Today at 1:05 a.m. EDT|Updated today at 12:22 p.m. EDT
Today at 1:05 a.m. EDT|Updated today at 12:22 p.m. EDT
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, after a shift away from efforts to take Kyiv, is proceeding primarily on two fronts, Ukrainian officials said Sunday: against the southeastern port city of Mariupol, and in the country’s far east, especially the contested region of Luhansk.
A Russian strike destroyed Dnipro’s airport on Sunday, a Ukrainian official said, while elsewhere Russian forces shelled a school and two residential buildings, underscoring the threat to civilians as the war intensifies in eastern Ukraine.
Satellite images released by Maxar Technologies, a U.S. space technology firm, show that an eight-mile convoy of Russian military vehicles made its way through eastern Ukraine on Friday, heading south from the town of Velykyi Burluk.
The refocus to the east, away from the largest cities, could prove a challenge for Ukraine’s beleaguered forces and advantageous for Russian troops, who Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, noted last week are more skilled at fighting in rural terrain.
Here’s what to know
- Ukraine has opened 5,600 war crimes cases since Russia’s invasion, top prosecutor Iryna Venediktova said Sunday, but the country will face an uphill battle getting Russian officials to court.
- Zelensky said Sunday that he spoke to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz about sanctions against Russia and Germany’s financial and military support for Ukraine. The two “emphasized that all perpetrators of war crimes must be identified and punished,” Zelensky said. The Post’s Isaac Stanley-Becker explains why the war in Ukraine is a test for the German leader.
- Russian students and parents are turning in teachers who do not toe the line on the war.
- The Washington Post has lifted its paywall for readers in Russia and Ukraine. Telegram users can subscribe to our channel for updates.
UNDERSTANDING THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE CONFLICT
Hundreds of tiny shoes: Protest spotlights child death toll in Ukraine’s Mariupol
Rows of small shoes were placed alongside candles in Helsinki during a protest Sunday to draw attention to the children killed in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, specifically in the battered port city of Mariupol.
There were shiny black boots. Tiny, cozy slippers. Pink and purple sneakers.
In all, there were 210 pairs. They symbolized the total number of young lives Ukrainian officials said were lost in southeastern city of Mariupol, including when the Drama Theater — where hundreds of civilians were sheltering — was hit March 16.
Airport among targets struck in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukrainian official says
An airport in the Dnipropetrovsk region has been destroyed by a Russian strike, according to a Ukrainian official — among multiple attacks that local officials reported across the region Sunday, some causing casualties.
Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of Dnipropetrovsk province, said the “attack on the airport in Dnipro” destroyed the facility and “nearby infrastructure.”
He added: “The missiles keep flying.”
Ukrainian airports and key airfields have been frequent targets since the start of the Russian invasion in late February, prompting concern at times that the assaults could deprive Ukraine of usable airstrips.
In early March, airstrikes hit a military air base about 150 miles southwest of Kyiv, as well as a commercial airport in Vinnytsia, about 70 miles southeast of the capital. An aircraft repair facility near an airport in Lviv also was struck last month.
U.S. exploring when to return diplomats to Kyiv, Sullivan says
U.S. officials are “working through” when to send diplomats back to Kyiv, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken in February directed all U.S. Embassy personnel in Ukraine’s capital to relocate to Lviv, near the border with Poland. A week later, the State Department said embassy staff would be spending nights in Poland.
Appearing on Sunday talk shows, Sullivan said Ukraine’s forces had repelled Russia’s advances on Kyiv partly because of U.S. military aid.
“European leaders are walking around the city of Kyiv. They’re sending back diplomats, reopening embassies. When are the Americans going to go back?” CBS News’s Margaret Brennan asked Sullivan on “Face the Nation.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited Kyiv last week. In recent days, Italy and the European Union have announced plans to reopen shuttered embassies in Ukraine’s capital.
“Well, we’re working through when we will be in a position to set our diplomatic presence back up in Kyiv,” Sullivan said on CBS. “That’s a judgment that gets worked through our security professionals. They are actively doing that. In the meantime, though, Margaret, the United States is surging resources, weapons, military equipment — but also diplomatic resources — to support the Ukrainians.”
Sullivan said President Biden led a campaign at the United Nations to get Russia ejected from the Human Rights Council. “It is the United States that is taking the lead in organizing and delivering not just our own military supplies, but those of allies, partners,” Sullivan added. “So we’ll keep doing that even as we work on getting American diplomats back into the country.”
Photos: Images from a Ukrainian soldier’s funeral
Getty Images photographer Joe Raedle attended a funeral in Kamianka-Buzka for Ukrainian soldier Andriy Zagornyakon, who died fighting the Russian invasion.
Photos showing funerals of Ukrainian soldiers have become more and more common as the war between Ukraine and Russia grinds on. The war has exacted a huge toll, with hundreds of Ukrainian civilians killed and military losses on both sides.
Raedle notes in his captions Sunday that “the consensus of foreign governments is that Russian troop losses have been far greater, with NATO estimating yesterday that 7,000-15,000 soldiers had been killed in action, with thousands more wounded.”
Ukrainian officials report new attacks in east, urge civilians to leave
Ukrainian officials reported attacks on Sunday in the east, where Russian forces have refocused their efforts after failing to capture Kyiv.
Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to Ukraine’s president, said the Russian offensive now has two fronts — one in Mariupol, the embattled port city on the Sea of Azov, and the other in eastern Ukraine, particularly parts of Luhansk, including Severodonetsk, where local officials said an attack occurred Sunday.
The attack damaged a school, and two residential buildings came under heavy fire and two elderly residents had to be evacuated, said Luhansk’s governor, Serhiy Haidai. There were no casualties, he said.
Oleg Sinegubov, the head of the Kharkiv regional administration in northeastern Ukraine, said on Facebook that Russian troops launched “about 66 artillery and mortar strikes” on the center of Kharkiv and other areas, wounding nine people. He said two people were killed and an unknown number injured in an attack on the city of Derhachi.
Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, stretching across parts of central and eastern Ukraine, said Sunday in a Telegram post that Russian forces struck targets across the region, wounding one person.
Ukrainian officials and the state railway company announced new evacuation routes Sunday for civilians in Donetsk and Luhansk, and Haidai urged them to leave “before it’s too late.”
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Sunday that “all the routes for the humanitarian corridors in the Luhansk region will work as long as there is a cease-fire by the occupying Russian troops.”
Haidai said Saturday that an attack on a railway station Friday that killed at least 52 people and injured 98 could have scared some from seeking out evacuation routes.
Annabelle Chapman contributed to this report.
Ukrainian foreign minister says peace talks still worth pursuing
By Christine Armario10:15 a.m.
Ukraine’s foreign minister said Sunday that although it is “extremely difficult” to think of sitting down for peace talks with Russia after recent attacks on Ukrainian civilians, he would still be willing to do so if it meant future atrocities can be prevented.
“If I have a chance to save a human life, a village or a town from destruction, I will take that chance,” Dmytro Kuleba told Chuck Todd on NBC News’s “Meet the Press.”
The remarks came after grisly attacks that have sparked global outrage and calls for war crimes investigations. In the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, corpses of civilians were found strewn on streets after Russian troops retreated. On Friday, a missile hit the Kramatorsk train station, killing at least 52 civilians as hundreds tried to flee eastern Ukraine.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, noted in a recent daily analysis that the atrocities have “reduced the willingness of the Ukrainian government and society to reach a peace agreement less than total Russian defeat.”
Kuleba said Sunday that “Ukraine won the battle for Kyiv. Now another battle is coming — the battle for Donbas.”
The Donbas region is a flash point in the war, and Kuleba said Ukraine was working with partners “to get all the necessary weapons.” Several foreign allies have pledged new weapons shipments in recent days to help Ukraine in what is expected to be a tougher battle ahead.
“We have our plans,” he said. “And history will demonstrate whose plan will prevail.”
Sullivan says Russian economy on track to be decimated this year
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said the Western campaign to isolate Russia from the global economy is on track to decimate the country’s gross domestic product this year.
“If you look at independent projections of the Russian economy, it is likely to fall by something like 10 to 15 percent this year,” Sullivan said on ABC News’s “This Week” on Sunday. “It is likely to cease to be one of the world’s major economies because of the economic pressure we have put on them.”
Goldman Sachs, the Institute of International Finance and other analysts estimate that Russia’s GDP will contract 10 to 15 percent this year, with more economic fallout expected in 2023. The United States and other world powers have been layering sanctions on Russia and oligarchs connected to President Vladimir Putin in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
Appearing on several Sunday talk shows, Sullivan condemned the apparent killing of Ukrainian civilians by Russian forces as “war crimes” but stopped short of calling it a genocide.
“The label is less important than the fact that these acts are cruel and criminal and wrong and evil and need to be responded to decisively,” Sullivan said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “And that is what we are doing. And we’re doing that not just by supporting international investigations and gathering evidence to hold the perpetrators all the way to the highest levels accountable. We’re doing it by providing sophisticated weapons to the Ukrainians that are making a major difference on the battlefield.”
“Weapons are arriving every day, including today,” Sullivan said on NBC News’s “Meet the Press.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters Wednesday that the images of Ukrainian civilians killed in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha did not “look far short of genocide to me.” Johnson made a surprise visit to Kyiv over the weekend and walked the streets with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
On ABC, Sullivan added: “We haven’t yet reached a determination on genocide. That is a determination that we work through systematically. There is a unit at the State Department that gathers evidence and then makes a legal analysis because genocide is actually a legal determination.”
Red Cross team details ‘long, difficult journey’ in attempt to reach Mariupol
By Julian Duplain9:59 a.m.
A Red Cross team trying to evacuate civilians from Mariupol in recent days faced a “long, difficult journey” — and was finally unable to reach the besieged city, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross’s Pascal Hundt.
There are up to 100,000 civilians still in the battered port city, after a Russian siege lasting more than month. Its strategic position on the Sea of Azov, between pro-Russian areas of the Donbas and the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula, has made it a key target for Moscow’s military offensive.
“Our team tried for five days to go to Mariupol, and it’s a difficult journey because you have to cross the front line,” Hundt told Sky News on Sunday. “We went there with buses, we moved, we tried, we tried again and again but unfortunately the situation around Mariupol was too dangerous.”
“It’s really hell there”
Asked about the situation in the southern port city of Mariupol, Pascal Hundt, of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said the ICRC failed to reach the region for five days last week.#Ridge: https://t.co/i4ieKJLwdU
📺 Sky 501 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/xHmm4nEBZZ
— Sophy Ridge on Sunday (@RidgeOnSunday) April 10, 2022
Last Monday, the Red Cross team was detained by Russian troops in Manhush near Mariupol, Ukrainian officials said. The team was freed early Tuesday, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk announced, and turned back.
“Sometimes people at the checkpoints, the soldiers, are not aware of your trip,” Hundt said. “It’s just an illustration of … how difficult it is for the order to trickle down to the checkpoints.”
After another attempt, the team was halted Thursday about 15 miles from the city, where it was able to rescue groups of people who had already managed to flee Mariupol. “We collected people on the road, we collected people in Berdyansk, private cars were joining our convoy under the flag of the Red Cross and finally 1,000 people reached Zaporizhzhia,” 140 miles northwest of Mariupol, Hundt said.
As for those still trapped in Mariupol, Hundt said they have “no food, no water, no heating system — it’s really hell there.”
He said the ICRC was in contact with Russian and Ukrainian authorities to try to ensure that people could leave the city for safer locations.
‘Put the weapons down’: Pope calls for Easter truce in Ukraine
Pope Francis called for an “Easter truce” and “peace” in Ukraine during a Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.
“Put the weapons down,” he said, according to Reuters, as tens of thousands of people listened to his address. “Let an Easter truce start. But not to rearm and resume combat, but a truce to reach peace through real negotiations.”
Francis, who has repeatedly denounced Russia’s invasion but has not directly referenced Russia or President Vladimir Putin, said the “folly of war” leads people to commit “senseless acts of cruelty,” the Associated Press reported.
Experts told Reuters that publicly naming and shaming is “not part of the Vatican’s diplomatic playbook.” Others have pointed to the Vatican’s relations with the Russian Orthodox Church.
Last month, the mayor of Kyiv invited Francis to visit the Ukrainian capital as a messenger of peace. During a trip to Malta last week, the pontiff said he had not ruled out a visit and that it remained “on the table.”
Why Boris Johnson and Zelensky were given ceramic roosters in Kyiv
As British Prime Minister Boris Johnson joined Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for a surprise walk through Kyiv on Saturday, the two were each presented with an unlikely object: a jug in the shape of a rooster.
The bird-themed gifts were provided by a woman who was not identified but who said she was from Kharkiv. She smiled as the two leaders admired the items. Johnson thanked her and asked: “Is it for wine? Or water?”
Google searches for “Boris chicken” spiked as many around the world wondered about the message behind the gifts.
The rooster became a symbol of Ukrainian resilience after one such figurine was photographed intact and still standing atop a kitchen cabinet after the Borodyanka settlement was shelled by Russian forces. Ukrainian artist Prokop Bidasiuk, born in 1895, designed the ceramic rooster that survived the bombardment.
Remember the strong 🇺🇦kitchen cabinet that kept hanging in there on the wall of the building destroyed by 🇷🇺?
Ceramic rooster on top turned out to be a traditional souvenir of local artist
UK PM Johnson got this rooster as a gift, as a symbol of Ukraine’s invincible spirit pic.twitter.com/RImOC43oPI
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) April 9, 2022
Last week, Zelensky said the situation in Borodyanka, a city 30 miles northwest of Kyiv, was “more dreadful” than Bucha, where images of mass graves and bodies of civilians lying in the streets after Russian troops retreated sparked global outrage.
Italy’s Berlusconi calls Putin’s attack ‘a pity’; Mexico says invasion unacceptable
Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has been a longtime friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, praising him as “undoubtedly the number one among world leaders.” But on Saturday, 85-year-old Berlusconi appeared to put distance between himself and the 69-year-old Russian leader, saying he was “deeply disappointed and saddened” by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reported.
“I got to know him 20 years ago, and he had always seemed to me a man of democracy and peace. … What a pity,” Berlusconi said, according to a Reuters translation, in what appeared to be his first public statement since the Feb. 24 invasion. Berlusconi was speaking Saturday at a convention of his conservative Forza Italia party in Rome.
“The attack on Ukraine, instead of bringing Russia into Europe, has thrown it into the arms of China. … What a pity, what a pity,” he added.
The disgraced billionaire, media mogul and former Italian leader is facing bribery charges related to a child prostitution case, after an earlier conviction of paying for sex with a minor was overturned.
Italy’s current government from the start has sided with the European Union against Russia. However, like other E.U. members, Italy is dependent on Russian oil and gas, and it has rejected Moscow’s demands for payment in rubles as Russia struggles to rebound from Western sanctions.
Other world leaders who had remained mum or publicly neutral on Russia’s invasion have faced pressure to speak out against Putin. After refusing to join in on sanctioning Russia, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Saturday said that his government does “not accept” Russia’s justifications for the invasion.
López Obrador cited Mexico’s own history of Spanish, French and American invasions as part of his stance, according to Reuters. He spoke in a video address in conjunction with a global event organized by the E.U. and Canada to raise money for Ukrainians. Mexico abstained from a vote last week to remove Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council after earlier supporting a U.N. resolution calling on Russia to leave Ukraine.
Russian colonel killed in fighting in Ukraine
By Julian Duplain7:48 a.m.
Russian Col. Alexander Bespalov was killed during fighting in Ukraine and buried Friday in Ozersk, in central Russia, the country’s media reported. No further details about his death were given.
Bespalov appears to be at least the ninth senior commander killed in action since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February. He commanded the 59th Guards Tank Regiment, part of the Russian army’s 144th Guards Motorized Rifle Division.
Russian Colonel Alexander Bespalov, the commander of the 59th Guards Tank Regiment (part of the 144th Guards Motorized Rifle Division), has been killed in battle by the Ukrainian Army. pic.twitter.com/jLMFi93hGY
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) April 10, 2022
The Washington Post reported on March 26 that seven generals had died so far in the conflict, killed by snipers, close combat and bombings, according to Ukrainian officials. On March 29, Ukraine said that Col. Denis Kurilo had been killed during fighting near Kharkiv with Russia’s 200th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade, which he commanded.
Western officials have said it is “highly unusual” that so many Russian generals and other senior commanders are being killed in action in Ukraine. This may be because Russia’s commanders on the ground are leading from the front, to deal with poor strategic planning or to boost morale among troops, analysts say.
Ukraine announces 9 humanitarian corridors for evacuations
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk announced the opening of nine humanitarian corridors to help evacuate citizens from hard-hit areas of the country, including the battered port city of Mariupol.
Vereshchuk said that one of the corridors would stretch from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia and that people must travel in private vehicles.
The other routes were from cities in the eastern Zaporizhzhia and Luhansk regions, Vereshchuk said, adding that some buses would be available. Ukrainian Railways said on Telegram that “several evacuation trains” would leave from the cities of Pokrovsk and Slovyansk in the eastern Donetsk region and bring people to cities farther west, including Lviv, Ternopil, Chernivtsi and Uzhhorod.
Annabelle Chapman in Warsaw contributed to this report.
Ukraine opens 5,600 war crimes cases, prosecutor general says
Ukraine has opened 5,600 war crimes cases since Russia’s invasion, top prosecutor Iryna Venediktova said Sunday, but the country will face an uphill battle getting Russian officials to court.
Speaking to Sky News, Venediktova called the missile strike that killed more than 50 people and injured 98 at a train station in Kramatorsk, a city in the Donetsk region, “absolutely … a war crime.”
Ukraine said the strike Friday was a Russian missile attack that came as evacuees were waiting to escape an expected onslaught in the region.
“These people just wanted to save their lives, they wanted to be evacuated,” Venediktova said, adding that the country has “evidence” it was a Russian strike.
The attack occurred as the scope of devastation elsewhere in Ukraine comes into grim focus, as Kyiv recaptures more territory and Russian troops shift their focus to the country’s south and east. Near the capital, haunting images of mass graves and bound corpses in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha led Western leaders — including President Biden — to accuse Moscow of committing war crimes in Ukraine.
Venediktova’s office estimates that Ukraine is drawing on 50,000 investigators from five different law enforcement agencies to look into possible war crimes, The Washington Post reported last week. They are conducting interviews in painstaking detail across the country, documenting evidence that they hope to use in prosecutions. At the time, the prosecutor general’s office said it had registered 4,204 individual war crimes, including the deaths of 161 children.
But it’s possible that those who stand accused of war crimes may never see the inside of a courtroom. In February, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague said he was opening an investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine. Although the ICC and the Ukrainian judicial system may each issue indictments, it is typical for the ICC to prosecute major players and for individual countries to prosecute the people of lower rank.
“The big question in both cases is how do you actually get your hands on people,” David Bosco, an associate professor of international studies at Indiana University who studies war crimes prosecutions, previously told The Post. “All they can do is issue arrest warrants and have those out there; then the case is just kind of frozen. It may be that these people who are indicted can simply remain in Russia beyond the reach of international justice.”
Ukraine faces a “tough battle” as Russian forces amass in the east of the country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on April 9 in a news conference. (Video: Reuters, Photo: Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty/Reuters)Today at 1:05 a.m. EDT|Updated today at 12:22 p.m. EDTToday at 1:05 a.m. EDT|Updated today at 12:22 p.m. EDTRussia’s invasion of Ukraine, after a shift away from efforts to take Kyiv, is proceeding primarily on two fronts, Ukrainian officials said Sunday: against the southeastern port city of Mariupol, and in the country’s far east, especially the contested region of Luhansk.A Russian strike destroyed Dnipro’s airport on Sunday, a Ukrainian official said, while elsewhere Russian forces shelled a school and two residential buildings, underscoring the threat to civilians as the war intensifies in eastern Ukraine.Satellite images released by Maxar Technologies, a U.S. space technology firm, show that an eight-mile convoy of Russian military vehicles made its way through eastern Ukraine on Friday, heading south from the town of Velykyi Burluk.The refocus to the east, away from the largest cities, could prove a challenge for Ukraine’s beleaguered forces and advantageous for Russian troops, who Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, noted last week are more skilled at fighting in rural terrain.Here’s what to knowUkraine has opened 5,600 war crimes cases since Russia’s invasion, top prosecutor Iryna Venediktova said Sunday, but the country will face an uphill battle getting Russian officials to court.Zelensky said Sunday that he spoke to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz about sanctions against Russia and Germany’s financial and military support for Ukraine. The two “emphasized that all perpetrators of war crimes must be identified and punished,” Zelensky said. The Post’s Isaac Stanley-Becker explains why the war in Ukraine is a test for the German leader.Russian students and parents are turning in teachers who do not toe the line on the war.The Washington Post has lifted its paywall for readers in Russia and Ukraine. Telegram users can subscribe to our channel for updates.UNDERSTANDING THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE CONFLICTHundreds of tiny shoes: Protest spotlights child death toll in Ukraine’s MariupolReturn to menuRows of small shoes were placed alongside candles in Helsinki during a protest Sunday to draw attention to the children killed in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, specifically in the battered port city of Mariupol.There were shiny black boots. Tiny, cozy slippers. Pink and purple sneakers.In all, there were 210 pairs. They symbolized the total number of young lives Ukrainian officials said were lost in southeastern city of Mariupol, including when the Drama Theater — where hundreds of civilians were sheltering — was hit March 16.Airport among targets struck in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukrainian official says Return to menuAn airport in the Dnipropetrovsk region has been destroyed by a Russian strike, according to a Ukrainian official — among multiple attacks that local officials reported across the region Sunday, some causing casualties.Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of Dnipropetrovsk province, said the “attack on the airport in Dnipro” destroyed the facility and “nearby infrastructure.”He added: “The missiles keep flying.”Ukrainian airports and key airfields have been frequent targets since the start of the Russian invasion in late February, prompting concern at times that the assaults could deprive Ukraine of usable airstrips.In early March, airstrikes hit a military air base about 150 miles southwest of Kyiv, as well as a commercial airport in Vinnytsia, about 70 miles southeast of the capital. An aircraft repair facility near an airport in Lviv also was struck last month.U.S. exploring when to return diplomats to Kyiv, Sullivan saysReturn to menuU.S. officials are “working through” when to send diplomats back to Kyiv, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday.Secretary of State Antony Blinken in February directed all U.S. Embassy personnel in Ukraine’s capital to relocate to Lviv, near the border with Poland. A week later, the State Department said embassy staff would be spending nights in Poland.Appearing on Sunday talk shows, Sullivan said Ukraine’s forces had repelled Russia’s advances on Kyiv partly because of U.S. military aid.“European leaders are walking around the city of Kyiv. They’re sending back diplomats, reopening embassies. When are the Americans going to go back?” CBS News’s Margaret Brennan asked Sullivan on “Face the Nation.”European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited Kyiv last week. In recent days, Italy and the European Union have announced plans to reopen shuttered embassies in Ukraine’s capital.“Well, we’re working through when we will be in a position to set our diplomatic presence back up in Kyiv,” Sullivan said on CBS. “That’s a judgment that gets worked through our security professionals. They are actively doing that. In the meantime, though, Margaret, the United States is surging resources, weapons, military equipment — but also diplomatic resources — to support the Ukrainians.”Sullivan said President Biden led a campaign at the United Nations to get Russia ejected from the Human Rights Council. “It is the United States that is taking the lead in organizing and delivering not just our own military supplies, but those of allies, partners,” Sullivan added. “So we’ll keep doing that even as we work on getting American diplomats back into the country.”Photos: Images from a Ukrainian soldier’s funeralReturn to menuGetty Images photographer Joe Raedle attended a funeral in Kamianka-Buzka for Ukrainian soldier Andriy Zagornyakon, who died fighting the Russian invasion.Photos showing funerals of Ukrainian soldiers have become more and more common as the war between Ukraine and Russia grinds on. The war has exacted a huge toll, with hundreds of Ukrainian civilians killed and military losses on both sides.Raedle notes in his captions Sunday that “the consensus of foreign governments is that Russian troop losses have been far greater, with NATO estimating yesterday that 7,000-15,000 soldiers had been killed in action, with thousands more wounded.”Ukrainian officials report new attacks in east, urge civilians to leaveReturn to menuUkrainian officials reported attacks on Sunday in the east, where Russian forces have refocused their efforts after failing to capture Kyiv.Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to Ukraine’s president, said the Russian offensive now has two fronts — one in Mariupol, the embattled port city on the Sea of Azov, and the other in eastern Ukraine, particularly parts of Luhansk, including Severodonetsk, where local officials said an attack occurred Sunday.The attack damaged a school, and two residential buildings came under heavy fire and two elderly residents had to be evacuated, said Luhansk’s governor, Serhiy Haidai. There were no casualties, he said.Oleg Sinegubov, the head of the Kharkiv regional administration in northeastern Ukraine, said on Facebook that Russian troops launched “about 66 artillery and mortar strikes” on the center of Kharkiv and other areas, wounding nine people. He said two people were killed and an unknown number injured in an attack on the city of Derhachi.Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, stretching across parts of central and eastern Ukraine, said Sunday in a Telegram post that Russian forces struck targets across the region, wounding one person.Ukrainian officials and the state railway company announced new evacuation routes Sunday for civilians in Donetsk and Luhansk, and Haidai urged them to leave “before it’s too late.”Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Sunday that “all the routes for the humanitarian corridors in the Luhansk region will work as long as there is a cease-fire by the occupying Russian troops.”Haidai said Saturday that an attack on a railway station Friday that killed at least 52 people and injured 98 could have scared some from seeking out evacuation routes.Annabelle Chapman contributed to this report.Ukrainian foreign minister says peace talks still worth pursuingReturn to menuBy Christine Armario10:15 a.m.Ukraine’s foreign minister said Sunday that although it is “extremely difficult” to think of sitting down for peace talks with Russia after recent attacks on Ukrainian civilians, he would still be willing to do so if it meant future atrocities can be prevented.“If I have a chance to save a human life, a village or a town from destruction, I will take that chance,” Dmytro Kuleba told Chuck Todd on NBC News’s “Meet the Press.”The remarks came after grisly attacks that have sparked global outrage and calls for war crimes investigations. In the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, corpses of civilians were found strewn on streets after Russian troops retreated. On Friday, a missile hit the Kramatorsk train station, killing at least 52 civilians as hundreds tried to flee eastern Ukraine.The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, noted in a recent daily analysis that the atrocities have “reduced the willingness of the Ukrainian government and society to reach a peace agreement less than total Russian defeat.”Kuleba said Sunday that “Ukraine won the battle for Kyiv. Now another battle is coming — the battle for Donbas.”The Donbas region is a flash point in the war, and Kuleba said Ukraine was working with partners “to get all the necessary weapons.” Several foreign allies have pledged new weapons shipments in recent days to help Ukraine in what is expected to be a tougher battle ahead.“We have our plans,” he said. “And history will demonstrate whose plan will prevail.”Sullivan says Russian economy on track to be decimated this yearReturn to menuNational security adviser Jake Sullivan said the Western campaign to isolate Russia from the global economy is on track to decimate the country’s gross domestic product this year.“If you look at independent projections of the Russian economy, it is likely to fall by something like 10 to 15 percent this year,” Sullivan said on ABC News’s “This Week” on Sunday. “It is likely to cease to be one of the world’s major economies because of the economic pressure we have put on them.”Goldman Sachs, the Institute of International Finance and other analysts estimate that Russia’s GDP will contract 10 to 15 percent this year, with more economic fallout expected in 2023. The United States and other world powers have been layering sanctions on Russia and oligarchs connected to President Vladimir Putin in response to the invasion of Ukraine.Appearing on several Sunday talk shows, Sullivan condemned the apparent killing of Ukrainian civilians by Russian forces as “war crimes” but stopped short of calling it a genocide. “The label is less important than the fact that these acts are cruel and criminal and wrong and evil and need to be responded to decisively,” Sullivan said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “And that is what we are doing. And we’re doing that not just by supporting international investigations and gathering evidence to hold the perpetrators all the way to the highest levels accountable. We’re doing it by providing sophisticated weapons to the Ukrainians that are making a major difference on the battlefield.”“Weapons are arriving every day, including today,” Sullivan said on NBC News’s “Meet the Press.”British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters Wednesday that the images of Ukrainian civilians killed in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha did not “look far short of genocide to me.” Johnson made a surprise visit to Kyiv over the weekend and walked the streets with President Volodymyr Zelensky.On ABC, Sullivan added: “We haven’t yet reached a determination on genocide. That is a determination that we work through systematically. There is a unit at the State Department that gathers evidence and then makes a legal analysis because genocide is actually a legal determination.”Red Cross team details ‘long, difficult journey’ in attempt to reach MariupolReturn to menuBy Julian Duplain9:59 a.m.A Red Cross team trying to evacuate civilians from Mariupol in recent days faced a “long, difficult journey” — and was finally unable to reach the besieged city, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross’s Pascal Hundt.There are up to 100,000 civilians still in the battered port city, after a Russian siege lasting more than month. Its strategic position on the Sea of Azov, between pro-Russian areas of the Donbas and the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula, has made it a key target for Moscow’s military offensive.“Our team tried for five days to go to Mariupol, and it’s a difficult journey because you have to cross the front line,” Hundt told Sky News on Sunday. “We went there with buses, we moved, we tried, we tried again and again but unfortunately the situation around Mariupol was too dangerous.””It’s really hell there” Asked about the situation in the southern port city of Mariupol, Pascal Hundt, of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said the ICRC failed to reach the region for five days last week.#Ridge: https://t.co/i4ieKJLwdU📺 Sky 501 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/xHmm4nEBZZ— Sophy Ridge on Sunday (@RidgeOnSunday) April 10, 2022 Last Monday, the Red Cross team was detained by Russian troops in Manhush near Mariupol, Ukrainian officials said. The team was freed early Tuesday, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk announced, and turned back. “Sometimes people at the checkpoints, the soldiers, are not aware of your trip,” Hundt said. “It’s just an illustration of … how difficult it is for the order to trickle down to the checkpoints.”After another attempt, the team was halted Thursday about 15 miles from the city, where it was able to rescue groups of people who had already managed to flee Mariupol. “We collected people on the road, we collected people in Berdyansk, private cars were joining our convoy under the flag of the Red Cross and finally 1,000 people reached Zaporizhzhia,” 140 miles northwest of Mariupol, Hundt said.As for those still trapped in Mariupol, Hundt said they have “no food, no water, no heating system — it’s really hell there.”He said the ICRC was in contact with Russian and Ukrainian authorities to try to ensure that people could leave the city for safer locations.‘Put the weapons down’: Pope calls for Easter truce in UkraineReturn to menuPope Francis called for an “Easter truce” and “peace” in Ukraine during a Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.“Put the weapons down,” he said, according to Reuters, as tens of thousands of people listened to his address. “Let an Easter truce start. But not to rearm and resume combat, but a truce to reach peace through real negotiations.”Francis, who has repeatedly denounced Russia’s invasion but has not directly referenced Russia or President Vladimir Putin, said the “folly of war” leads people to commit “senseless acts of cruelty,” the Associated Press reported.Experts told Reuters that publicly naming and shaming is “not part of the Vatican’s diplomatic playbook.” Others have pointed to the Vatican’s relations with the Russian Orthodox Church.Last month, the mayor of Kyiv invited Francis to visit the Ukrainian capital as a messenger of peace. During a trip to Malta last week, the pontiff said he had not ruled out a visit and that it remained “on the table.”Why Boris Johnson and Zelensky were given ceramic roosters in KyivReturn to menuAs British Prime Minister Boris Johnson joined Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for a surprise walk through Kyiv on Saturday, the two were each presented with an unlikely object: a jug in the shape of a rooster.The bird-themed gifts were provided by a woman who was not identified but who said she was from Kharkiv. She smiled as the two leaders admired the items. Johnson thanked her and asked: “Is it for wine? Or water?”Google searches for “Boris chicken” spiked as many around the world wondered about the message behind the gifts.The rooster became a symbol of Ukrainian resilience after one such figurine was photographed intact and still standing atop a kitchen cabinet after the Borodyanka settlement was shelled by Russian forces. Ukrainian artist Prokop Bidasiuk, born in 1895, designed the ceramic rooster that survived the bombardment.Remember the strong 🇺🇦kitchen cabinet that kept hanging in there on the wall of the building destroyed by 🇷🇺? Ceramic rooster on top turned out to be a traditional souvenir of local artistUK PM Johnson got this rooster as a gift, as a symbol of Ukraine’s invincible spirit pic.twitter.com/RImOC43oPI— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) April 9, 2022 Last week, Zelensky said the situation in Borodyanka, a city 30 miles northwest of Kyiv, was “more dreadful” than Bucha, where images of mass graves and bodies of civilians lying in the streets after Russian troops retreated sparked global outrage.Italy’s Berlusconi calls Putin’s attack ‘a pity’; Mexico says invasion unacceptableReturn to menuFormer Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has been a longtime friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, praising him as “undoubtedly the number one among world leaders.” But on Saturday, 85-year-old Berlusconi appeared to put distance between himself and the 69-year-old Russian leader, saying he was “deeply disappointed and saddened” by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reported.“I got to know him 20 years ago, and he had always seemed to me a man of democracy and peace. … What a pity,” Berlusconi said, according to a Reuters translation, in what appeared to be his first public statement since the Feb. 24 invasion. Berlusconi was speaking Saturday at a convention of his conservative Forza Italia party in Rome.“The attack on Ukraine, instead of bringing Russia into Europe, has thrown it into the arms of China. … What a pity, what a pity,” he added.The disgraced billionaire, media mogul and former Italian leader is facing bribery charges related to a child prostitution case, after an earlier conviction of paying for sex with a minor was overturned.Italy’s current government from the start has sided with the European Union against Russia. However, like other E.U. members, Italy is dependent on Russian oil and gas, and it has rejected Moscow’s demands for payment in rubles as Russia struggles to rebound from Western sanctions.Other world leaders who had remained mum or publicly neutral on Russia’s invasion have faced pressure to speak out against Putin. After refusing to join in on sanctioning Russia, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Saturday said that his government does “not accept” Russia’s justifications for the invasion.López Obrador cited Mexico’s own history of Spanish, French and American invasions as part of his stance, according to Reuters. He spoke in a video address in conjunction with a global event organized by the E.U. and Canada to raise money for Ukrainians. Mexico abstained from a vote last week to remove Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council after earlier supporting a U.N. resolution calling on Russia to leave Ukraine.Russian colonel killed in fighting in UkraineReturn to menuBy Julian Duplain7:48 a.m.Russian Col. Alexander Bespalov was killed during fighting in Ukraine and buried Friday in Ozersk, in central Russia, the country’s media reported. No further details about his death were given.Bespalov appears to be at least the ninth senior commander killed in action since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February. He commanded the 59th Guards Tank Regiment, part of the Russian army’s 144th Guards Motorized Rifle Division.Russian Colonel Alexander Bespalov, the commander of the 59th Guards Tank Regiment (part of the 144th Guards Motorized Rifle Division), has been killed in battle by the Ukrainian Army. pic.twitter.com/jLMFi93hGY— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) April 10, 2022 The Washington Post reported on March 26 that seven generals had died so far in the conflict, killed by snipers, close combat and bombings, according to Ukrainian officials. On March 29, Ukraine said that Col. Denis Kurilo had been killed during fighting near Kharkiv with Russia’s 200th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade, which he commanded.Western officials have said it is “highly unusual” that so many Russian generals and other senior commanders are being killed in action in Ukraine. This may be because Russia’s commanders on the ground are leading from the front, to deal with poor strategic planning or to boost morale among troops, analysts say.Ukraine announces 9 humanitarian corridors for evacuations Return to menuUkrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk announced the opening of nine humanitarian corridors to help evacuate citizens from hard-hit areas of the country, including the battered port city of Mariupol.Vereshchuk said that one of the corridors would stretch from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia and that people must travel in private vehicles.The other routes were from cities in the eastern Zaporizhzhia and Luhansk regions, Vereshchuk said, adding that some buses would be available. Ukrainian Railways said on Telegram that “several evacuation trains” would leave from the cities of Pokrovsk and Slovyansk in the eastern Donetsk region and bring people to cities farther west, including Lviv, Ternopil, Chernivtsi and Uzhhorod.Annabelle Chapman in Warsaw contributed to this report.Ukraine opens 5,600 war crimes cases, prosecutor general saysReturn to menuUkraine has opened 5,600 war crimes cases since Russia’s invasion, top prosecutor Iryna Venediktova said Sunday, but the country will face an uphill battle getting Russian officials to court.Speaking to Sky News, Venediktova called the missile strike that killed more than 50 people and injured 98 at a train station in Kramatorsk, a city in the Donetsk region, “absolutely … a war crime.”Ukraine said the strike Friday was a Russian missile attack that came as evacuees were waiting to escape an expected onslaught in the region.“These people just wanted to save their lives, they wanted to be evacuated,” Venediktova said, adding that the country has “evidence” it was a Russian strike.The attack occurred as the scope of devastation elsewhere in Ukraine comes into grim focus, as Kyiv recaptures more territory and Russian troops shift their focus to the country’s south and east. Near the capital, haunting images of mass graves and bound corpses in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha led Western leaders — including President Biden — to accuse Moscow of committing war crimes in Ukraine.Venediktova’s office estimates that Ukraine is drawing on 50,000 investigators from five different law enforcement agencies to look into possible war crimes, The Washington Post reported last week. They are conducting interviews in painstaking detail across the country, documenting evidence that they hope to use in prosecutions. At the time, the prosecutor general’s office said it had registered 4,204 individual war crimes, including the deaths of 161 children.But it’s possible that those who stand accused of war crimes may never see the inside of a courtroom. In February, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague said he was opening an investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine. Although the ICC and the Ukrainian judicial system may each issue indictments, it is typical for the ICC to prosecute major players and for individual countries to prosecute the people of lower rank.“The big question in both cases is how do you actually get your hands on people,” David Bosco, an associate professor of international studies at Indiana University who studies war crimes prosecutions, previously told The Post. “All they can do is issue arrest warrants and have those out there; then the case is just kind of frozen. It may be that these people who are indicted can simply remain in Russia beyond the reach of international justice.”