Daily Archives: April 6, 2022

BUCHA, Ukraine -- 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 Russias 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 countrys 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 couldnt 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.

Zelenskyy also appeared in a pre-recorded video message at Sunday's Grammy Awards, contrasting the lives of those attending the award ceremony in Las Vegas with the lives of musicians in his battered homeland.

Our musicians wear body armor instead of tuxedos. They sing to the wounded in hospitals, even to those who cant hear them, he said in English. But the music will break through anyway.

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.

The ministry said not a single civilian" in Bucha had faced any violent military action and the mayor did not mention any abuses a day after Russian troops left.

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 that Russian troops killed the towns 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 mayors 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 CNNs State of the Union.

It is a brutality against civilians we havent 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, Germanys 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 on German public broadcaster ARD. Such crimes must not go unanswered.

Russia provides 40% of Europes 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 Russias oil exports and doesnt buy any of its natural gas.

As Russian forces retreated from the area around the capital, they also withdrew from the Sumy region, in Ukraines northeast, local administrator Dmitry Zhivitsky said in a video message carried by Ukrainian news agencies. The troops had occupied the area for nearly a month.

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 that Russian artillery and tanks launched over 20 strikes on Ukraines second-largest city and its outskirts in the country's northeast over the past day.

The head of Ukraines delegation in talks with Russia said Moscows 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 left thousands dead and forced more than 4 million Ukrainians to flee their country.

Qena reported from Motyzhyn, Ukraine. Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Ukraine, and Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report.

Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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Ukraine accuses Russia of massacre, city strewn with ...

Internally displaced people arrive at a center in Zaporizhzhia, northwest of Mariupol, on Wednesday. Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

Internally displaced people arrive at a center in Zaporizhzhia, northwest of Mariupol, on Wednesday.

As Wednesday draws to a close in Kyiv and in Moscow, here are the key developments of the day:

All Russian ground forces have left the areas near Kyiv, Kharkiv and Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, according to the U.S. military. Ukrainian forces have been moving in and clearing mines left behind by the Russian troops, a senior U.S. defense official said. The Russian units are regrouping in Russia or Belarus, north of Ukraine. The Pentagon believes they will likely be sent back to Ukraine, into the eastern part of the country, where Russia is now focused.

More than 500 people were evacuated from the besieged city of Mariupol, after days of failed attempts. The International Committee of the Red Cross was able to escort a convoy of buses and private cars to Zaporizhzhia. Thousands of civilians are still believed to be in the city.

The U.S., European Union and Group of Seven nations are enacting new sanctions on Russia. The sanctions target top Russian officials and family members, including Putin's adult children, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's wife and daughter, former President and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. The U.S. is also imposing full blocking sanctions on Sberbank and Alfa Bank, two of Russia's top banks.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Brussels to meet with G-7 and NATO foreign ministers. They are expected to discuss Ukraine's need of more weapons and potential additional punitive actions against Russia. Blinken announced another $100 million of military aid for Ukraine, bringing the U.S. total to $1.7 billion since Russia invaded in February.

The Justice Department is helping investigate possible war crimes by Russia in Ukraine, meeting with Europol, Eurojust and a French prosecutor. The Justice Department has also charged a Russian oligarch with violation of sanctions, in the first such indictment since the invasion began.

In Bucha, death, devastation and a graveyard of mines.

Ukrainian officials survey damage to Kyiv's suburbs after Russian forces exit. See the photos.

Krakow, Poland's second-largest city, strains to accommodate Ukrainian refugees, with the city's population increasing 20%.

More than 300 dogs die of hunger and thirst in a Ukraine shelter.

A Mexican American comic book superhero saves Ukrainian civilians in a special online issue.

You can read more news from Wednesday here, as well as more in-depth reporting and daily recaps here. Also, listen and subscribe to NPR's State of Ukraine podcast for updates throughout the day.

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Russia-Ukraine war: What happened today (April 6) - NPR

Russias war on Ukraine has been criticised by protesters who took to the streets, Russian priests, academics, and cultural figures.

Thousands have been arrested for participating in anti-war rallies, and many have fled the country amid a growing crackdown and worsening economy as Western sanctions pile up.

But how representative these critics are of Russia as a whole is uncertain.

A recent survey by the independent pollster Levada showed that more than 80 percent support Russian militarys actions in Ukraine. As some observers noted, opinion polls might be skewed by the political climate. Prison terms for spreading disinformation, for instance, may have left respondents less-than-honest.

Nevertheless, it would be wrong to dismiss these numbers entirely.

Back in 2014, after Russias annexation of Crimea, President Vladimir Putins popularity surged to a record 89 percent although that was a relatively bloodless and less messy campaign.

The black-and-orange St Georges ribbon, a symbol of the victory in World War II and more generally, Russian military glory, became a ubiquitous sight.

This kind of boost is what political scientists call the rally round the flag effect, when a crisis supports an otherwise unpopular leader.

The [current] rise in Putins popularity was expected because of the dynamics of collective identity and its salience during any foreign confrontation, and war is the ultimate means of bringing the national identity to the centre of Russians worldview, political scientist Gulnaz Sharafutdinova told Al Jazeera.

While the early days of the war [in Ukraine] saw some confusion, the consolidation in society grew with each day. Sanctions and how they were perceived and conveyed also played into hardening of a defensive stance vis--vis the West.

Sharafutdinova argued that Russians are frustrated with new sanctions and feel resentful towards Western nations, which may have strengthened a sense of group identity.

Putin has in the past enjoyed popularity for bringing stability and relative prosperity to Russians after the chaotic, crime-ridden 1990s.

At the same time, many Russians have been increasingly dismayed by Western nations. In their view, their country, once a superpower that had sent the first man into space, has been increasingly disregarded on the international stage.

They have accused their Cold War rivals, which have crept up to their borders, of meddling in the 1996 presidential election when Boris Yeltsin defeated Communist challenger Gennady Zyuganov, and of breaking international law two years later to bomb its ally Serbia into submission.

And Putin is seen as challenging the USs self-appointed role as the worlds policeman.

According to 68-year-old Valentina, an academic from St Petersburg, Ukraine is just another one of the United Statess projects.

After the coup dtat in Ukraine in 2014, which took place with the participation of the United States, the country came under external control, she told Al Jazeera, referring to the Maidan revolution that led to the removal of then-President Viktor Yanukovych, which critics like Valentina have dismissed as a Washington-orchestrated coup.

Over the years since the coup, Ukraine has become the poorest country in Europe and is flooded with all sorts of weapons, including biological. For Russia, this is a dangerous and aggressive neighbour. I believe that Russia was forced to take this step.

Russia has repeatedly accused the US of developing biological weapons in Ukraine. US officials have acknowledged bankrolling laboratories in Ukraine for the study of deadly pathogens, for the purpose of disease control.

US officials openly supported the 2013-14 revolution, and leaked conversations revealed then-Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland picking her favourites for Ukraines new government, including hardline anti-Russian politician Arseniy Yatsenyuk. A few weeks after that leak, Yatsenyuk was appointed prime minister.

Valentina considered the current Ukrainian government to be entirely a puppet of the United States and believed President Volodymyr Zelenskyy could not compromise with Russia, even if he wanted to.

The White House, she believed, is willing to sacrifice Ukraine to wage a proxy war against Russia.

Even if he had made such an attempt, he would probably have been able to claim the Nobel Peace Prize, but obviously he would not live to see it as he would be eliminated immediately, she said of Zelenskyy. The United States will wage war in Ukraine to the last drop of Ukrainian blood.

Russians who back their countrys so-called special military operation also believe the Ukrainian government has been captured by neo-Nazi elements, which ties into a long history of Ukrainian nationalism being seen as hostile to Russia.

But despite Ukrainian nationalists constantly asserting themselves against Russia, even collaborating with Nazi forces during World War II, many agree with Putin and see the two nations as one of the same.

Every Russian has relatives in Ukraine, and also every Ukrainian has relatives in Russia it is impossible to distinguish them. They are physically one people speaking the same language, said Sergey Kalenik, a 36-year-old PR professional in Moscow whose comic series Superputin casts the Russian president as a hero.

Ukraine is an integral part of Russia, just like Wales is for the UK, and anyone who thinks otherwise is not a Russian person.

Back to 2014, Ukrainian ultra-nationalists took an active part in street fighting with the Berkut riot police during the Maidan revolution.

The following year, dozens of pro-Russian activists were burned alive in a trade union building in Odesa, and the notorious paramilitary group Azov, which attracted neo-Nazis, was formed to combat pro-Russian separatists in Ukraines east.

The narrative that Ukraine is a country overrun by Neo-Nazis has often been touted by Putin, whose stated war goals include denazifying the country.

Kalenik considered the special operation, as the invasion is officially called, a calculated, precise, preemptive strike to knock out an opponent and force them into an agreement.

Conflict, it seems, was inevitable.

The turning point in attitudes towards Ukraine was on May 2, 2014, when in Odesa nationalists herded unarmed Russians into a building and burned them alive, Kalenik told Al Jazeera.

The people who did this were not punished, the act was not condemned and instead, Nazis with swastikas like the Azov Battalion remained in power. So, the whole system needs to be changed.

Ukrainians are held hostage by nationalists after all, what did Ukrainians vote for in the last elections? Zelenskyy promised to end the war [in Donbas], restore democracy and free entrepreneurship.

He accused Zelenskyy of destroying Ukraines economy, banning opposition parties and cracking down on independent media which hold some truth. Leading up to the invasion, Zelenskyy shut down several TV stations seen as pro-Russian and had opposition oligarchs arrested, raising concerns about freedom of speech.

Most importantly, [he] began to gather atomic weapons and Nazi battalions, said Kalenik. Does this look like the will of the people? No, its a totalitarian dictatorship.

In Russia, the state has regularly been accused of pressuring independent media and since the war began, all non-state media outlets have either been forced to shut or suspend their operations.

Kalenik was not too worried about them, calling such newspapers and websites disgusting fascist establishments peddling naked propaganda.

But he still managed to access a variety of news sources despite the crackdown, and is particularly disappointed with Western media coverage and its emphasis on alleged Russian war crimes.

Unfortunately, almost everyone has fallen for primitive military propaganda, he said.

They cannot even make fakes. The Mariupol maternity hospital, a drama theatre with children, looting by Russian soldiers, Zelenskyy stood in front of a green screen these cheap productions do not stand up to criticism, he added, agreeing with the Kremlins claims that war crimes have been staged by the Ukrainians.

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Who are the everyday Russians rallying behind Putins war? - Al Jazeera English

Here's why is Russia being accused of war crimes in Ukraine

Russia has been accused of committing war crimes in Ukraine. Here's what we know now.

Just the FAQs, USA TODAY

The mayor of the encircled Ukrainian city of Mariupol saidmore than 5,000 civilians, including 210 children,have been killed during the monthlong Russian siege.

Vadym Boichenko said Wednesday that Russian forces bombed hospitals, including one where 50 people burned to death, and have destroyedmore than 90% of the southern port citys infrastructure.

"The world has not seen the scale of the tragedy in Mariupol since the existence of the Nazi concentration camps. Russia-occupation forces turned our entire city into a death camp,"Boichenko said, according to the Ukrainian news agency Interfax."This is the new Auschwitz and Majdanek."

Boichenko's estimates of the fatalities in Mariupol comeon the same day the U.S. imposed sweeping new sanctions on Russia that include targeting Vladimir Putins two adult daughters in response to atrocities in Ukraine that the White House has called war crimes.

Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova, two daughters of theRussian leader and hisex-wife Lyudmila Shkrebneva Putina, face full blocking sanctions that will cut them off from the U.S. financial system and freeze any assets theymay hold in the U.S.The administration believes many of Putins assets are hidden with family members.

Sanctions also target Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's wife and daughter. The new wave of sanctions on Russian elites add to the 140 other oligarchs and Kremlin officials already hit with sanctions since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.

"Were going to keep raising the economic costs and ratchet up the pain for Putin,'' President Joe Biden said.

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Latest developments

Ukrainian authorities say nearly 5,000 people were evacuated from combat areas in the south or eastern part of the country.Over 10 million people, about a quarter of Ukraines population, have been displaced by the war, and more than 4 million of them have fled the nation.

A North Dakota farmer jailed in Ukraine since November has been moved from Kyiv to Lviv, North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven said.Kurt Groszhan, 50, is charged with plotting to assassinate Ukraines then-agriculture minister, Roman Leschenko. The two had gone into business together after Groszhan moved to Ukraine in 2017.

Ukraine's military said it has retaken the settlements of Dobryanka, Novovoznesenskeand Trudolyubivka in the Kherson region just north of Crimea.

$100 million worth of Javelin anti-tank missiles will be sent to Ukraine to meet an urgent need, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a statement. The "transfer" comes amid a shift of fighting to eastern Ukraine.

Greece is expelling 12 Russian diplomats. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Western countries have expelled more than 150 Russian diplomats.

President Joe Biden said new economic sanctions imposed Wednesday against Russia, including two adultdaughters of President Vladimir Putin, ratchet up the pain'' furtheron Russia following the discovery of atrocities committed by its troops.

"There's nothing less happening than major war crimes," Biden said, describing scenes of bodies left in the streets of the Ukrainian town of Bucha including civiliansexecuted with their hands tied behind their backs.

Responsible nations have to come together to hold these preparators accountable.And together with our allies and our partners, were going to keep raising the economic costs and ratchet up the pain for Putin, and further increase Russias economic isolation."

The Biden administration announced sanctions on 21 Kremlin officials and Russian elites in addition to two adult Putin daughters, Maria Vorontsovaand Katerina Tikhonova, and the wife and daughter ofRussian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Other measures include full blocking sanctions on Russias largest financial institution, Sberbank, and Russias largest private bank, Alfa Bank, as well as a ban on U.S. investment in Russia. European allies took similar actions.

"Think about the incredible amounts of money these oligarchs have stolen," Biden said, adding that they won't be able to keep their "$100 million yachts" and luxury homes "while children in Ukraine are being killed, displaced from their homes every single day."

Joey Garrison

As much of the world recoils upon seeing images of the atrocities committed by Russian troops in Ukraine, Moscow is turning to a well-rehearsed, long-standing strategy:Deny culpability, blame the victim, crank up the propaganda machine.

In detailed broadcasts to millions of viewers, correspondents and hosts of Russian state TV channels said Tuesday that some photo and video evidence of the ghastly killings in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha were fake while others showed that Ukrainians were responsible for the horrors.

Some reports claimed to have video showing fake Ukrainian corpsesmoving, supposed evidence the deaths were staged. Accounts from eyewitnesses and foreign journalists in Ukraine, along with satellite images, belie that notion. But the disinformation can be effective in sowing confusion among the audiences, especially those in Russia whose access to independent sources of information is limited.

This is simply what Russia does every time it recognizes that it has suffered a PR setback through committing atrocities, said Keir Giles, senior consulting fellow with the Russia and Eurasia program at the Chatham House think tank. So the system works almost on autopilot.

As they put up a fierce resistance to the assaults from amuch larger enemy, Ukrainian forces are far from defenseless. The additional $100 million President Joe Biden authorized this week for military aid brings up to $1.7 billion the amount of security assistance the U.S. has contributed to Ukraine since the Russian invasion Feb. 24.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that along with the U.S. allies and partners, "for every Russian tank in Ukraine, we have provided or will soon provide 10 anti-tank systems. ... They have the tools that they need, they're gonna keep getting them, and we're gonna keep sustaining that.''

Blinkenshared those thoughts withNBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell during an interview in Brussels that aired Wednesday on MSNBC.Thekind of firepower Blinken referenced has helped the Ukrainians stave off attacks on the capital city of Kyiv, forcing the Russians to retreat and regroup.

But for all the pressure the U.S. and its allies are putting on Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war-- byincreasing sanctions, supporting the Ukrainians and calling out Russian atrocities -- there's a harsh reality staring at those yearning for peace:

"As much as we want to see this come to an end as soon as possible, to stop the death and destruction that's being wrought by Russia in Ukraine, there is also a very likely scenario by which this goes on for some time,'' Blinken said.

How long? Blinken was responding to congressional testimony from Gen. Mark Milley,Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who said the length of the conflict will likely be "measured in years.''

The Justice Department unsealed an indictment Wednesday against Russian oligarch Konstantinos Malofeyev for alleged sanction violations, the first such criminal charges brought by the U.S. since Russia's invasion.The Treasury Department previously identified Malofeyev as one of the main sources of financing for Russians promoting separatism in Crimeaand for providing material support for the so-called Donetsk Peoples Republic.Malofeyev attempted to evade the sanctions by using co-conspirators to acquire and run media outlets across Europe, Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a Justice briefing.

We are also announcing the seizure of millions of dollars from an account at a U.S. financial institution, which the indictment alleges constitutes proceeds traceable to Malofeyevs sanctions violations," Garlandsaid.

Garland alsoacknowledged for the first time that the Justice Department isassisting in the effort to examine possible war crimes in Ukraine. He said U.S. authorities recently met with counterparts in Europe to develop a plan to gather evidence.

"This department has a long history of helping to hold accountable those who perpetrate war crimes," Garland said.

"We have seen the mass graves. We have seen the bombed hospital, theater, and residential apartment buildings,'' he said. "The world sees what is happening in Ukraine. The Justice Department sees what is happening in Ukraine."

Kevin Johnson

Russian forces have completely retreated from Kyiv and Chernihiv, moving into neighboring Belarus and Russia after facing fierce resistance by Ukrainian forces, a senior Defense official said Wednesday.The Ukrainians hit Russian forces as they retreated from Kyiv, the official said.

Kyiv remains under threat, although it has not been hit by airstrikes in the last 24 hours, the official said. The threat of a ground invasion to Kyiv has dissipated for now, the official said.

The Russian forces up to 40,000 troops, or almost one-third of the force Russian President Vladimir Putin sent to invade Ukraine are being resupplied, according to intelligence assessments the official described on condition of anonymity. It's unclear when the withdrawal of Russian troops from those cities was completed. The Russians appear to have seeded some of the ground left behind with mines.

The Pentagon believes the troops will be sent back into fighting in eastern Ukraine, the Donbas region, whereRussian-backed separatists have clashed with Ukrainian troops since 2014.

Days afterRussian forces retreated from the Kyiv area, investigators and volunteers are beginningthe long, grim work of chronicling what U.S. officials have described as a "troubling campaign" of brutalityagainst civilians. Ukrainian officialssay the bodies of more than400civilians were found in towns around Kyivafter Russian forces withdrew. United Nations Human Rights Chief Michelle Bachelet said preserving, exhuming and identifying bodies would be critical for an independent investigation into possible war crimes. Read more here.

"Everything was like in fog a lot of crying, a lot of happiness to see Ukrainian people, a lot of fear in eyes, a lot of anger," Kyiv resident Vladimir Basovskyi, 35, told USA TODAY. "Next what I remember, I am sitting at home and crying like a child."

Grace Hauck and Chris Kenning

Dutch customs officials placed 14 yachts at five shipyards under "special supervision" on Wednesday because they are being built or repaired for wealthy Russians.Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra said 12 yachts are under constructionand two are undergoing maintenance. The boats will not be allowed to leave the country because of the export ban and sanctionsimposed on hundreds of wealthy supporters of Russian President Vladimir Putin.The Netherlands has been criticized for its slow start to enforcing sanctions.

Russian owners made up 9% of all superyacht owners in 2021, making Russia the second largest ownership country behind the United States, according to Superyacht Times.The U.S. government on Monday seized a 254-foot yacht in Spain owned by an oligarch with close ties to Putin. Other countries also have seized the luxury boats.

The reports and images of civilian deaths in Bucha are "deeply disturbing" and should be thoroughly investigated, China's U.N. Ambassador Zhang Junsaid Wednesday. But Zhang placed no blame on Russia and urged all sides to "exercise restraint and avoid unfounded accusations" until more details are known.

China has been walking a diplomatic tightrope, declining to condemn Russia for the invasion of Ukraine and suggesting sanctions will only accelerate the crisis and create global economic problems. China has chastised the U.S. and NATO, saying they provokedthe war with NATO's expansion andfueledit by arming Ukraine.

The United Nations will vote Friday on whether Russia should be removed from the Human Rights Council. TheUnited States and United Kingdomcalled for Russia's removal from the council in recent days as evidence of atrocities by the Russian military emerged.To remove Russia from the council, at least two-thirds of the UN General Assembly would need to vote for the ouster.

"Given the growing mountain of evidence, Russia should not have a position of authority in a body whose purpose is to promote respect for human rights," U.S. Ambassador to the United NationsLinda Thomas-Greenfieldsaid at a Security Council meeting Tuesday."Not only is it the height of hypocrisy it isdangerous."

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia denied that Russian troops were committing war crimes, blaming Ukrainians for the deaths and defending the invasion by claiming the "Nazi malignant tumor that is devouring Ukraine would have eventually begun to devour Russia."

Ella Lee

Pope Francis kissed the Ukrainian flag and renewed his appeal Wednesday for an end to Russias war in Ukraine. During his weekly audience in the Vatican's auditorium, several Ukrainian children now refugees in Italy joined him on the stage. The pope furled the faded, stained flag and held it up, saying the flag came from war, from that martyred city of Bucha. He condemned "the massacre" in that city outside Kyiv.

Ever more horrendous cruelties, even against civilians, women and helpless children," the pope said. "They are victims whose innocent blood cries out to heaven and implores.

Contributing: The Associated Press

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Mariupol mayor calls Russian siege 'the new Auschwitz,' says more than 5,000 civilians have been killed: Live Ukraine updates - USA TODAY