LIVE – War in Ukraine: the international community horrified after the Boutcha massacre

According to UN figures as of Sunday, nearly 4.2 million Ukrainian refugees have fled their country since the invasion ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24, and around 40,000 more have arrived in the past 24 hours. .

The High Commissioner for Refugees counted exactly 4,176,401 Ukrainian refugees on Saturday at midday, or 38,559 more than during the previous tally on Friday.

British Foreign Minister Liz Truss on Sunday denounced the “revolting acts” committed by the Russian army against civilians in Ukraine, notably in Irpin and Boutcha in the kyiv region, calling for a “war crimes investigation”.

“As Russian troops are forced to retreat, we see growing evidence of the appalling acts committed by the invading forces in towns like Irpin and Boutcha,” Liz Truss said in a statement.

These “indiscriminate attacks against innocent civilians” must be the subject of a “war crimes investigation”, she added.

Eleven mayors and heads of local administrations in Ukraine are still in captivity after being kidnapped by Russian troops, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk announced on Sunday.

“As of today, eleven heads of local communities from Kyiv, Kherson, Kharkiv, Zaporozhye, Mykolaiv and Donetsk regions are in captivity,” she said in a video message posted on her Telegram account, adding that she informed the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations.

Iryna Vereshchuk also announced that the head of the village of Motyzhin, west of kyiv, “was killed in captivity” by Russian troops.

While corpses were discovered on Saturday in the streets of Boutcha, about thirty kilometers north of kyiv, Ukraine denounces a “deliberate massacre” on the part of Russian forces.

“The Boutcha massacre was deliberate. The Russians want to eliminate as many Ukrainians as they can. We must stop them and kick them out. I demand devastating new G7 sanctions NOW,” Dmytro Kouleba wrote on Twitter.

Russian forces have since withdrawn from the area, according to Ukrainian authorities.

The President of the European Council, the Belgian Charles Michel, denounces this Sunday the “atrocities” committed by the Russian army. He also calls for more sanctions against Moscow in the face of the attacks perpetrated since February 24 in Ukraine.

“Shocked by the haunting images of the atrocities committed by the Russian army in the liberated region of kyiv”, he wrote this Sunday on Twitter, mentioning the hashtag “#BuchaMassacre”, named after the Ukrainian locality taken over from the Russians, where nearly 300 people were buried in mass graves.

“The EU is helping Ukraine and NGOs to gather the necessary evidence for proceedings before international courts,” said the President of the European Council.

The Russian Defense Ministry says the army destroyed a refinery and fuel depots on Sunday morning during the series of strikes on Odessa, in the southwest of the country.

“This morning, high-precision sea and land missiles destroyed a refinery and three fuel and lubricant storage sites near the city of Odessa,” Moscow said in its daily update.

According to the Ministry of Defense, these sites supplied fuel to Ukrainian forces in the direction of the city of Mykolaiv, further east.

Russia’s chief negotiator in the peace talks with Ukraine, Vladimir Medinsky, on Sunday praised a “more realistic” stance by Ukraine, as kyiv is conditionally ready to accept the neutral status of the country that Moscow has been demanding since the beginning of the crisis.

“The Ukrainian side has adopted a more realistic approach to issues related to the neutral and nuclear-free status of Ukraine,” Vladimir Medinsky wrote on Telegram messaging.

He clarified, however, that an appropriate draft agreement was not yet ready to be submitted to the presidents of the two countries.

Ukraine’s chief negotiator, David Arakhamia, said on Saturday that Moscow had “orally” accepted all Ukrainian proposals, “except for the Crimea issue”.

The series of strikes which hit this Sunday morning the city of Odessa, in the south-west of the country, did not cause any casualties, according to the Ukrainian army.

It was a rocket attack, an officer from the Southern Regional Command, Vladislav Nazarov, said in a statement.

“The Odessa region is among the enemy’s priority targets. The enemy continues its sneaky practice of hitting sensitive infrastructure,” he said, reiterating the ban on any publication of the location or damage. strikes.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias is going to Odessa, the major Ukrainian port on the Black Sea, bombarded in the morning by Russian forces this Sunday, his ministry announced.

“The minister will arrive in Odessa very soon. He is bringing humanitarian aid, which will be handed over to the city authorities”, and intends to discuss with them “the creation of a permanent mechanism for the distribution of humanitarian aid”.

Nikos Dendias will also meet members of the Greek community in this city in southwestern Ukraine and intends to reopen the Greek consulate there.

Polish Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, considered the strongman of power in Warsaw, accused France and Germany of being too close to Russia in the context of the war in Ukraine.

“Germany, like France, has a strong bias in favor of Moscow,” he criticized in an interview published this Sunday by the German daily Die Welt.

It is in particular Berlin that Jaroslaw Kaczynski pointed the finger, accusing it, among other things, of not delivering enough arms to Ukraine and of refusing an embargo on oil from Russia.

“For years, the German government did not want to see what Russia was doing under Putin’s leadership and we see the result today,” he said.

Explosions heard in Odessa this Sunday morning. The detonations occurred around 6 a.m. in this strategic city in the south-west of the country. In a message on Telegram, a Ukrainian government adviser speaks of attacks “from the air” followed by “fires”. According to him, “some of the missiles were shot down by the air defense”.

· The UN is trying to obtain a “humanitarian ceasefire”. The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs is due to travel to Moscow on Sunday, then to kyiv, with the aim of putting an end to the fighting in Ukraine.

kyiv was “liberated” by Russian forces, the Ukrainian government announced on Saturday. The authorities have noted a “rapid withdrawal” of the Russians in the region of the capital, in the north, but warn of their intention to “gain a foothold” in the south and east of the country.

· Nearly 300 people had to be buried “in mass graves” in Boutcha. This city in the northeast of the country, in the kyiv region, was the scene of fierce fighting and has just been taken over by Ukrainian soldiers. The bodies could not be buried in the cemeteries of the city, under penalty of exposing themselves to Russian fire, reported Saturday the mayor, Anatoly Fedorouk.

A senior UN official will try this Sunday in Moscow to obtain a “humanitarian ceasefire” in Ukraine, where possible abuses against civilians have been reported in the kyiv region, devastated and taken back from the Russians by the Russians. Ukrainians.

UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths will travel to Moscow on Sunday and then to kyiv, United Nations chief Antonio Guterres announced on Friday.

According to the latter, the UN “does not give up the prospect of stopping the fighting” in Ukraine.

A series of explosions were heard this Sunday morning in Odessa, Ukraine’s main port, on the Black Sea, in the south-west of the country, noted an AFP journalist.

The explosions, which occurred around 6 a.m., were accompanied by at least three columns of black smoke and visible flames, apparently in an industrial area.

“Odessa was attacked from the air. Fires were reported in some areas. Part of the missiles were shot down by air defense. It is recommended to close the windows,” wrote on his Telegram account Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Minister.

Welcome to this direct dedicated to the thirty-ninth day of the war in Ukraine.

On Saturday, the Ukrainian authorities announced that the entire region of kyiv, the capital, had been “liberated” following the “rapid withdrawal” of Russian forces in the north of the country. However, the latter concentrate their military efforts on the south and east of the country.

Our summary paper can be found here.