Ukraine

The Hill reports: In an interview with CNN, Donestk region military governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said that Russian troops were taking the bodies in order to destroy them in “territory not controlled by Ukraine” in an attempt to hide “evidence of genocide.” “They are using mobile crematoriums and mobile cremation machines and, also, taking people out, taking bodies of the dead …

The Daily Beast reports: Italian police have added another stunning villa to their collection of sequestered Russian properties after seizing the so-called Rocky Ram belonging to former Formula One driver Nikita Dmitrievich Mazepin and his father, chemical baron Dimitry Mazepin, on Monday. The property, valued at around $115 million, sits on a cliff overlooking Sardinia’s rocky Paradise Beach coast and …

The Associated Press reports: The mayor of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol said Monday that more than 10,000 civilians have died in the Russian siege of his city, and that the death toll could surpass 20,000, with corpses that were “carpeted through the streets.” Speaking by phone Monday to The Associated Press, Mayor Vadym Boychenko also said Russian forces …

ABC News reports: Russia has defaulted on its foreign debt because it offered bondholders payments in rubles, not dollars, credit ratings agency S&P has said. Russia attempted to pay in rubles for two dollar-denominated bonds that matured on April 4, S&P said in a note on Friday. The agency said this amounted to a “selective default” because investors are unlikely …

Agence France-Presse reports: Pro-Russia protesters rallied in Germany on Sunday, the country’s significant Russian-speaking population demanding an end to the discrimination it says it has suffered since war began in Ukraine. Germany is home to 1.2 million people of Russian origin and 325,000 from Ukraine. Authorities fear the conflict could be imported into Germany and the protests used to promote …

The Associated Press reports: Pope Francis opened Holy Week Sunday with a call for an Easter truce in Ukraine to make room for a negotiated peace, highlighting the need for leaders to “make some sacrifices for the good of the people.” Celebrating Palm Sunday Mass before crowds in St. Peter’s Square for the first time since the pandemic, Pope Francis …

Politico Europe reports: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv. The visit was first made public by the Embassy of Ukraine to the U.K., which tweeted a photo of the two. A No. 10 spokesperson later confirmed the trip. “The Prime Minister has travelled to Ukraine to meet President Zelenskyy in person, in …

Reuters reports: European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the civilian deaths in the Ukrainian town of Bucha showed the “cruel face” of Russia’s army and pledged to try to speed Ukraine’s bid to become a member of the European Union. During a visit to Bucha, where forensic investigators started to exhume bodies from a mass grave, von der …

Reuters reports: At least 39 people were killed and 87 wounded on Friday when two rockets hit a railway station in eastern Ukraine packed with evacuees, Ukrainian authorities said, as the region braced for a major Russian offensive. Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region, said thousands of civilians had been at the station at the time the rockets struck, …

Sky News reports: Vladimir Putin’s spokesman has admitted a “significant” loss of Russian troops since the invasion of Ukraine began, telling Sky News their deaths are a “tragedy”. Dmitry Peskov, in his first broadcast interview with Western media, also said Russia hopes “this operation” will reach its goals “in the coming days”. He told Sky News’ Mark Austin that “we’re …

Global News reports: The United Nations General Assembly voted Thursday to suspend Russia from its human rights body. The vote to remove Russia from the Human Rights Council comes several weeks after the country invaded Ukraine and just days after reports of a massacre of Ukrainian civilians in Bucha, Ukraine. The vote count was 93 in favour of the resolution, …

Axios reports: Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Facebook says it has removed “tens of thousands of accounts, Pages and Groups” around the world for spreading misleading content about the conflict to build audiences and bring in cash. Spammers switched user names repeatedly to trick people into following them. They would then push their followings to other websites …

Der Spiegel reports: The Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany’s foreign intelligence service, has acquired gruesome new insights into the atrocities committed by Russian military forces in the town of Bucha near the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. DER SPIEGEL has learned that the BND intercepted Russian military radio traffic in which the murder of civilians in Bucha was discussed. Some of the intercepted …

The Washington Post reports: Finnish Customs has seized artwork en route to Russia as part of sanctions imposed by the European Union. The paintings, sculptures and antiquities are worth 42 million euros ($46 million), the agency said. Finnish Customs stopped three shipments headed to Russia at the Vaalimaa border crossing, the agency said in a news release. The artwork was …

Ars Technica reports: Roskomnadzor, Russia’s censorship authority, issued another demand on Tuesday for Wikipedia to remove what it called “unreliable socially significant information.” The agency warned that failure to comply could lead to fines of up to 4 million rubles ($50,000). A March 3 statement on the Wikimedia website declared that “we will not back down in the face of …

“The war. What is more opposite of music? The silence of ruined cities and killed people. Our children draw swooping rockets, not shooting stars. Over 400 children have been injured and 153 children died, and we will never see them drawing. “Our parents are happy to wake up in the morning in bomb shelters, but alive. Our loved ones don’t …

Reuters reports: Ukraine on Sunday accused Russian forces of carrying out a “massacre” in the town of Bucha, while Western nations reacted to images of dead bodies there with calls for new sanctions against Moscow. Russia’s defence ministry denied the Ukrainian allegations, saying footage and photographs showing bodies in Bucha were “yet another provocation” by the Ukrainian government. The defence …

Axios reports: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced what he called Russia’s attempt to eliminate “the whole nation” during an appearance Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” saying, “this is genocide.” As Ukrainian forces retook the Kyiv region on Saturday, officials and independent photographers have reported bodies of civilians — some with their hands tied behind their backs — strewn in …

CNN reports: The lifeless bodies of at least 20 civilian men line a single street in the town of Bucha near the Ukrainian capital. Some lie face down on the pavement while others are collapsed on their backs, mouths open in a tragic testament to the horrors of Russian occupation. The hands of one man are tied behind his back …

Euronews reports: Pope Francis offered his most pointed condemnation of the war in Ukraine, calling out “infantile and destructive aggression” on Saturday during a trip to Malta. In words that appeared to directly call out President Vladimir Putin, the pope said that “some potentate” caught up in “anachronistic claims of nationalist interests, is provoking and fomenting conflicts”. “We had thought …