Russia Ukraine War LIVE Updates: Zelensky says Putin's attack is a 'genocide'

Residents of the Ukrainian town of Bucha near the capital of Kyiv have given harrowing accounts of how Russian troops shot and killed civilians without any apparent reason.

Bodies of civilians lay strewn across the northern town, which was controlled by Russian soldiers for about a month.

At a logistics compound that residents say was used as a base by Russian forces, the bodies of 8 men could be seen dumped on the ground, some with their hands tied behind their backs.

Residents say Russian troops would go from building to building, take people out of the basements where they were hiding from the fighting, check their phones for evidence of anti-Russian activity and take them away or shoot them.

Russia's Defense Ministry has rejected the claims of atrocities against civilians in Bucha and other suburbs of Kyiv as a “provocation.”

The ministry says that “not a single civilian has faced any violent action by the Russian military“ in Bucha.

Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told a U.S. television interview Sunday that Russian attacks in Ukraine amount to genocide.

The head of Italy’s Democratic Party called for a full oil and gas embargo in reaction to images emerging of atrocities against civilians by Russian soldiers retreating from the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.

“How many #Buca before we move to a full oil and gas Russia embargo,” Enrico Letta wrote on Twitter Sunday. “Time is over.”

Italy gets 40% of its natural gas from Russia and officials have said it would take three years to make the transition to other sources.

Premier Mario Draghi acknowledged last week that energy payments were fueling Russia’s invasion, and the foreign minister has been traveling to oil and gas producing countries to line up alternatives to Russia.

White House chief of staff Ron Klain says the U.S. remains fully committed to providing a full range of economic and military support to Ukraine in its war against Russia, which he describes as “far from over.”

Klain credits Ukrainians for fighting off Russian troops in the northern part of Ukraine and says the U.S. and its allies are sending weapons into the country “almost every single day.”

But he also tells ABC’s “This Week” that there are signs that Russian President Vladimir Putin is redeploying Russian troops to the eastern part of Ukraine.

Klain says while it will be up to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to decide if the political endgame is to allow Russia to occupy the eastern part of Ukraine, from the U.S. standpoint, the “military future of this attack has to be push back.”

He says regarding a potential Russian occupation of eastern Ukraine: “I will tell you, as President Zelenskyy has said, that’s not acceptable to him, and we are going to support him with military aid, with economic aid, with humanitarian aid.”

 — Ukraine says growing evidence of civilian killings, destruction in Kyiv suburbs

— Ukraine blogger video fuels false info on Mariupol bombing

— Russian space chief says sanctions could imperil International Space Station

— Ukraine volunteer fighters from near and far: a photo gallery

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, says in a U.S. television interview that Russian attacks in Ukraine amount to genocide.

Zelenskyy told CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday that there are more than 100 nationalities in Ukraine and “this is about the destruction and extermination of all these nationalities. We are citizens of Ukraine and we don’t want to be subdued to the policy of Russian Federation.”

In an excerpt of the interview released by CBS before it aired, he says, “This is the reason we are being destroyed and exterminated. And this is happening in the Europe of the 21st century. So this is the torture of the whole nation.”

The Ukrainian military says Russian troops have completed their pullback from the country's north.

The military's General Staff said in Sunday's statement that Russian units have withdrawn from areas in the country's north to neighbouring Belarus, which served as a staging ground for the Russian invasion.

The Ukrainian military said its airborne forces have taken full control of the town of Pripyat just outside the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the section of the border with Belarus.

It posted a picture of the Ukrainian soldier putting up the country's flag with a shelter containing the Chernobyl reactor that exploded in 1986 seen in the background.

Ukraine's top diplomat has called for tougher sanctions on Russia over growing evidence of a massacre of civilians in the suburbs of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.

Ukrainian officials said earlier Sunday that scores of killed civilians have been found on the streets of Kyiv' suburbs of Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel after the withdrawal of Russian troops. They said that some of the victims were shot in the head and had their hands bound.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted Sunday that the killings were "deliberate,” adding that “Russians aim to eliminate as many

Ukrainians as they can.” He urged the West to impose an oil, gas and coal embargo, and close all ports to Russian vessels and goods. He also called for all Russian banks to be disconnected from the SWIFT international payment system.

In Germany President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in Berlin that “the war crimes committed by Russia are visible before the eyes of the world.”
German news agency dpa reported that Steinmeier said “the images from Bucha shake me, they shake us deeply.” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock pledged to tighten sanctions against Russia but did not give details. 

Kuleba is calling for oil, gas, and coal embargo, closed ports for Russian vessels and goods, and disconnection of all Russian banks from SWIFT system.

The Kremlin says that by imposing sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin the West has demonstrated it has abandoned its sense of reason.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in televised remarks Sunday that the sanctions against Putin were going “beyond the edge of reason,” adding that they showed that the West is “capable of any stupidities.”

Peskov added that Putin's meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is “hypothetically possible” once negotiators from the two countries prepared a draft agreement to be discussed. 

Russia will demand that other exported commodities are paid for in its national currency after President Vladimir Putin said the West must buy its natural gas with rubles, his spokesman said on Sunday.

"It is still a prototype system [of payments] but I'm convinced that it will cover other groups of goods and it will take up a larger role in our foreign trade," Dmitry Peskov told a Rossiya 1 television show.

He argued that Western gas buyers would be required to exchange rubles for euros or US dollars, effectively continuing to pay in their preferred currencies as stipulated by gas contracts with the state Russian energy company.

"The final payment will go to Gazprom in rubles after these euros are converted to rubles," Peskov explained. (ANI/Sputnik)

Lithuania’s president says Mantas Kvedaravicius, a prominent film director in the Baltic country, has been killed in Ukraine, reportedly in the besieged port city of Mariupol where he was working on a documentary.

President Gitanas Nauseda said Sunday “we have lost a creator who worked in Ukraine and was attacked by aggressor Russia."

The 45-year-old filmmaker was killed in Ukraine on Saturday according to news outlets. The circumstances of his death couldn’t immediately be confirmed.

Kvedaravicius was known for his documentaries on military conflicts in Chechnya and Ukraine. His film “Mariupol” premiered at the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival.

News of Kvedaravicius death were met with grief and shock in Lithuania’s artist community.

"Terrible loss to the Lithuanian film community and the whole world. Our hearts are broken,” Giedre Zickyte, Lithuanian documentary film director and producer, wrote on Facebook.

Russia has threatened to end cooperation with other countries on the International Space Station (ISS) until the sanctions are lifted that were imposed on the country after its invasion of Ukraine.

Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russian space agency Roscosmos, posted on Twitter that the "restoration of normal relations between partners" on the ISS and other projects is only possible with the "complete and unconditional lifting of illegal sanctions".

"The position of our partners is clear: the sanctions will not be lifted," Rogozin said late on Saturday.

"The purpose of the sanctions is to kill the Russian economy, plunge our people into despair and hunger, and bring our country to its knees."

Roscosmos will soon determine a date on when to halt Russia's involvement with the ISS.

In his tweets, Rogozin said he has appealed to lift the sanctions in letters to NASA, the European Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency.

"The head of NASA, Senator (Bill) Nelson, the head of the European Space Agency, Josef Aschbacher, and the head of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Lisa Campbell, responded to my appeal to them demanding the lifting of sanctions against a number of enterprises in the Russian rocket and space industry," he further tweeted.

In a response, NASA administrator Nelson said that "the US continues to support international government space cooperations, especially those activities associated with operating the ISS with Russia, Canada, Europe, and Japan".

"New and existing US export control measures continue to allow cooperation between the US and Russia to ensure continued safe operations of the ISS," he added.

The CSA responded to Rogozin's request, saying that "I can assure you that Canada continues to support the ISS program, and is dedicated to its safe and successful operations".

ESA head Aschbacher replied that he will pass on Rogozin's request to the agency's member states for assessment.

Rogozin had strongly reacted to the sanctions imposed by US President Joe Biden.

NASA last week said that Russia was "moving toward" extending its cooperation on the ISS until 2030.

The US space agency and Russia's state space corporation have been the two largest partners on the ISS for the last three decades.

The two organisations have agreed to work together on the ISS through 2024, but on December 31, 2021, the Biden administration committed to extending the ISS operations through 2030.

Russia has not formally agreed to the extension yet.

The Russian military on Sunday said it had struck an oil processing plant and fuel depots around the strategic Black Sea port of Odesa.
Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Maj.-Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Russian ships and aircraft on Sunday fired missiles to strike the facilities used to provide fuel to Ukrainian troops near Mykolaiv.

Konashenkov also said Russian strikes destroyed ammunition depots in Kostiantynivka and Khresyshche. In an audio message posted by Italian news agency ANSA, Italian photographer Carlo Orlandi said Odessa woke to military sirens at 5:45 a.m. on Sunday, followed immediately by the sounds of bombs falling on the port city from two aircraft.

He described a column of dark smoke rising from the targets, and flames from the buildings.
“What we can see is a dense screen of dark smoke, and one explosion after the other," Orlandi said.

European Council President Charles Michel said he was “shocked by haunting images of atrocities committed by the Russian army” in the town of Bucha and other locations in Kyiv Oblast, promising further sanctions.

Russia's top negotiator in talks with Ukraine says it’s too early to talk about a meeting between the two countries’ president.

Vladimir Medinsky, who led the Russian delegation in Tuesday’s talks in Istanbul, Turkey, said “there is still a lot of work to do” to finalize a draft agreement before Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy could meet.

Speaking Sunday in remarks carried by the Interfax news agency, Medinsky reaffirmed that the parties reached a tentative agreement on the need for Ukraine to adopt a neutral status and refrain from holding foreign military bases in exchange for international security guarantees.

Asked about Ukrainian negotiator Davyd Arakhamia’s claim that Moscow’s negotiators had informally agreed to most proposals by Ukraine during the talks in Istanbul this week and the two presidents could discuss the draft deal, Medinsky said he doesn’t share Arakhamia’s optimism. He said the talks will continue online Monday.

Medinsky emphasized that Russia’s stand on Crimea and rebel regions in Ukraine’s east remained unchanged.

The Kremlin demands that Ukraine acknowledge Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014, and recognize the independence of Russia-backed separatist regions in Donbas, Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland.

Russian missile strike hit "critical infrastructure" in Ukraine's southern port city, Odesa on Sunday morning, Serhii Bratchuk, spokesman of the Operational Staff of Odesa regional military administration said. "One of the critical infrastructure objects was hit this morning," and "currently the situation is under control, the respective services are working on site. The details will be announced later," Bratchuk was quoted as saying by CNN.

Finish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said on April 2 that Russia's war against Ukraine had forced Finland to reexamine its security policy. "Russia is not the neighbor we thought it was," she said.

A top official said that Poland is ready to deploy US nukes to deter Russian aggression. “If the Americans asked us to store U.S. nuclear weapons in Poland, we would be open to it," said Jaroslaw Kaczynski, deputy prime minister and the leader of Poland's ruling Law and Justice party.

Polls opened across Hungary early Sunday as voters in the Central European country were faced with a choice: taking a chance on a diverse, Western-looking coalition of opposition parties, or granting nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban a renewed mandate with a fourth consecutive term in office. The contest is expected to be the closest since Orban took power in 2010 thanks to Hungary's six main opposition parties putting aside ideological differences to form a united front against his right-wing Fidesz party.

Russia has threatened to end cooperation with other countries on the International Space Station (ISS) until the sanctions are lifted that were imposed on the country after its invasion of Ukraine. Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russian space agency Roscosmos, posted on Twitter that the "restoration of normal relations between partners" on the ISS and other projects is only possible with the "complete and unconditional lifting of illegal sanctions".

Since Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine on Feb.24, 2022, universities across Europe and the United States have condemned the war and cut ties with Russia altogether.

The missile launched at Odesa was aimed at critical infrastructure facility, according Odesa City Council Deputy Petro Obukhov.

According to Luhansk Oblast Governor Serhiy Gaidai, Russian forces on April 2 continued their strikes on the large cities and hit one residential building for third time in one week.

Residents of Ukraine's besieged southeastern coast awaited possible evacuation Sunday as the country's president said Russia's obsession with capturing a key port city had left it weakened and created opportunities for his military. With Mariupol squarely in Russia's crosshairs, Ukraine insists it has gained a leg up elsewhere in the country, leading to troops retaking territory north of the capital of Kyiv as Russian forces departed.

A top American Congresswoman has praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for trying to broker peace between the United States and Russia on Ukraine and hoped that his efforts would be helpful in restoring peace in the region. On Friday, Modi conveyed to visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that India stands ready to contribute in any way to the peace efforts to resolve the conflict in Ukraine and called for early cessation of violence in that country.

Director of Migrant Affairs for the city of Tijuana Enrique Lucero told CNN there were nearly 1,500 Ukrainians in the city now but that he expected the number to increase to 2,000 by day's end.

According to Suspilne news outlet, some of the Russian missiles were shot down by Ukraine’s air defense. Fires were also recorded in some areas. Local authorities have instructed residents to close their windows.

The rights group called Human Rights Watch said it interviewed a woman in Bucha who witnessed Russian troops round up five men and shoot one of them in the back of the head, killing him, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Ukraine's Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar announced that the entire Kiev region has been liberated from Russian forces after weeks of fierce fighting.

In a social media post late Saturday, the Minister said: "Irpin, Bucha, Hostomel, and the rest of the Kiev region have been liberated from the invaders," Ukrayinska Pravda reported.

The announcement comes after Russia said last week that it would "drastically reduce" combat operations around the capital Kiev and the northern city of Chernihiv, and instead focus on the eastern regions.

Ukrainian authorities have claimed that at least 200 civilians have been killed in Irpin, located about 46 km from the capital city, since Russia launched the invasion on February 24.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian troops retaking areas around Kyiv and Chernihiv are not allowing Russians to retreat without a fight, but are “shelling them. They are destroying everyone they can.” Zelenskyy, in his Saturday night video address to the nation, said Ukraine knows Russia has the forces to put even more pressure on the east and south of Ukraine.

“What is the goal of the Russian troops? They want to seize the Donbas and the south of Ukraine,” he said. “What is our goal? To defend ourselves, our freedom, our land and our people.”

He said a significant portion of the Russian forces are tied up around Mariupol, where the city's defenders continue to fight.

Italy is among the countries hardest hit by the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, with rising energy prices weighing heavily on the country's post-pandemic economic recovery.

The ratings company Standard & Poor's revised down Italy's annual growth rate from 4.7 to 3.1 per cent this week in the light of the conflict and "the resulting surge in commodity prices", Xinhua news agency reported.

The draft agreements that were discussed during the meeting in Istanbul this week are now ready for discussion by the Presidents of Ukraine and Russia, Head of the Ukrainian delegation David Arakhamia said.

The draft has been "developed enough to conduct direct consultations between the two leaders of the countries," Arakhamia was quoted by Interfax-Ukraine news agency as saying on Saturday.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry has urged France, which holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, to "provide economic and political support to Egypt" to deal with the repercussions of the Ukraine crisis, according to a statement of Egypt's Foreign Ministry.

Shoukry made the remarks during a phone conversation with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian during which they discussed bilateral relations and economic cooperation amid the global impact of the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez said in the statement.

Ukraine spends about $10 billion per month on the conflict with Russia, the presidential press service said.

"The Ukrainian state spends about $10 billion a month on hostilities," said a statement on the Ukrainian presidential website on Saturday, citing data from the Ministry of Finance.

Among Ukraine's sources of expenditure financing, the statement named the country's own tax revenues and assistance from Ukraine's international partners, Xinhua news agency reported.

A Russian group that monitors political arrests says 208 people were detained in demonstrations held Saturday across the country protesting Russia's military operation in Ukraine. The OVD-Info group said demonstrations took place in 17 Russian cities, from Siberia to the more densely populated west. More than 70 people were were detained in Moscow and a similar number in St. Petersburg, the organization said.

Video released by another group that monitors protests, Avtozak, showed some detainees being led to police prisoner transports as they smiled and carried flowers. Others were shown to be more harshly forced into the transports, bent over with their arms pinioned behind them.

 new Prague-based internet radio station has started to broadcast news, information and music tailored to the day-to-day concerns of some 300,000 Ukrainian refugees who have arrived in the Czech Republic since Russia launched its military assault against Ukraine.

In a studio at the heart of the Czech capital, radio veterans work together with absolute beginners to provide the refugees with what they need to know to settle as smoothly as possible in a new country.

The staff of 10 combines people who have fled Ukraine in recent weeks with those who have been living abroad for years. No matter who they are, their common goal is to help fellow Ukrainians and their homeland facing the brutal Russian invasion.

Ukraine's deputy prime minister says 765 residents managed to make it out of Mariupol in private vehicles on Sunday while a team of humanitarian workers is yet to reach the hard-hit city.

Iryna Vereshchuk said the residents reached Zaporizhzhia, a city 140 miles (226 kilometers) to the northwest.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross said a team with three vehicles and nine staff members had planned to get into Mariupol, scene of some of the war's worst attacks, on Saturday to evacuate residents. The Red Cross said it could not carry out the operation Friday because it did not receive assurances the route was safe. City authorities said the Russians blocked access to the city.

Ukrainian troops moved cautiously to retake territory north of Kyiv on Sunday, even amid fears that Russian forces left booby-trapped explosives.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that departing Russian troops were creating a “catastrophic” situation for civilians by leaving mines around homes, abandoned equipment and “even the bodies of those killed.” His claims could not be independently verified.

Ukrainian troops took up positions in the town of Bucha, and were stationed at the entrance of Antonov Airport in Hostomel after retaking territory from Russian forces.