Bodies with bound hands, close-range gunshot wounds and
signs of torture lay scattered in a city on the outskirts of Kyiv after Russian
soldiers withdrew from the area. Ukrainian authorities accused the departing
forces on Sunday of committing war crimes and leaving behind a “scene from a
horror movie.”
As images of the bodies emerged from Bucha, European leaders
condemned the atrocities and called for tougher sanctions against Moscow. In a
sign of how the horrific reports shook many leaders, Germany’s defense minister
even suggested that the European Union consider banning Russian gas imports.
Ukrainian officials said the bodies of 410 civilians were
found in Kyiv-area towns that were recently retaken from Russian forces.
Associated Press journalists saw the bodies of at least 21
people in various spots around Bucha, northwest of the capital. One group of
nine, all in civilian clothes, were scattered around a site that residents said
Russian troops used as a base. They appeared to have been killed at close
range. At least two had their hands tied behind their backs, one was shot in
the head, and another’s legs were bound.
Ukrainian officials laid the blame for the killings squarely
at the feet of Russian troops, with the president calling them evidence of
genocide. But Russia’s Defense Ministry rejected the accusations as
“provocation.”
The discoveries followed the Russian retreat from the area
after Moscow said it was focusing its offensive on the country’s east. Russian
troops had rolled into Bucha in the early days of the invasion and stayed up
until March 30.
One resident, who refused to give his name out of fear for
his safety, said that Russian troops went building to building and took people
out of the basements where they were hiding, checking their phones for any
evidence of anti-Russian activity before taking them away or shooting them.
Hanna Herega, another resident, said Russian troops started
shooting at a neighbor who had gone out to gather wood for heating.
“They hit him a bit above the heel, crushing the bone, and
he fell down,” Herega said. “Then they shot off his left leg completely, with
the boot. Then they shot him all over.”
The AP also saw two bodies, that of a man and a woman,
wrapped in plastic that residents said they had covered and placed in a shaft
until a proper funeral could be arranged.
“He put his hands up, and they shot him,” said the resident
who refused to be identified.
Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, described bodies lying in suburban streets as a “scene
from a horror movie.” He claimed some of the women had been raped before being
killed and the Russians then burned the bodies.
In a video address, Zelenskyy said Russian soldiers who
killed and tortured civilians were responsible for “concentrated evil.”
“It is time to do everything possible to make the war crimes
of the Russian military the last manifestation of such evil on earth,” he said
in remarks translated by his office.
He directed some of his remarks at the mothers of Russian
soldiers involved.
“Even if you raised looters, how did they also become
butchers?” he said. “You couldn’t overlook that they are deprived of everything
human. No soul. No heart. They killed deliberately and with pleasure.”
Zelenskyy said his government would take steps to create a
special justice mechanism to investigate every crime committed by the Russian
forces in Ukraine.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that photos
and videos of dead bodies “have been stage managed by the Kyiv regime for the
Western media.” It noted that Bucha’s mayor did not mention any abuses a day
after Russian troops left.
The ministry said “not a single civilian” in Bucha had faced
any violent action by the Russian military.
Russia asked for a meeting Monday of the U.N. Security
Council to discuss events in the city. The U.S. and Britain have recently accused
Russia of using Security Council meetings to spread disinformation.
In Motyzhyn, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Kyiv,
residents told AP on Sunday that Russian troops killed the town’s mayor, her
husband and her son and threw their bodies into a pit in a pine forest behind
houses where Russian forces had slept.
Inside the pit, AP journalists saw four bodies of people who
appeared to have been shot at close range. The mayor’s husband had his hands
behind his back, with a piece of rope nearby, and a piece of plastic wrapped
around his eyes like a blindfold.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk confirmed
that the mayor was killed while being held by Russian forces.
Some European leaders said the killings in the Kyiv area
amounted to war crimes. The U.S. has previously said that it believes Russia
has committed war crimes, and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken called images
of what happened near Kyiv “a punch to the gut” on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“It is a brutality against civilians we haven’t seen in
Europe for decades,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on the same
show.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko called on nations to immediately
end Russian gas imports, saying they were funding the killings.
In a turnaround, Germany’s defense minister said that the EU
should consider doing just that. Ministers “would have to talk about halting
gas supplies from Russia,” Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said Sunday
night on German public broadcaster ARD. “Such crimes must not go unanswered.”
Russia provides 40% of Europe’s gas and 25% of its oil, and
until now many EU nations have resisted calls to scale back or fully end
reliance on Russian fossil fuels. Giving them up would mean even higher prices
at the pump and higher utility bills, potentially creating an energy crisis and
a recession.
The U.S. has previously announced a ban on Russian oil, but
it imports only a small share of Russia’s oil exports and doesn’t buy any of
its natural gas.
As Russian forces retreated from the area around the
capital, they pressed their sieges in other parts of the country. Russia has
said it is directing troops to the Donbas in eastern Ukraine, where
Russia-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces for eight years.
In that region, Mariupol, a port on the Sea of Azov that has
seen some of the war’s greatest suffering, remained cut off. About 100,000
civilians — less than a quarter of the prewar population of 430,000 — are
believed to be trapped there with little or no food, water, fuel and medicine.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said Sunday
that a team sent Saturday to help evacuate residents had yet to reach the city.
Ukrainian authorities said Russia agreed days ago to allow
safe passage from the city, but similar agreements have broken down repeatedly
under continued shelling.
The mayor of Chernihiv, which has also been cut off from
shipments of food and other supplies for weeks, said that relentless Russian
shelling has destroyed 70% of the northern city.
The Ukrainian military said early Monday that its forces had
retaken some towns in the Chernihiv region and that humanitarian aid was being
delivered. The road between Chernihiv and the capital, Kyiv, was to reopen to
some traffic later in the morning, according to the news agency RBK Ukraina.
The regional governor in Kharkiv said Sunday that Russian
artillery and tanks launched over 20 strikes on Ukraine’s second-largest city
and its outskirts in the country’s northeast over the past day.
The head of Ukraine’s delegation in talks with Russia said
Moscow’s negotiators informally agreed to most of a draft proposal discussed
during face-to-face talks in Istanbul this week, but no written confirmation
has been provided.
The Russian invasion has left thousands dead and forced more
than 4 million Ukrainians to flee their country.
Comment
American and British forces carried out a fresh wave of strikes Saturday against 18 Huthi targets in Yemen, following weeks of unrelenting attacks on Red Sea shipping by the Iran-backed rebels.
The strikes "specifically targeted 18 Huthi targets across eight locations in Yemen" including weapons storage facilities, attack drones, air defense systems, radars, and a helicopter, a joint statement said.
It was co-signed by Australia, Bahrain, Denmark, Canada, the Netherlands and New Zealand, who gave unspecified "support" to the new round of strikes, the second this month and fourth since the rebels began their attacks on ships in the region.
"The Huthis' now more than 45 attacks on commercial and naval vessels since mid-November constitute a threat to the global economy, as well as regional security and stability, and demand an international response," the statement said.
Huthi-run Al-Masirah television reported "a series of raids on the capital Sanaa," while AFP correspondents in the rebel-controlled city in western Yemen said they heard several loud bangs.
"The United States will not hesitate to take action, as needed, to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world's most critical waterways," Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said in a separate statement after the strikes.
"We will continue to make clear to the Huthis that they will bear the consequences if they do not stop their illegal attacks, which harm Middle Eastern economies, cause environmental damage, and disrupt the delivery of humanitarian aid to Yemen and other countries."
Huthi military spokesman Yahya Saree was defiant, vowing in a social media statement that the rebels would "confront the American-British escalation with more qualitative military operations against all hostile targets in the Red and Arab Seas."
The UK Ministry of Defence said four Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4s targeted "several very long-range drones, used by the Houthis for both reconnaissance and attack missions," on Saturday, at a site north-east of Sanaa.
Saturday's operation comes after several merchant vessels were struck this week in the region, including the fertilizer-filled Rubymar, whose crew had to abandon ship after it was hit Sunday and began taking on water.
Apart from the joint operations with Britain, the United States has also carried out unilateral strikes against Huthi positions and weaponry in Yemen, and downed dozens of missiles and drones in the Red Sea.
- Anti-ship missile downed -
Earlier on Saturday, US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that an American Navy ship had shot down an anti-ship ballistic missile "launched into the Gulf of Aden from Iranian-backed Huthi controlled areas of Yemen."
The missile "was likely targeting MV Torm Thor, a US-Flagged, owned, and operated chemical/oil tanker," CENTCOM said on X, formerly Twitter.
US forces on Friday also shot down three attack drones near commercial ships in the Red Sea and destroyed seven anti-ship cruise missiles on land, CENTCOM said.
The Huthis say they are targeting Israel-linked vessels in support of Palestinians in Gaza, which has been ravaged by the Israel-Hamas war.
Following previous US and UK strikes, the Huthis declared American and British interests to be legitimate targets as well.
The Huthis will "persist in upholding their religious, moral and humanitarian duties towards the Palestinian people, and their military operations will not stop unless the aggression stops and the siege on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is lifted," military spokesman Saree said.
Anger over Israel's devastating campaign in Gaza -- which began after an unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7 -- has grown across the Middle East, stoking violence involving Iran-backed groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Comment
Israel launched air strikes Thursday on southern Gaza's Rafah after threatening to send troops into the city, where around 1.4 million Palestinians have sought shelter from around the territory.
Global powers trying to navigate a way to end the Israel-Hamas war have so far come up short, but a US envoy was expected in Israel on Thursday to try to secure a truce deal.
International concern has spiralled over the high civilian death toll and dire humanitarian crisis in the war sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack against Israel.
More than four months of relentless fighting and air strikes have flattened much of the Hamas-run coastal territory, pushing its population of around 2.4 million to the brink of famine, according to the UN.
International concern has in recent weeks centred on Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah, where more than 1.4 million people forced to flee their homes elsewhere in the territory are now living in crowded shelters and makeshift tents.
The last city untouched by Israeli ground troops, Rafah also serves as the main entry point via neighbouring Egypt for desperately needed relief supplies.
Israel has warned it will expand its ground operations into Rafah if Hamas does not free the remaining hostages held in Gaza by next month's start of the Muslim holy month Ramadan.
- 'My daughter' -
The war started when Hamas launched its attack on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Hamas militants also took about 250 hostages -- 130 of whom remain in Gaza, including 30 presumed dead, according to Israel.
Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 29,313 people, mostly women and children, according to the latest count by the Hamas-run health ministry in the territory.
War cabinet member Benny Gantz said Israel's operation in Rafah would begin "after the evacuation of the population", although his government has not offered any details on where civilians would be evacuated to.
In the early hours of Thursday, AFP reporters heard multiple air strikes on Rafah, particularly in the Al-Shaboura neighbourhood.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said early Thursday that 99 people had been killed around Gaza during the night, most of them women, children and elderly people.
Abdel Rahman Mohamed Jumaa said he lost his family in recent strikes on Rafah.
"I found my wife lying in the street," he told AFP. "Then I saw a man carrying a girl and I ran towards him and.... picked her up, realising she was really my daughter."
He was holding a small shrouded corpse in his arms.
- 'Possibility of progress' -
Brett McGurk, the White House coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, was expected to arrive in Israel Thursday -- his second stop in the region after Egypt as part of US efforts to advance a hostage deal and broker a truce.
Hamas's chief Ismail Haniyeh was in Cairo for talks as well, according to the group.
Israel's Gantz said there were efforts to "promote a new plan for the return of the hostages".
"We are seeing the first signs that indicate the possibility of progress in this direction."
Matthew Miller, US State Department spokesman, said Washington was hoping for an "agreement that secures a temporary ceasefire where we can get the hostages out and get humanitarian assistance", but declined to give details on ongoing negotiations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted the army will keep fighting until it has destroyed Hamas and freed the remaining hostages.
Israel's parliament on Wednesday overwhelmingly backed a proposal by Netanyahu to oppose any unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.
The vote came days after the Washington Post reported that US President Joe Biden's administration and a small group of Arab nations were working out a comprehensive plan for long-term peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
It included a firm timeline for the establishment of a Palestinian state, the report said.
Separately, a report by an Israeli group that fights sexual violence said Hamas's October 7 attack also involved systematic sexual assaults on civilians, based on witness testimonies, public and classified information, and interviews.
The report came the same week UN rights experts called for an independent probe into alleged Israeli abuses against Palestinian women and girls -- which Israel rejected as "despicable and unfounded claims".
Israeli officials have repeatedly alleged the militants committed violent sexual assaults during the attack -- something Hamas has denied.
- 'Waiting for death' -
Combat and chaos have stalled sporadic aid deliveries for civilians in Gaza, while in Khan Yunis -- a city just north of Rafah -- medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said an Israeli tank had fired on a house sheltering their employees and families.
Two relatives of MSF staff were killed and six others injured, it said, condemning the strike in the "strongest possible terms".
When contacted by AFP about the incident, the Israeli army said its forces had "fired at a building that was identified as a building where terror activity is occurring", adding that it "regrets" harm to civilians.
In the same town, the Palestinian Red Crescent said another hospital was also hit by "artillery shelling".
Israel has repeatedly said Hamas militants use civilian infrastructure including hospitals as operational bases -- claims that Hamas has denied.
Comment
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today stressed the need for expanding business between Bangladesh and India using their own currencies.
"We can do our business through exchanges of Bangladeshi Taka and Indian Rupee. It has already started, but we have to expand it further so that we can increase our businesses," she said while Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar paid a call on the Prime Minister.
The meeting was held at Hotel Bayerischer Hof, the conference venue, here on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) 2024, this morning.
Foreign Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud briefed newsmen about the outcome of the meeting upon its completion.
The Foreign Minister said the Bangladesh Premier and Jaishankar attached importance to doing business between the two friendly countries through their own currencies to reduce dependency on other currencies like the US dollar.
He said Bangladesh and India have excellent bilateral relations and it has elevated to another height under the leadership of the prime ministers of the two countries.
"The relations between the countries are getting stronger day by day," he said, adding that the two leaders discussed the issues during the meeting.
Quoting Jaishankar, Hasan said, "Our relations will further be closer in the days ahead."
Bangladesh Ambassador to Germany Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan and PM's Deputy Press Secretary Md. Noorelahi Mina were present during the briefing.
Bangladesh Prime Minister arrived in Munich on February 15 evening on a three-day official visit to join the Munich Security Conference 2024.
Upon completion of the tour, Sheikh Hasina will leave Munich tomorrow night and is scheduled to reach Dhaka on February 19.
(BSS)
Comment
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called upon all concerned to find ways to stop Russia-Ukraine war while holding a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy here.
"Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina always says we are against all kinds of war. Today, she discussed time and again about how the war can be stopped while holding talks with Zelenskyy," said Foreign Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud at a news briefing after the meeting.
The meeting between the two leaders was held at Hotel Bayerischer Hof here on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) 2024, this morning.
Hasan also said that they also discussed how the attacks on innocent men and women in Gaza can be stopped.
The Premier reminded all that war can't bring wellbeing for any one.
"Others can be benefitted from the war. But the war cannot bring welfare for the countries involved in war and their people have to be affected by the war," said Sheikh Hasina.
In this connection, the Prime Minister recollected her memories about the sufferings of the countrymen and she herself faced during the Great War of Liberation in 1971.
She recalled her inhuman sufferings and the birth of her only son Sajeeb Wazed Joy under the captivity of the Pakistani occupation forces during the War.
"Bangladesh's foreign policy - 'Friendship to all, malice to none’ - prominently came up in the discussion between Prime Minister and Zelenskyy," the foreign minister said.
Replying to a query, Hasan said the friendly relations between Bangladesh and Russia which got foundation during the Liberation war , will not hamper at all.
"Our relationship with Russia is very wonderful. Russia stood beside us during the Liberation War and played a pivotal role in rebuilding Bangladesh after the war," he said.
He said they only discussed how to stop the war.
Bangladesh Ambassador to Germany Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan and PM's Deputy Press Secretary Md. Noorelahi Mina were present during the briefing.
Bangladesh Prime Minister arrived in Munich on February 15 evening on a three-day official visit to join the Munich Security Conference 2024.
Upon completion of the tour, Sheikh Hasina will leave Munich tomorrow night and is scheduled to reach Dhaka on February 19.
(BSS)
Comment
Comment
American and British forces carried out a fresh wave of strikes Saturday against 18 Huthi targets in Yemen, following weeks of unrelenting attacks on Red Sea shipping by the Iran-backed rebels. The strikes "specifically targeted 18 Huthi targets across eight locations in Yemen" including weapons storage facilities, attack drones, air defense systems, radars, and a helicopter, a joint statement said.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today stressed the need for expanding business between Bangladesh and India using their own currencies. "We can do our business through exchanges of Bangladeshi Taka and Indian Rupee. It has already started, but we have to expand it further so that we can increase our businesses," she said while Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar paid a call on the Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called upon all concerned to find ways to stop Russia-Ukraine war while holding a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy here. "Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina always says we are against all kinds of war. Today, she discussed time and again about how the war can be stopped while holding talks with Zelenskyy," said Foreign Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud at a news briefing after the meeting.