WAR IN UKRAINE – SITUATION REPORT 0700 HRS TUESDAY 5TH APRIL 2022
The report from yesterday and overnight developments up to 0700 hrs today, summarized under various headings, can be downloaded here:
https://www.safecommunitiesportugal.com/war-in-ukraine…/
ATROCITIES IN BUSHA – Shocking images of bodies of civilians in the streets of Bucha, near Kyiv, have led to an outpouring of international condemnation of Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the town of Bucha, on the outskirts of Kiev, on Monday morning, where dozens of civilians were killed by Russian troops.
Ukraine says 50 out of some 300 bodies, found after Russian forces withdrew from Bucha were victims of extrajudicial killings by Russian troops. Satellite images show a 14-metre-long trench dug into the grounds of a church where a mass grave was found. The Ukrainian city’s funeral services claim to have located and buried around 340 bodies of civilians found on the city’s streets. Bucha was besieged by Russian troops for weeks and, after his release, hundreds of bodies were discovered in the streets, some of them with their hands tied behind their backs.
The Ukrainian military intelligence services released this Monday, on the Internet, the personal data of 1,600 Russian soldiers – including name and surname, date of birth and military rank -, integrated in the troops that acted in Bucha, near Kiev. (KI)
REACTION TO ATROCITIES – Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa stated on Twitter: that “The brutality of the images that reach us from Busha is shocking. We strongly condemn these atrocities against civilians. An unacceptable barbarity that must be vehemently punished by international justice”, wrote António Costa on his official Twitter account. (PM Twitter)
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has called for all bodies found in the town of Bucha to be exhumed and identified, to ensure that war crimes can be investigated. Bachelet said she was “horrified” by the images, which she said raised “serious and disturbing doubts about possible war crimes, serious violations of international law and serious violations of international human rights law. (UNHCR)
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez referred today in Madrid to the existence of a possible “genocide” in Ukraine with the massacre of civilians discovered in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kiev, after the withdrawal of Russian troops. (SIC)
LANDMINES
The Russian Armed Forces have laid mines on more than 80,000 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory, more than 62,000 of which have been since the invasion of the country on February 24, announced the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.
“Following the first wave of Russian armed aggression against Ukraine in 2014, around 16,000 square kilometres of the Lugansk and Donetsk regions were contaminated with mines and remnants of war explosives,” the Ukrainian ministry said in a statement published yesterday on the occasion of the International Landmine Hazard Awareness Day.
UN SECURITY COUNCIL – Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he will address an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council today. Speaking during his nightly address to the Ukrainian people, Zelensky said it is in Kyiv’s interest to have an open and transparent investigation into the alleged killing of civilians in Bucha.