stand Up For Ukraine” to lift cash and humanitarian assist.
Zelenskyy informed the viewers: “Fill the silence together with your music. Fill it immediately to inform our story. Inform the reality concerning the battle in your social networks, on TV, assist us in any means you may any, however not silence. After which peace will come to all our cities.”
Following Zelenskyy’s message, John Legend carried out his tune “Free” with Ukrainian musicians Siuzanna Iglidan and Mika Newton and poet Lyuba Yakimchuk as photos from the battle have been proven on screens behind them.
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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:
— Ukraine accuses Russia of bloodbath, metropolis strewn with our bodies
— US, UK secret intelligence has unusually public function in Ukraine battle
— Lithuania weans itself utterly off Russian gasoline, 1st EU nation to take action
— Drug shortages persist in Russia after begin of Ukraine battle
— Pope nonetheless engaged on assembly Russian Orthodox patriarch
— Go to https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine for extra protection
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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
KYIV, Ukraine — The Ukrainian army says that its forces have retaken some cities within the Chernihiv area and that humanitarian assist is being delivered.
The information company RBK Ukraina says the highway between Chernihiv and the capital of Kyiv is to reopen to some site visitors later Monday.
Chernihiv is a metropolis 80 miles north of Kyiv and it had been minimize off from shipments of meals and different provides for weeks. The mayor mentioned Sunday that relentless Russian shelling had destroyed 70% of town.
Russian forces additionally withdrew from the Sumy area, in Ukraine’s northeast, native administrator Dmitry Zhivitsky mentioned in a video message carried by Ukrainian information companies Sunday. The troops had occupied the realm for almost a month.
In different areas just lately retaken from Russian troops, Ukrainian officers say they’ve recovered a whole lot of slain civilians up to now few days. Ukraine’s prosecutor-general says the our bodies of 410 civilians have been recovered from Kyiv-area cities.
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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s prosecutor-general says the our bodies of 410 civilians have been faraway from Kyiv-area cities that have been just lately retaken from Russian troops.
Iryna Venediktova says on Fb that the our bodies have been recovered Friday, Saturday and Sunday. She says 140 of them have undergone examination by prosecutors and different specialists.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk says the mayor of the village of Motyzhyn within the Kyiv area was murdered whereas being held by Russian forces. Vereshchuk provides that there are 11 mayors and group heads in Russian captivity throughout Ukraine.
In a video deal with Sunday, Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced the allegedly focused killings of civilians in cities that the Russians occupied, calling the killers “freaks who have no idea find out how to do in any other case.” He warns that extra atrocities could also be revealed if Russian forces are pushed out of different occupied areas.
Worldwide leaders have condemned the reported assaults within the Kyiv-area cities after harrowing accounts from civilians and graphic photos of our bodies with palms tied behind their backs.
Russia’s Protection Ministry has rejected the claims of atrocities towards civilians in Bucha and different suburbs of Kyiv.
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BALAKLIYA, Ukraine — The governor of the Kharkiv area says Russian troops fired on a convoy of buses that was attempting to evacuate sufferers from a hospital that had been closely broken in shelling a day earlier.
The governor, Oleh Synyehubov, mentioned Sunday that about 70 sufferers wanted to be taken away from the broken hospital within the city of Balakliya however that the buses weren’t in a position to enter the city.
He mentioned there was preliminary info that one of many bus drivers was killed.
Balakliya is about 75 kilometers (45 miles) southeast of town of Kharkiv, which has been closely hit by Russian assaults.
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BERLIN — Germany’s protection minister says European officers ought to speak about halting gasoline provides from Russia in gentle of the alleged assaults on civilians within the Ukrainian city of Bucha.
Protection Minister Christine Lambrecht mentioned Sunday evening on German public broadcaster ARD that “there have to be a response. Such crimes should not go unanswered.”
Thus far, Germany and several other different European governments have shied away from a direct boycott of Russian pure gasoline over fears of the impression it will have on their economies.
Europe will get 40% of its gasoline and 25% of its oil from Russia, and because the battle, has scrambled to set out proposals to cut back its dependency. Russia is simply as reliant on Europe, with oil and gasoline its dominant sector and paying for presidency operations.
Estimates of the impression of a gasoline boycott or embargo on Europe range however most contain a considerable lack of financial output.
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JERUSALEM __ Israel’s international minister is condemning the reported atrocities in Ukraine, saying deliberate hurt to civilians is a battle crime.
Overseas Minister Yair Lapid wrote on Twitter that one “can not stay detached” after seeing photos from the city of Bucha close to Ukraine capital.
Israel has walked a tightrope since Russia invaded Ukraine, concurrently denouncing the invasion whereas avoiding taking too strident a stance out of concern of angering Moscow, with whom it has safety coordination in neighboring Syria. Israel has good relations with each international locations and has mediated between them because the invasion on Feb. 24.
Lapid says that deliberately harming a civilian inhabitants is a battle crime and strongly condemned it.
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MOTYZHYN, Ukraine — A resident says the mayor of the Ukrainian city of Motyzhyn was killed in an execution-style slaying alongside together with her husband and son.
One other resident of the city 50 kilometers (31 miles) west of Kyiv informed the The Related Press on Sunday that Russian troops focused native officers in a bid to win them over and killed them if they didn’t collaborate. That man, Oleg, declined to offer his full title for safety causes.
The mayor, Olga Sukhenko, and her household have been shot and thrown right into a pit in a forest behind a plot of land with three homes the place Russian forces had slept. A fourth physique was not but recognized.
The mayor and her household had been reported by others as kidnapped by Russians on March 23 and brought in an unknown route.
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LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Russia’s assault on Ukranian civilians in cities on the outskirts of Kyiv “are but extra proof that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his military are committing battle crimes in Ukraine.”
Johnson known as the assaults within the cities of Irpin and Bucha “despicable” and says he “will do every thing in my energy to starve Putin’s battle machine.” Johnson added that the U.Okay. will step up its sanctions and army assist for Ukraine, however didn’t present particulars.
Different European leaders additionally condemned the reported assaults on Ukranian civilians in response to pictures of our bodies within the streets and a few of the lifeless with their palms tied behind their backs.
Leaders in France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Czech Republic and Poland expressed outrage on the photos. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala known as the pictures ”horrifying” and says Russia has been committing battle crimes.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says worldwide organizations needs to be given entry to the areas to independently doc the atrocities.
French Overseas Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian says his nation will work with Ukrainian authorities and the Worldwide Legal Courtroom “to make sure these acts don’t go unpunished.”
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BRUSSELS — NATO Secretary-Common Jens Stoltenberg says the graphic photos popping out of Bucha, Ukraine, after Russian troops withdrew present “a brutality towards civilians we haven’t seen in Europe for many years.’
He tells CNN’s “State of the Union” that “it’s completely unacceptable that civilians are focused and killed” and that it’s Russian President Vladimir Putin’s accountability to cease the battle.
Stoltenberg says it’s “extraordinarily necessary” that the Worldwide Legal Courtroom has opened an investigation into potential battle crimes in Ukraine and that these accountable are held to account.
His feedback echoed these by different European leaders, who condemned alleged battle crimes and civilian killings by Russian forces in Ukrainian cities together with Bucha close to Kyiv, the capital.
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BUCHA, Ukraine — Residents of the Ukrainian city of Bucha close to the capital of Kyiv have given harrowing accounts of how Russian troops shot and killed civilians with none obvious cause.
Our bodies of civilians lay strewn throughout the northern city, which was managed by Russian troopers for a few month.
At a logistics compound that residents say was used as a base by Russian forces, the our bodies of 8 males could possibly be seen dumped on the bottom, some with their palms tied behind their backs.
Residents say Russian troops would go from constructing to constructing, take individuals out of the basements the place they have been hiding from the preventing, verify their telephones for proof of anti-Russian exercise and take them away or shoot them.
Russia’s Protection Ministry has rejected the claims of atrocities towards civilians in Bucha and different suburbs of Kyiv as a “provocation.”
The ministry says that “not a single civilian has confronted any violent motion by the Russian army“ in Bucha.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, informed a U.S. tv interview Sunday that Russian assaults in Ukraine quantity to genocide.
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ROME — The pinnacle of Italy’s Democratic Get together known as for a full oil and gasoline embargo in response to pictures rising of atrocities towards civilians by Russian troopers retreating from the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
“What number of #Buca earlier than we transfer to a full oil and gasoline Russia embargo,” Enrico Letta wrote on Twitter Sunday. “Time is over.”
Italy will get 40% of its pure gasoline from Russia and officers have mentioned it will take three years to make the transition to different sources.
Premier Mario Draghi acknowledged final week that power funds have been fueling Russia’s invasion, and the international minister has been touring to grease and gasoline producing international locations to line up alternate options to Russia.
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WASHINGTON — White Home chief of employees Ron Klain says the U.S. stays totally dedicated to offering a full vary of financial and army assist to Ukraine in its battle towards Russia, which he describes as “removed from over.”
Klain credit Ukrainians for preventing off Russian troops within the northern a part of Ukraine and says the U.S. and its allies are sending weapons into the nation “nearly each single day.”
However he additionally tells ABC’s “This Week” that there are indicators that Russian President Vladimir Putin is redeploying Russian troops to the jap a part of Ukraine.
Klain says whereas will probably be as much as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to resolve if the political endgame is to permit Russia to occupy the jap a part of Ukraine, from the U.S. standpoint, the “army way forward for this assault needs to be push again.”
He says relating to a possible Russian occupation of jap Ukraine: “I’ll inform you, as President Zelenskyy has mentioned, that’s not acceptable to him, and we’re going to assist him with army assist, with financial assist, with humanitarian assist.”
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KYIV, Ukraine — The Ukrainian army says Russian troops have accomplished their pullback from the nation’s north.
The army’s Common Workers mentioned in Sunday’s assertion that Russian items have withdrawn from areas within the nation’s north to neighboring Belarus, which served as a staging floor for the Russian invasion.
The Ukrainian army mentioned its airborne forces have taken full management of the city of Pripyat simply outdoors the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear energy plant and the part of the border with Belarus. It posted an image of the Ukrainian soldier placing up the nation’s flag with a shelter containing the Chernobyl reactor that exploded in 1986 seen within the background.
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VILNIUS, Lithuania — Lithuania says it has minimize itself off totally of gasoline imports from Russia and that it’s the primary of the European Union’s 27 nations utilizing Russian gasoline to interrupt its power dependence upon Moscow.
“Looking for full power independence from Russian gasoline, in response to Russia’s power blackmail in Europe and the battle in Ukraine, Lithuania has utterly deserted Russian gasoline,” Lithuania’s power ministry mentioned in a press release late Saturday, including that the measure took impact to start with of April.
Lithuania diminished imports of Russian gasoline to zero on Saturday, a transfer seen a milestone in attaining power independence within the former Soviet republic of two.8 million, the ministry mentioned.
“We’re the primary EU nation amongst Gazprom’s provide international locations to realize independence from Russian gasoline provides, and that is the results of a multi-year coherent power coverage and well timed infrastructure choices,” Minister of Vitality Dainius Kreivys mentioned.
Lithuania’a president posted an upbeat tweet on his account and urged different European nations to do the identical.
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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s prime diplomat has known as for harder sanctions on Russia over rising proof of what he known as a bloodbath of civilians within the suburbs of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
Ukrainian officers mentioned earlier Sunday that scores of killed civilians have been discovered on the streets of Kyiv’ suburbs of Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel after the withdrawal of Russian troops. They mentioned that a few of the victims have been shot within the head and had their palms sure.
Ukrainian Overseas Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted Sunday that the killings have been “deliberate,” including that “Russians intention to remove as many Ukrainians as they’ll.”
He urged the West to impose an oil, gasoline and coal embargo, and shut all ports to Russian vessels and items. He additionally known as for all Russian banks to be disconnected from the SWIFT worldwide fee system.
In Germany President Frank-Walter Steinmeier mentioned in Berlin that “the battle crimes dedicated by Russia are seen earlier than the eyes of the world.”
German information company dpa reported that Steinmeier mentioned “the pictures from Bucha shake me, they shake us deeply.”
German Overseas Minister Annalena Baerbock pledged to tighten sanctions towards Russia however didn’t give particulars.
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BERLIN — Poland’s strongest politician says he’s open to the everlasting stationing of U.S. nuclear weapons in Japanese Europe.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the chief of Poland’s ruling conservative occasion, Legislation and Justice, mentioned Sunday in an interview with German weekly Welt am Sonntag that “in precept, it is sensible to increase nuclear participation to the jap flank.”
Kaczynski added that “if the Individuals requested us to retailer U.S. nuclear weapons in Poland, we’d be open to it. It might considerably strengthen deterrence towards Moscow.”
Kaczynski acknowledged that “in the mean time, this query doesn’t come up, however which will change quickly.”
The Polish chief additionally known as for a a lot stronger presence of U.S. troopers in Europe sooner or later, particularly on NATO’s jap flank.
He mentioned that “Poland would welcome a rise within the American presence in Europe sooner or later from the present 100,000 troopers to 150,000 troopers due to Russia’s growing aggressiveness.”
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MOSCOW — The Kremlin says that by imposing sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin the West has demonstrated it has deserted its sense of cause.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov mentioned in televised remarks Sunday that the sanctions towards Putin have been going “past the sting of cause,” including that they confirmed that the West is “able to any stupidities.”
Peskov added that Putin’s assembly with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is “hypothetically potential” as soon as negotiators from the 2 international locations ready a draft settlement to be mentioned.
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KYIV, Ukraine — A Ukrainian presidential adviser says authorities have discovered proof of great battle crimes by Russian troops on the outskirts of Kyiv.
Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, mentioned Sunday scores of killed civilians have been discovered on the streets of Kyiv’ suburbs of Irpin, Bucha and Hostomel after the withdrawal of Russian troops. He in contrast the scene to “a horror film.”
Arestovych mentioned some victims have been shot within the head and had their palms sure, and a few of the our bodies had indicators of torture. He accused Russian troops of raping ladies and attempting to burn their our bodies.
Arestovych mentioned Ukrainian authorities will examine the alleged battle crimes and observe down the perpetrators.
The studies drew worldwide condemnation. In Britain, Overseas Secretary Liz Truss mentioned there’s growing proof of “indiscriminate assaults towards harmless civilians” and mentioned they have to be investigated as battle crimes.
“We is not going to enable Russia to cowl up their involvement in these atrocities by means of cynical disinformation and can make sure that the truth of Russia’s actions are delivered to gentle,” she mentioned.
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MOSCOW — Russia’s prime negotiator in talks with Ukraine says it’s too early to speak a few assembly between the 2 international locations’ president.
Vladimir Medinsky, who led the Russian delegation in Tuesday’s talks in Istanbul, Turkey, mentioned “there’s nonetheless loads of work to do” to finalize a draft settlement earlier than Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy might meet.
Talking Sunday in remarks carried by the Interfax information company, Medinsky reaffirmed that the events reached a tentative settlement on the necessity for Ukraine to undertake a impartial standing and chorus from holding international army bases in change for worldwide safety ensures.
Requested about Ukrainian negotiator Davyd Arakhamia’s declare that Moscow’s negotiators had informally agreed to most proposals by Ukraine throughout the talks in Istanbul this week and the 2 presidents might talk about the draft deal, Medinsky mentioned he doesn’t share Arakhamia’s optimism. He mentioned the talks will proceed on-line Monday.
Medinsky emphasised that Russia’s stand on Crimea and insurgent areas in Ukraine’s east remained unchanged. The Kremlin calls for that Ukraine acknowledge Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014, and acknowledge the independence of Russia-backed separatist areas in Donbas, Ukraine’s jap industrial heartland.
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BERLIN — The mayor of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, has expressed shock at what he known as “merciless battle crimes” dedicated by Russian troopers within the city of Bucha northwest of the capital.
Referring to studies of executed civilians, Klitschko informed German day by day Bild on Sunday that “what occurred in Bucha and different suburbs of Kyiv can solely be described as genocide.”
An AP crew on Sunday noticed the our bodies of no less than 9 individuals who seem to have been executed. Not less than two of them had their palms tied behind their backs. They have been all in civilian garments and no less than three have been bare from the waist up. One appeared shot within the chest from shut vary.
Klitschko mentioned Russian President Vladimir Putin was chargeable for the “merciless battle crimes,” including that civilians had been “shot with tied palms.”
He known as on the the entire world and particularly Germany to right away finish gasoline imports from Russia.
He mentioned that “particularly for Germany, there can solely be one consequence: Not a penny ought to go to Russia anymore, that’s bloody cash used to slaughter individuals. The gasoline and oil embargo should come instantly.”
