Yesterday at 12:20 a.m. EDT|Updated today at 8:01 p.m. EDT
Yesterday at 12:20 a.m. EDT|Updated today at 8:01 p.m. EDT
World leaders stepped up efforts to isolate Russia in response to mounting evidence of war crimes in Ukraine, with the United Nations voting Thursday to suspend the Russian delegation from the Human Rights Council and the European Union approving a plan to phase out imports of Russian coal.
The coal ban, which will take full effect mid-August, is the fifth sanctions package against Russia to be adopted by the E.U. Though Ukrainian leaders have urged Western allies to do more to stem the flow of money to Russia, Thursday’s vote applies only to coal and does not ban other Russian energy imports, like natural gas and oil.
Global outrage has grown since the brutal slaying of civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha was revealed after Russian forces withdrew. Ukrainians in the country’s east have been urged to flee as Russian forces shift and regroup. Late Thursday, airstrikes disrupted a railway evacuation route in the separatist-held Donetsk province.
Here’s what to know
- In a rare admission, the Kremlin’s spokesperson acknowledged that Russia has suffered “significant losses of troops” in Ukraine.
- Congress sent two bills aimed at punishing Russia and aiding Ukraine to President Biden for his signature.
- Ukraine’s top diplomat made a pointed appeal to NATO leaders to expedite arms supplies to Ukrainian forces before Russia launches an expected offensive in the country’s east.
- Germany’s foreign intelligence service says it intercepted radio communications in which Russian troops discuss indiscriminately killing soldiers and civilians in Ukraine.
- The 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
Zelensky warns of more civilian deaths after Russia’s suspension from U.N. rights council
In his nightly video address, Zelensky applauded the Russia’s suspension from the United Nation Human Rights Council and again warned that Russia would attempt to cover up alleged atrocities.
“Russia has nothing to do with this concept of human rights for a long time already,” said Zelensky, pointing to Bucha and Borodyanka, cities where many civilians are feared dead, before saying it will be much worse in Mariupol.
“There, on almost every street, is what the world saw in Bucha and other towns in the Kyiv region after the withdrawal of Russian troops. The same cruelty. The same heinous crimes,” he said.
Russian officials have called images of dead bodies fake and denied involvement even as more photos and video surface.
Zelensky said Russia will likely further attempt to refute reports of civilian deaths by staging scenes to blame Ukraine.
“To justify their own killings, they take the murdered people simply as scenery as propaganda props,” he said. “And this is a separate war crime, for which each of the propagandists will be held accountable.”
The latest on Ukraine’s key battlegrounds and retaken cities
- Luhansk region: All medical institutions and hospitals in the easternmost province of Ukraine were destroyed by the Russian forces, the regional governor Sergey Gaidai wrote on Telegram Thursday, sharing photos of battered buildings, gutted hallways and shattered glass. Shelling to the area has devastated high-rises and blocked evacuation trains where Ukrainian leaders have said that the fiercest fighting is now happening.
- Kharkiv region: In the neighboring region, Gov. Oleg Synegubov said Thursday that at least one woman was killed and 14 other people were wounded in Russian shelling. He urged residents to flee danger, adding evacuations from the towns of Lozova and Barvinkove are ongoing.
- Mariupol: Ukrainian and Russian officials’ accounts of the status of the hard-hit port city in southeastern Ukraine conflicted Thursday, both claiming control after the city has been under a Russian siege for weeks. An estimated 100,000 residents are believed to be caught in clashes and rationing dwindling supplies.
- Kyiv: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky touted diplomats’ return to the capital formerly under bombardment in his address Thursday, as Russian forces have retreated from the area. Since the withdrawal from the area, German intelligence has shown the involvement of Russian troops in the slaying of citizens in Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv. As volunteers clear the wartorn towns there, a Ukrainian official called Borodyanka “the most destroyed city in the Kyiv region.”
Harrowing reports emerge in Borodyanka, where toll could exceed Bucha
When Ukrainian authorities returned to the newly liberated community of Borodyanka, 30 miles northwest of Kyiv, they discovered decimated buildings, rattled survivors and an increasing number of bodies.
Cleanup in the town began Wednesday, and by Thursday officials said more than 200 people had been reported missing — a number they expect to quickly rise, along with the death toll. Before Ukrainian troops retook it, Borodyanka was relentlessly pummeled by Russian airstrikes and occupied by Moscow’s forces, who dug a trench through a playground.
During a search of two apartment buildings, 26 bodies were found under the rubble, said Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova. And there was still more debris and many other structures to search, she said, calling Borodyanka “the most destroyed city in the Kyiv region.”
“Evidence of Russian war crimes is here at every turn,” she said in a post to Twitter.
Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that the death toll there may be even higher than that of Bucha, the suburb where Ukrainian officials say Russian troops killed more than 300 civilians.
Officials have so far confirmed 400 civilians killed in the Kyiv region, Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, said Thursday.
“But this figure will increase,” Herashchenko said.
Zachary Nelson and Paulina Firozi contributed to this report.
Canada pledges nearly $400 million in new military aid to Ukraine
TORONTO — Canada will provide nearly $400 million in additional military aid to Ukraine and offer up to $790 million in new loan resources through the International Monetary Fund, according to the federal budget released Thursday.
“Because they are fighting our fight — a fight for democracy — it is in our urgent national interest to ensure that they have the missiles and the money they need to win,” Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s deputy prime minister and finance minister, said in prepared budget speech remarks. “And that is what this budget helps to provide.”
The budget also pledged a review of Canadian defense policy and an additional $6 billion in defense spending on top of already planned increases. The document does not outline how the new funding will be spent and is not enough for Canada to hit its NATO target.
A parliamentary budget watchdog told CTV News last month that the country would need to spend up to $20 billion each year to meet its NATO spending target of 2 percent of gross domestic product. Canada currently contributes nearly 1.4 percent.
Ukraine presses NATO for more aid: ‘Weapons, weapons, weapons’
BRUSSELS — Ukraine’s top diplomat made a pointed appeal to NATO on Thursday to drop reservations about providing additional arms to Ukrainian forces that he said were urgently needed to prevent further Russian atrocities against civilians.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba traveled to Brussels to address a gathering of his counterparts from across the Western alliance, saying he had a threefold agenda: “weapons, weapons, weapons.”
“The more weapons we get, and the sooner they arrive in Ukraine, the more human lives will be saved,” Kuleba said ahead of the meeting. “The more cities and villages will not be destructed. And there will be no more Buchas,” he said, referencing the city outside Kyiv where the withdrawal of Russian troops revealed scenes of horrific human suffering, including apparently tortured and executed civilians.
“I call on all allies to put aside their hesitations, their reluctance to provide Ukraine with everything it needs,” Kuleba continued. “Because, as weird as it may sound, but today weapons serve the purpose of peace.”
Photos: People are evacuating eastern Ukraine as the war continues
Ukrainian officials have called for evacuations in three provinces near the Russian border as signs emerge that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops are escalating their assault on eastern and southern cities, The Post reported.
These photos show people attempting to leave the Kharkiv region, with some heading to the relative safety of western Ukraine.
E.U. countries approve more sanctions, including coal phase-out
European Union countries on Thursday approved a new package of sanctions that includes a phaseout of Russian coal, amid growing outrage over possible war crimes in Ukraine.
The latest E.U. sanctions package — the fifth since Russia invaded Ukraine — was proposed by the European Commission on Tuesday. The measures are expected to go into force Friday.
What was first pitched as a ban on Russian coal will in fact be a four-month phaseout. The new measures impose sanctions on the daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, block most Russian ships from E.U. ports, and ban the export of certain technologies to Russia. Russian banks are also targeted.
The phaseout of Russian coal comes amid growing calls for a full-scale ban on Russian energy.
Ukrainian officials and some E.U. countries have urged the 27-member bloc to stop importing Russian energy immediately. However, many countries, including Germany and Hungary, have resisted, worried about the impact on energy prices at home.
As photographs of atrocities in the Ukrainian town of Bucha circulated this week, the idea of additional energy sanctions, particularly on oil, gained traction. Several countries, including France, have hinted that a ban on oil imports is now in the works.
On Wednesday, Charles Michel, president of the European Council, said sanctions on oil and gas “will also be needed sooner or later.”
European lawmakers on Thursday endorsed a nonbinding resolution calling the E.U. to ban oil, coal, gas, and nuclear fuel imports from Russia — a mostly symbolic gesture.
In 2020, the bloc imported 20 percent of its coal from Russia, compared to 35 percent of its oil and 40 percent of its natural gas, according to the E.U. statistics office.
Kremlin spokesman acknowledges ‘significant losses’ of Russian troops
In a stark acknowledgment, the Kremlin’s spokesman said Russia had suffered “significant losses of troops” in Ukraine, despite past proclamations of success in its invasion.
“We have significant losses of troops,” Dmitry Peskov said in a half-hour interview with Sky News on Thursday, “and it’s a huge tragedy for us.”
While Moscow has not publicly recognized the scope of its losses, a senior NATO military official estimated last month that roughly 7,000 to 15,000 Russian troops have been killed in the first four weeks of fighting in Ukraine.
During his first interview with a British broadcaster since the war began, Peskov pushed back when journalist Mark Austin said the Russian invasion has not gone as planned, pointing to the retreat from Kyiv, the loss of thousands of Russian troops and six Russian generals, and the continued reign of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Peskov disputed that the effort had become “a humiliation,” retorting that “it’s the wrong understanding of what’s going on.”
Peskov said the withdrawal of troops was an act of goodwill and claimed without evidence that the verified graphic photos and videos of damage and death apparently inflicted by Russian forces were “fake.”
Russian editor Muratov, a Nobel laureate, attacked on train
Russian newspaper editor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitry Muratov was attacked on a train Thursday, doused with a paint-and-acetone mixture that left his eyes burning, his publication said.
The attack occurred just days after Muratov was forced to suspend Novaya Gazata’s operations until the end of Russia’s war with Ukraine, after receiving a second warning from Russian authorities.
“They poured oil paint with acetone in the compartment. My eyes are burning terribly,” Muratov said in a brief report issued by the independent newspaper.
The editor, who was en route from Moscow to Samara, said the assailant shouted “Muratov, here’s one for our boys” as he threw the paint.
“Oil smell all over the carriage,” Muratov said in the report, which included photos of the mess.
The 60-year-old dean of Russian journalism has spent decades leading Novaya Gazeta, which became known for its pathbreaking investigative coverage.
In recent weeks, punitive new censorship laws in Russia have prompted many journalists to flee the country out of concern they could be arrested for reporting basic facts about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Muratov stayed and continued publishing Novaya Gazeta until March 28, when the paper said it was suspending operations because it had received a second warning from the Russian media regulator.
“Two warnings from Roskomnadzor in a year risks a revocation of our media license,” the paper said.
Blinken said U.S., allies considering additional weapons for Ukraine
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States and allies are continuously considering whether there are more weapons and systems that can be provided to support Ukraine in its efforts to push back against Russia.
“We’re not going to let anything stand in the way of getting Ukrainians what they need and what we believe can be effective,” Blinken told reporters during a briefing on Thursday after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers.
He said weapons provided even before Russia’s invasion began have been critical in helping Ukraine mount fierce resistance.
“And since the aggression, we have repeatedly and continuously — along with many allies and partners — supplied them with the most effective systems we believe they need to deal with the armored vehicles, to deal with tanks, to deal with planes, to deal with helicopters,” he said. “We’re looking day in and day out at what we believe they most need, to include new systems that have not heretofore been provided.”
Ukrainian officials have been pointed in their requests to NATO to fast-track weaponry support. “The more weapons we get, and the sooner they arrive in Ukraine, the more human lives will be saved,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said before the NATO meeting.
Blinken was also asked about whether he is pressing European leaders for a more aggressive timeline on banning Russian oil and gas, particularly after a recent call from Kuleba to “stop financing Putin’s war machine.”
Blinken said he’s hearing a commitment from Europe to end Russian energy dependence.
“We’ve seen again and again Russia use energy as a weapon, as political leverage, and of course the proceeds it gets from the sale of its energy is now — yes — helping to fuel its aggression against Ukraine,” he said.
“But it’s not like flipping a light switch — you have to do it methodically. You have to put in place the necessary alternatives.”
Airstrike on railway, shelling disrupt evacuation in eastern Ukraine
Three trains meant to carry Ukrainians to safety have been blocked by a Russian airstrike on a railway overpass in eastern Ukraine, according to a rail official Thursday, as authorities urge residents to flee the war-torn area.
Officials said the attack occurred Thursday near Barvinkove station — the only Ukrainian-controlled exit from Slovyansk, Kramatorsk and Lyman — cities in Donetsk province. There was no immediate information on deaths and injuries, Alexander Kamyshin, the board chairman of the state-owned railroad company Ukrzaliznytsia, wrote on Telegram.
Ukrzaliznytsia is relied on by millions of Ukrainians looking to flee besieged cities and towns as Russia is expected to ramp up attacks in eastern Ukraine after its recent retreat from Kyiv.
Local leaders in Donetsk and Luhansk said evacuations were taking place — but under increasingly difficult conditions.
Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, said in a Telegram post that more than 1,300 people had been able to flee but that no one had left Popasna or Hirsky after Russian troops violated a cease-fire allowing for a humanitarian corridor.
“I once again emphasize, please evacuate while there are trains available,” he pleaded. “It is becoming increasingly difficult to save civilian lives.”
Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of the Donetsk region, told the Ukrainian network UNIAN TV that evacuations there were taking place but “under shelling.”
“But I want attention paid to the fact that evacuations are happening,” he said. “Every day, we are evacuating more and more people.”
In eastern Ukraine, Russian military razing towns to take them over
DNIPRO, Ukraine — Early last month in the small eastern Ukrainian city of Izyum, Mayor Valeri Marchenko’s phone rang. A man on the line spoke calmly in Russian.
He had one question. When would the mayor meet to discuss the terms of surrendering the city to Russian forces? If he did, he recalled the man saying, the Russian military would spare the city and the 40,000 civilians inside. Marchenko assumed that the caller was a Russian security agent and that the offer was real.
“I am the mayor of a Ukrainian town, and this town will remain Ukrainian,” Marchenko told him.
“If you aren’t going to give up the city,” the man replied, “we have the will and means to raze your city to the ground.”
Video: Ukrainian investigator describes torture, killings in Bucha
Ukrainian investigators moving through Bucha, the Kyiv suburb where Russian troops are accused of leaving behind a trail of horrific brutality, have uncovered evidence of torture before death, beheading and dismemberment, and the intentional burning of corpses.
Senate breaks deadlock on Ukraine measures, sends bills to House
The Senate on Thursday cleared a months-long partisan impasse over how to respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, sending multiple bills aimed at punishing Russia and aiding Ukraine to the House for final action.
The direct impact of the bills on the course of the conflict is likely to be negligible. They largely reinforce moves that President Biden has already made to ban energy imports and remove trade preferences from Russia. But the bills represent a significant gesture signaling ongoing bipartisan interest in supporting Ukraine’s quest to maintain its independence amid deadly aggression from its larger neighbor.
Although Congress delivered nearly $14 billion in military and humanitarian aide to Ukraine as part of a recent government-wide spending bill, it has not passed any stand-alone legislation pertaining to the conflict. Efforts to draft a sanctions bill before the invasion as a deterrent fell apart, and post-invasion legislation has not been much easier.
Residents of Borodyanka, a city in Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine, surveyed the destruction after the withdrawal of Russian occupiers in early April. (Video: Joshua Carroll/The Washington Post, Photo: The Washington Post)Yesterday at 12:20 a.m. EDT|Updated today at 8:01 p.m. EDTYesterday at 12:20 a.m. EDT|Updated today at 8:01 p.m. EDTWorld leaders stepped up efforts to isolate Russia in response to mounting evidence of war crimes in Ukraine, with the United Nations voting Thursday to suspend the Russian delegation from the Human Rights Council and the European Union approving a plan to phase out imports of Russian coal.The coal ban, which will take full effect mid-August, is the fifth sanctions package against Russia to be adopted by the E.U. Though Ukrainian leaders have urged Western allies to do more to stem the flow of money to Russia, Thursday’s vote applies only to coal and does not ban other Russian energy imports, like natural gas and oil.Global outrage has grown since the brutal slaying of civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha was revealed after Russian forces withdrew. Ukrainians in the country’s east have been urged to flee as Russian forces shift and regroup. Late Thursday, airstrikes disrupted a railway evacuation route in the separatist-held Donetsk province.Here’s what to knowIn a rare admission, the Kremlin’s spokesperson acknowledged that Russia has suffered “significant losses of troops” in Ukraine.Congress sent two bills aimed at punishing Russia and aiding Ukraine to President Biden for his signature.Ukraine’s top diplomat made a pointed appeal to NATO leaders to expedite arms supplies to Ukrainian forces before Russia launches an expected offensive in the country’s east.Germany’s foreign intelligence service says it intercepted radio communications in which Russian troops discuss indiscriminately killing soldiers and civilians in Ukraine.The Post has lifted its paywall for readers in Russia and Ukraine. Telegram users can subscribe to our channel for updates.UNDERSTANDING THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE CONFLICTZelensky warns of more civilian deaths after Russia’s suspension from U.N. rights councilReturn to menuIn his nightly video address, Zelensky applauded the Russia’s suspension from the United Nation Human Rights Council and again warned that Russia would attempt to cover up alleged atrocities.“Russia has nothing to do with this concept of human rights for a long time already,” said Zelensky, pointing to Bucha and Borodyanka, cities where many civilians are feared dead, before saying it will be much worse in Mariupol.“There, on almost every street, is what the world saw in Bucha and other towns in the Kyiv region after the withdrawal of Russian troops. The same cruelty. The same heinous crimes,” he said.Russian officials have called images of dead bodies fake and denied involvement even as more photos and video surface.Zelensky said Russia will likely further attempt to refute reports of civilian deaths by staging scenes to blame Ukraine.“To justify their own killings, they take the murdered people simply as scenery as propaganda props,” he said. “And this is a separate war crime, for which each of the propagandists will be held accountable.”The latest on Ukraine’s key battlegrounds and retaken citiesReturn to menuLuhansk region: All medical institutions and hospitals in the easternmost province of Ukraine were destroyed by the Russian forces, the regional governor Sergey Gaidai wrote on Telegram Thursday, sharing photos of battered buildings, gutted hallways and shattered glass. Shelling to the area has devastated high-rises and blocked evacuation trains where Ukrainian leaders have said that the fiercest fighting is now happening.Kharkiv region: In the neighboring region, Gov. Oleg Synegubov said Thursday that at least one woman was killed and 14 other people were wounded in Russian shelling. He urged residents to flee danger, adding evacuations from the towns of Lozova and Barvinkove are ongoing.Mariupol: Ukrainian and Russian officials’ accounts of the status of the hard-hit port city in southeastern Ukraine conflicted Thursday, both claiming control after the city has been under a Russian siege for weeks. An estimated 100,000 residents are believed to be caught in clashes and rationing dwindling supplies.Kyiv: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky touted diplomats’ return to the capital formerly under bombardment in his address Thursday, as Russian forces have retreated from the area. Since the withdrawal from the area, German intelligence has shown the involvement of Russian troops in the slaying of citizens in Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv. As volunteers clear the wartorn towns there, a Ukrainian official called Borodyanka “the most destroyed city in the Kyiv region.”Harrowing reports emerge in Borodyanka, where toll could exceed BuchaReturn to menuResidents of Borodyanka, a city in Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine, surveyed the destruction after the withdrawal of Russian occupiers in early April. (Video: Joshua Carroll/The Washington Post, Photo: The Washington Post)When Ukrainian authorities returned to the newly liberated community of Borodyanka, 30 miles northwest of Kyiv, they discovered decimated buildings, rattled survivors and an increasing number of bodies.Cleanup in the town began Wednesday, and by Thursday officials said more than 200 people had been reported missing — a number they expect to quickly rise, along with the death toll. Before Ukrainian troops retook it, Borodyanka was relentlessly pummeled by Russian airstrikes and occupied by Moscow’s forces, who dug a trench through a playground.During a search of two apartment buildings, 26 bodies were found under the rubble, said Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova. And there was still more debris and many other structures to search, she said, calling Borodyanka “the most destroyed city in the Kyiv region.”“Evidence of Russian war crimes is here at every turn,” she said in a post to Twitter.Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that the death toll there may be even higher than that of Bucha, the suburb where Ukrainian officials say Russian troops killed more than 300 civilians.Officials have so far confirmed 400 civilians killed in the Kyiv region, Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, said Thursday.“But this figure will increase,” Herashchenko said.Zachary Nelson and Paulina Firozi contributed to this report.Canada pledges nearly $400 million in new military aid to UkraineReturn to menuTORONTO — Canada will provide nearly $400 million in additional military aid to Ukraine and offer up to $790 million in new loan resources through the International Monetary Fund, according to the federal budget released Thursday.“Because they are fighting our fight — a fight for democracy — it is in our urgent national interest to ensure that they have the missiles and the money they need to win,” Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s deputy prime minister and finance minister, said in prepared budget speech remarks. “And that is what this budget helps to provide.”The budget also pledged a review of Canadian defense policy and an additional $6 billion in defense spending on top of already planned increases. The document does not outline how the new funding will be spent and is not enough for Canada to hit its NATO target.A parliamentary budget watchdog told CTV News last month that the country would need to spend up to $20 billion each year to meet its NATO spending target of 2 percent of gross domestic product. Canada currently contributes nearly 1.4 percent.Ukraine presses NATO for more aid: ‘Weapons, weapons, weapons’Return to menuBRUSSELS — Ukraine’s top diplomat made a pointed appeal to NATO on Thursday to drop reservations about providing additional arms to Ukrainian forces that he said were urgently needed to prevent further Russian atrocities against civilians.Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba traveled to Brussels to address a gathering of his counterparts from across the Western alliance, saying he had a threefold agenda: “weapons, weapons, weapons.”“The more weapons we get, and the sooner they arrive in Ukraine, the more human lives will be saved,” Kuleba said ahead of the meeting. “The more cities and villages will not be destructed. And there will be no more Buchas,” he said, referencing the city outside Kyiv where the withdrawal of Russian troops revealed scenes of horrific human suffering, including apparently tortured and executed civilians.“I call on all allies to put aside their hesitations, their reluctance to provide Ukraine with everything it needs,” Kuleba continued. “Because, as weird as it may sound, but today weapons serve the purpose of peace.”Photos: People are evacuating eastern Ukraine as the war continuesReturn to menuUkrainian officials have called for evacuations in three provinces near the Russian border as signs emerge that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops are escalating their assault on eastern and southern cities, The Post reported.These photos show people attempting to leave the Kharkiv region, with some heading to the relative safety of western Ukraine.E.U. countries approve more sanctions, including coal phase-outReturn to menuEuropean Union countries on Thursday approved a new package of sanctions that includes a phaseout of Russian coal, amid growing outrage over possible war crimes in Ukraine.The latest E.U. sanctions package — the fifth since Russia invaded Ukraine — was proposed by the European Commission on Tuesday. The measures are expected to go into force Friday.What was first pitched as a ban on Russian coal will in fact be a four-month phaseout. The new measures impose sanctions on the daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, block most Russian ships from E.U. ports, and ban the export of certain technologies to Russia. Russian banks are also targeted.The phaseout of Russian coal comes amid growing calls for a full-scale ban on Russian energy.Ukrainian officials and some E.U. countries have urged the 27-member bloc to stop importing Russian energy immediately. However, many countries, including Germany and Hungary, have resisted, worried about the impact on energy prices at home.As photographs of atrocities in the Ukrainian town of Bucha circulated this week, the idea of additional energy sanctions, particularly on oil, gained traction. Several countries, including France, have hinted that a ban on oil imports is now in the works.On Wednesday, Charles Michel, president of the European Council, said sanctions on oil and gas “will also be needed sooner or later.”European lawmakers on Thursday endorsed a nonbinding resolution calling the E.U. to ban oil, coal, gas, and nuclear fuel imports from Russia — a mostly symbolic gesture.In 2020, the bloc imported 20 percent of its coal from Russia, compared to 35 percent of its oil and 40 percent of its natural gas, according to the E.U. statistics office.Kremlin spokesman acknowledges ‘significant losses’ of Russian troopsReturn to menuIn a stark acknowledgment, the Kremlin’s spokesman said Russia had suffered “significant losses of troops” in Ukraine, despite past proclamations of success in its invasion.“We have significant losses of troops,” Dmitry Peskov said in a half-hour interview with Sky News on Thursday, “and it’s a huge tragedy for us.”While Moscow has not publicly recognized the scope of its losses, a senior NATO military official estimated last month that roughly 7,000 to 15,000 Russian troops have been killed in the first four weeks of fighting in Ukraine.During his first interview with a British broadcaster since the war began, Peskov pushed back when journalist Mark Austin said the Russian invasion has not gone as planned, pointing to the retreat from Kyiv, the loss of thousands of Russian troops and six Russian generals, and the continued reign of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Peskov disputed that the effort had become “a humiliation,” retorting that “it’s the wrong understanding of what’s going on.”Peskov said the withdrawal of troops was an act of goodwill and claimed without evidence that the verified graphic photos and videos of damage and death apparently inflicted by Russian forces were “fake.”Russian editor Muratov, a Nobel laureate, attacked on trainReturn to menuRussian newspaper editor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitry Muratov was attacked on a train Thursday, doused with a paint-and-acetone mixture that left his eyes burning, his publication said.The attack occurred just days after Muratov was forced to suspend Novaya Gazata’s operations until the end of Russia’s war with Ukraine, after receiving a second warning from Russian authorities.“They poured oil paint with acetone in the compartment. My eyes are burning terribly,” Muratov said in a brief report issued by the independent newspaper.The editor, who was en route from Moscow to Samara, said the assailant shouted “Muratov, here’s one for our boys” as he threw the paint.“Oil smell all over the carriage,” Muratov said in the report, which included photos of the mess.The 60-year-old dean of Russian journalism has spent decades leading Novaya Gazeta, which became known for its pathbreaking investigative coverage.In recent weeks, punitive new censorship laws in Russia have prompted many journalists to flee the country out of concern they could be arrested for reporting basic facts about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Muratov stayed and continued publishing Novaya Gazeta until March 28, when the paper said it was suspending operations because it had received a second warning from the Russian media regulator.“Two warnings from Roskomnadzor in a year risks a revocation of our media license,” the paper said.Blinken said U.S., allies considering additional weapons for Ukraine Return to menuSecretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States and allies are continuously considering whether there are more weapons and systems that can be provided to support Ukraine in its efforts to push back against Russia.“We’re not going to let anything stand in the way of getting Ukrainians what they need and what we believe can be effective,” Blinken told reporters during a briefing on Thursday after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers.He said weapons provided even before Russia’s invasion began have been critical in helping Ukraine mount fierce resistance.“And since the aggression, we have repeatedly and continuously — along with many allies and partners — supplied them with the most effective systems we believe they need to deal with the armored vehicles, to deal with tanks, to deal with planes, to deal with helicopters,” he said. “We’re looking day in and day out at what we believe they most need, to include new systems that have not heretofore been provided.”Ukrainian officials have been pointed in their requests to NATO to fast-track weaponry support. “The more weapons we get, and the sooner they arrive in Ukraine, the more human lives will be saved,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said before the NATO meeting.Blinken was also asked about whether he is pressing European leaders for a more aggressive timeline on banning Russian oil and gas, particularly after a recent call from Kuleba to “stop financing Putin’s war machine.”Blinken said he’s hearing a commitment from Europe to end Russian energy dependence.“We’ve seen again and again Russia use energy as a weapon, as political leverage, and of course the proceeds it gets from the sale of its energy is now — yes — helping to fuel its aggression against Ukraine,” he said.“But it’s not like flipping a light switch — you have to do it methodically. You have to put in place the necessary alternatives.”Airstrike on railway, shelling disrupt evacuation in eastern UkraineReturn to menuThree trains meant to carry Ukrainians to safety have been blocked by a Russian airstrike on a railway overpass in eastern Ukraine, according to a rail official Thursday, as authorities urge residents to flee the war-torn area.Officials said the attack occurred Thursday near Barvinkove station — the only Ukrainian-controlled exit from Slovyansk, Kramatorsk and Lyman — cities in Donetsk province. There was no immediate information on deaths and injuries, Alexander Kamyshin, the board chairman of the state-owned railroad company Ukrzaliznytsia, wrote on Telegram.Ukrzaliznytsia is relied on by millions of Ukrainians looking to flee besieged cities and towns as Russia is expected to ramp up attacks in eastern Ukraine after its recent retreat from Kyiv.Local leaders in Donetsk and Luhansk said evacuations were taking place — but under increasingly difficult conditions.Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, said in a Telegram post that more than 1,300 people had been able to flee but that no one had left Popasna or Hirsky after Russian troops violated a cease-fire allowing for a humanitarian corridor.“I once again emphasize, please evacuate while there are trains available,” he pleaded. “It is becoming increasingly difficult to save civilian lives.”Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of the Donetsk region, told the Ukrainian network UNIAN TV that evacuations there were taking place but “under shelling.”“But I want attention paid to the fact that evacuations are happening,” he said. “Every day, we are evacuating more and more people.”In eastern Ukraine, Russian military razing towns to take them over Return to menuDNIPRO, Ukraine — Early last month in the small eastern Ukrainian city of Izyum, Mayor Valeri Marchenko’s phone rang. A man on the line spoke calmly in Russian.He had one question. When would the mayor meet to discuss the terms of surrendering the city to Russian forces? If he did, he recalled the man saying, the Russian military would spare the city and the 40,000 civilians inside. Marchenko assumed that the caller was a Russian security agent and that the offer was real.“I am the mayor of a Ukrainian town, and this town will remain Ukrainian,” Marchenko told him.“If you aren’t going to give up the city,” the man replied, “we have the will and means to raze your city to the ground.”Video: Ukrainian investigator describes torture, killings in BuchaReturn to menuMore grisly scenes are emerging from Bucha, Ukraine, where local authorities are beginning to examine hundreds of bodies. (Video: Joyce Koh, Jorge Ribas/The Washington Post, Photo: The Washington Post)Ukrainian investigators moving through Bucha, the Kyiv suburb where Russian troops are accused of leaving behind a trail of horrific brutality, have uncovered evidence of torture before death, beheading and dismemberment, and the intentional burning of corpses.Senate breaks deadlock on Ukraine measures, sends bills to HouseReturn to menuThe Senate on Thursday cleared a months-long partisan impasse over how to respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, sending multiple bills aimed at punishing Russia and aiding Ukraine to the House for final action.The direct impact of the bills on the course of the conflict is likely to be negligible. They largely reinforce moves that President Biden has already made to ban energy imports and remove trade preferences from Russia. But the bills represent a significant gesture signaling ongoing bipartisan interest in supporting Ukraine’s quest to maintain its independence amid deadly aggression from its larger neighbor.Although Congress delivered nearly $14 billion in military and humanitarian aide to Ukraine as part of a recent government-wide spending bill, it has not passed any stand-alone legislation pertaining to the conflict. Efforts to draft a sanctions bill before the invasion as a deterrent fell apart, and post-invasion legislation has not been much easier.