Ukrainians returning to Kyiv as Russian forces pulled out over the weekend found a shocking trail of destruction and death, including slain civilians lying on the streets with their hands bound.
Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said scores of the dead were found on the streets of Bucha and the Kyiv suburbs of Irpin and Hostomel in what looked like a “scene from a horror movie.”
Arestovych said some people were shot in the head and had their hands bound, and some bodies showed signs of torture, rape and burning.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that the deadly attacks on civilians – including evidence of a massacre in the city of Bucha – are more proof that Russia is committing genocide in his country.
Noting that Ukraine’s population includes more than 100 nationalities, Zelenskyy told CBS’ “Face The Nation” that Russia’s actions are “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.”
While Russia redeploys troops in the southern and eastern parts of Ukraine, Zelenskyy called for a total Russian withdrawal from Ukraine. There are no signs Russia would consider such a move as part of peace talks. “This is the bare minimum that we have to start the de-occupation with,” he said.
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Latest developments:
►Over 4,000 citizens of Ukraine evacuated along humanitarian corridors on Saturday, officials said.
►The president of Lithuania on Saturday announced it would no longer import Russian gas, making it the first nation in the European Union to achieve independence from Russian gas supplies.
►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.
Blinken: US, allies collecting evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine
Amid a flood of new pictures of murdered civilians in Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that allies are collecting evidence of war crimes by Russia.
“We can’t become numb to this, we can’t normalize this,” Blinken said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“We will look hard and document everything that we see, put it all together,” he said.
Blinken did a round of Sunday show as news organizations flashed pictures of slain civilians and property destruction after Russian troops withdrew from Bucha, near Kyiv. He described the Bucha massacre as a “punch in the gut.”
The secretary of state, who is also scheduled to appear on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” expressed cautious optimism about signs of Russian withdrawal from areas around Kyiv. He noted that the Russians also appear to be redeploying to the eastern and southern parts of Ukraine.
“They could be regrouping,” Blinken said.
Either way, Blinken said the war has already been a “dramatic strategic setback” for Russia, and that the Ukrainian people have made it clear they will not be subjugated by a Russian occupation.”
– David Jackson
EU developing new Russia sanctions
The EU will level new sanctions in the wake of killings of civilians in Bucha, Ukraine, the president of the European Council said Sunday. Charles Michel, tweeting about “haunting images” out of Bucha, said “further EU sanctions & support are on their way.”
The EU is helping Ukraine and nongovernmental organizations in gathering evidence for investigations of Russia by international courts for its actions in Ukraine, he said. The U.N.’s International Court of Justice last month ruled that Russia should “immediately suspend” its military operations in Ukraine.
And in an interview published Saturday, the former chief prosecutor of the U.N. war crimes tribunals, Carla Del Ponte, called for an international arrest warrant to be issued for Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Putin is a war criminal,” she told Swiss newspaper Le Temps.
– Katie Wadington
Russia targets Odesa fuel sites in new strikes
Russian forces launched an airstrike Sunday on the Black Sea port of Odesa, in southern Ukraine, sending up clouds of dark smoke that veiled parts of the city. The Russian military said the targets were an oil processing plant and fuel depots around Odesa, which is Ukraine’s largest port and home to its navy.
“I live in that eight-floor building. At six in the morning, Russia launched an attack, and this piece of rock reached my house,” said Maiesienko Ilia, who lives near one of the targeted facilities.
The Odesa city council said Ukraine’s air defense shot down some missiles before they hit the city. Ukrainian military spokesman Vladyslav Nazarov said there were no casualties from the attack.
The smaller port of Mariupol, located to the east on the Sea of Azov, remained cut off from the rest of the country as Russian and Ukrainian soldiers fought for control of the besieged city. 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.
– Associated Press
Kyiv’s mayor accuses Putin of genocide, citing civilian executions
Kyiv’s mayor on Sunday accused the Russians of committing war crimes and genocide, following reports, including images, out of Ukrainian cities of civilians lying dead in streets, some with their hands bound.
“What happened in Bucha and other suburbs of Kyiv can only be described as genocide,” Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko told German newspaper BILD. He accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of “cruel war crimes,” saying Ukrainian civilians were “shot with their hands bandaged.”
The Associated Press reported a news crew saw bodies of at least nine people who appeared to have been executed. At least two people had their hands bound behind their backs and at least three were naked from the waist up. One appeared shot in the chest from close range.
Mykhailo Podoliak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, tweeted photos showing dead civilians in areas around Kyiv, describing the scenes as “21st century Hell.”
– Katie Wadington
Too soon for Zelenskyy, Putin to meet, Russia indicates
Russia’s top negotiator in talks with Ukraine says it’s too early to talk about a meeting between the two countries’ presidents.
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.
– Associated Press
Zelenskyy: Troops shell retreating Russians
Ukraine has regained control over some areas of the Kyiv region as Russian forces pulled back over the last few days. But leaders warn this does not signal that Russia is giving up; rather, forces could be refueling and shifting their strategy to the Donbas region and the south of Ukraine.
In his nightly video address Saturday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said troops were not allowing the Russians to retreat without a fight: “They are shelling them. They are destroying everyone they can.”
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, Hanna Maliar, said Saturday that the capital was “liberated” from invading Russian forces.
“Irpin, Bucha, Gostomel and the whole Kyiv region were liberated from the invader,” she said in a Facebook post.
Ukraine: Retreating Russians left boobytraps
As Ukrainian forces moved to retake control of areas surrounding Kyiv from retreating Russians, they moved with caution to avoid unexploded ordnance and boobytrapped streets and homes, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other Ukraine officials said.
Zelenskyy said Russians were leaving behind a “catastrophic” situation: land mines in streets, civilian homes and even on dead civilian bodies. Ukrainian soldiers were removing bodies from the streets with caution.
Residents of the town of Bucha said civilians were killed without apparent provocation.
US to facilitate transfer of Soviet-era tanks, reports say
The Biden administration intends to work with allies to provide Soviet-made tanks to Ukraine to help its defense in the eastern Donbas region, according to a report from The New York Times.
CNN confirmed the report, citing unnamed officials who said the T-72 tanks would be delivered within “days, not weeks.”
The report, citing an unnamed U.S. official speaking on the condition of anonymity, says the move was requested by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who held an hourlong phone call with President Joe Biden his week.
The U.S. would act as an intermediary, according to the Times. The official said the tanks would allow Ukraine forces to conduct long-range artillery strikes on Russian targets in Donbas, which borders Russia.
The White House declined to comment to USA TODAY.
-Joey Garrison
Contributing: The Associated Press