Month: April 2022

Yahoo! News

Bucha mayor: Russians ‘will never be forgiven, on this earth or in heaven,’ for Ukraine atrocities

Colin Campbell, Managing Editor – April 4, 2022

The mayor of Bucha, Ukraine, forcefully condemned all of Russia on Monday for the widespread civilian deaths in his town, the full extent of which became apparent only amid the withdrawal of Russian forces from the region.

Anatoliy Fedoruk, the mayor of the city on the northwestern outskirts of Kyiv, told CNN that he had remained in Bucha during the Russian occupation and witnessed the subsequent atrocities.

“We all were witnesses to the horrific events and the horrific crimes that the Russians committed here. And we will never forgive the Russian people — not personally, not individually, but on the whole — we will not forgive the Russian people for the atrocities that happened here,” Fedoruk said, speaking through an interpreter.

Over the weekend, Ukrainian officials and various media outlets shared shocking scenes emerging from Bucha, one of a number of suburbs abandoned by Russian forces as they’ve pulled back from the capital, Kyiv. Dead bodies littered the streets, some with their hands tied behind their backs, apparently shot at close range.

The images sparked a fresh wave of condemnation from European leaders, who called for investigations into the alleged war crimes. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was more blunt, saying, “This is genocide.” Russia denied responsibility.

Ukrainian officials said a total of 410 dead civilians were found in Kyiv region towns like Bucha that were recaptured from Russia in recent days. “They shot everyone they saw,” a Bucha resident told the New York Times.

Fedoruk said both elderly and children were among the victims in his city.

“It was impossible not to see that they were children, not to see that a mother is carrying a child. These cynical atrocities is what the Russian troops are all about; that’s what Russia is all about. And we shall never forgive them. They will never be forgiven, on this earth or in heaven,” he told CNN.

Zelensky similarly addressed his condemnations to the broader Russian people, asking how they were capable of such violence.

“Russian mothers! Even if you raised looters, how did they also become butchers?” he asked in a Sunday speech. “You couldn’t be unaware of what’s inside your children. You couldn’t overlook that they are deprived of everything human. No soul. No heart. They killed deliberately and with pleasure.”

Zelensky said his government would set up a special investigative unit for the alleged war crimes, with the goal of bringing “concrete justice” to the perpetrators.

Cover thumbnail photo: Bucha City Council/Handout via Reuters

Daily Beast

Donbas Conscripts Given Guns From 1800s and Forced to Drink Water From Ponds Infested With Dead Frogs

Tom Sykes – April 4, 2022

Some conscripts to the Russian war effort from the Donbas region are turning on their commanders and refusing to fight on, after being handed antiquated rifles designed in the 19th century, and forced to drink from ponds littered with dead frogs.

One student draftee was given an automatic weapon but no instructions on how to fire it. The student, speaking to Reuters, said he was ordered to repel an attack by Ukrainian forces, but told a reporter: “I don’t even know how to fire an automatic weapon.”

‘It’s a Sh*tshow’: Russian Troops Are Now Turning on Each Other

The student said he was put in a mortar unit but was “taught nothing… Up to that point I had only seen mortars in movies. Obviously, I didn’t know how to do anything with them.”

The wife of another untrained Donbas draftee told Reuters: “He doesn’t even really know how to hold an automatic weapon.”

The report follows dozens of Western intelligence briefings and information shared by Ukrainian officials, which suggest that morale within the Russian forces is at breaking point and supply lines are a disaster.

Last week, a Russian soldier was caught on tape lamenting the huge losses they were taking and complaining that the army was full of “morons.”

“Our brigade has totally shit themselves. There are losses, many wounded,” he told his wife. “It’s unclear why we are even here,” he said.

Ukraine has made advances in dozens of regions where Russian forces made initial inroads, revealing the true scale of the horror perpetrated in President Putin’s name.

Reuters said that it spoke to six people for the report. In addition to the student it spoke to “three wives of conscripts who have mobile phone contact with their partners, one acquaintance of a draftee, and one source close to the pro-Russian separatist leadership who is helping to organize supplies for the Donbas armed forces.”

Draftees from the separatist Donbas region are not part of the Russian army but are fighting alongside them.

The overall picture that emerges from the report is of untrained and expendable conscripts providing ineffective support to their Russian counterparts. Reuters says Donbas conscripts “were given the highly dangerous mission of drawing enemy fire onto themselves so other units could identify the Ukrainian positions and bomb them.”

The claim tallies with a video published by Ukraine on March 12 in which a prisoner of war, who said he was an untrained civil servant from Donbas, said he was ordered to draw enemy fire in Mariupol to give away Ukrainian positions.

Reuters said that “several” of the draftees have been armed with bolt action Mosin rifles, which were first produced in the 1880s by the Russian Empire, and were the workhorse firearm of the Russian army for decades. Production ceased after World War II, however large stockpiles of the weapon survive. They were last manufactured, in small numbers, by Finland in 1973.

Horrific New Details of Carnage in Ukraine Town Emerge

The student conscript said: “It’s like we’re fighting with World War II muskets,” adding, “I hate the war. I don’t want it, curse it. Why are they sending me into a slaughterhouse?”

In another episode that clearly illustrates weak morale, Reuters says a group of some 135 Donbas conscripts in Mariupol mutinied by putting down their weapons and refusing to continue to fight. The men were kept in a basement by their commanders before being released.

The report also highlights the widely reported supply-line issues affecting the Russian war effort, with three sources saying draftees had to drink untreated water, and scavenge for food.

“We drank water with dead frogs in it,” the student said, while a source described as being “close to the Donetsk separatist leadership” told Reuters: “Supplies for the soldiers right now are a disaster.”

The Kremlin told Reuters that the issues raised were for the leadership of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) to answer. The DNR did not comment.

The Telegraph

Ukraine morning briefing: Five developments as Russians forced to retreat from key northern areas

Our Foreign Staff – April 4, 2022

Good morning. Russian troops are preparing for a big attack in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine, officials warned on Monday night, urging a mass evacuation.

However, in the North the Ukrainians are pushing back their adversaries.

1. MoD: Ukraine gains back ground

Ukrainian forces have retaken key northern terrain, forcing Russian troops to retreat from areas around the city of Chernihiv and north of Kyiv, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said on Tuesday.

Low-level fighting is likely to continue in some of the recaptured areas, it warned, but will reduce this week as the remainder of the Russian forces withdraw.

Many Russian units withdrawing from northern Ukraine are likely to require significant re-equipping and refurbishment before being available to redeploy for operations in eastern Ukraine, such as an expected attack on the Luhansk region.

2. Zelensky to address UN today

Volodymyr Zelensky will address the UN Security Council for the first time at a meeting on Tuesday that is certain to focus on what appears to be deliberate killings in the town of Bucha on the outskirts of the capital Kyiv.

The discovery after the withdrawal of Russian troops has sparked global outrage and vehement denials from the Russian government.

According to Ukraine’s prosecutor-general Iryna Venediktova, the bodies of 410 civilians have been removed from Kyiv-area towns that were recently retaken from Russian forces.

Mr Zelensky said his government was “doing everything possible to identify all the Russian military involved in these crimes as soon as possible”.

He added: “The time will come when every Russian will learn the whole truth about who of their fellow citizens killed, who gave orders, who turned a blind eye to the murders. We will establish all of this – and make it known to the world.”

3. Kick Russia off UN council, says Ukraine

There should be no place for Russia on the UN Human Rights Council, Ukraine’s foreign minister said on Monday night.

“Spoke with UN Secretary General @AntonioGuterres on the current security situation and the Bucha massacre,” Dmytro Kuleba tweeted.

“Stressed that Ukraine will use all available UN mechanisms to collect evidence and hold Russian war criminals to account. No place for Russia on the UN Human Rights Council.”

Liz Truss on Monday urged France and Germany to agree to tough new sanctions against Moscow.

4. Russia vows to expel Western diplomats

Russia will respond proportionately to the expulsion of its diplomats from a number of Western countries, its ex-president Dmitry Medvedev said late on Monday.

“Everyone knows the answer: it will be symmetrical and destructive for bilateral relations,” Mr Medvedev said in a posting on his Telegram channel. “Who have they punished? First of all, themselves.”

On Monday, France said it would expel 35 Russian diplomats over Moscow’s actions in Ukraine and Germany declared a “significant number” of Russian diplomats as undesirable.

“If this continues, it will be fitting, as I wrote back on 26th February – to slam shut the door on Western embassies,” Mr Medvedev said. “It will be cheaper for everyone. And then we will end up just looking at each other in no other way than through gunsights.”

5. Russia nears default as US stops bond payments

Russia’s latest sovereign bond coupon payments have been stopped, a spokesman for the US Treasury said, putting it closer to a historic default.

The latest payments have not received authorisation by the US Treasury to be processed by correspondent bank JPMorgan, Reuters reported.

The payments were due on bonds due in 2022 and 2042. The correspondent bank processes the coupon payments from Russia, sending them to the payment agent to distribute to overseas bondholders.

A US Treasury spokesman said: “Today is the deadline for Russia to make another debt payment. Beginning today, the US Treasury will not permit any dollar debt payments to be made from Russian government accounts at US financial institutions. Russia must choose between draining remaining valuable dollar reserves or new revenue coming in, or default.”

Reuters

Why Putin faces “more NATO” in the Arctic after Ukraine invasion

Robin Emmott, Essi Lehto and Simon Johnson – April 4, 2022

BARDUFOSS, Norway (Reuters) – The sound of gunfire echoed around the Norwegian fjords as a row of Swedish and Finnish soldiers, positioned prone behind banks of snow, trained rifles and missile launchers on nearby hills ready for an enemy attack.

The drill, in March, was the first time forces from Finland and Sweden have formed a combined brigade in a scheduled NATO exercise in Arctic Norway known as “Cold Response.” Neither country is a member of the NATO alliance. The exercise was long planned, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 added intensity to the war game.

“We would be rather naive not to recognise that there is a threat,” Swedish Major Stefan Nordstrom told Reuters. “The security situation in the whole of Europe has changed and we have to accept that, and we have to adapt.”

That sense of threat means President Vladimir Putin, who embarked on what he calls a “special operation” in Ukraine partly to counter the expansion of the NATO alliance, may soon have a new NATO neighbour.

Finland has a 1,300 km (810 mile) border with Russia. In a March 28 phone call, the country’s President Sauli Niinisto asked NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg for details on principles and steps for accepting new members, he wrote on Facebook. Finland’s leaders have discussed possible membership with “almost all” NATO’s 30 members, and will submit a review to parliament by mid-April, Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto told Reuters.

Sweden – home of the founder of the Nobel Peace Prize and a country which has not fought in a war since 1814 – is more hesitant. But a recent opinion poll for a major Swedish TV station found 59% of Swedes wanted to join NATO, if Finland does.

For some in the alliance, the two countries sandwiched between Russia and NATO-member Norway are already partners. U.S. General David Berger, who is the commandant of the U.S. Marines Corps, told reporters at the drill that – putting the politics of membership aside – they were brothers-in-arms during training.

“For marines, at the tactical level … there’s no difference,” Berger said. “I just have to know that the unit over there, they have my back. They’ve got me covered.”

Stoltenberg announced in early March that NATO was now sharing all information on the war in Ukraine with Sweden and Finland. Both countries regularly attend NATO meetings. At the exercises in Norway, Stoltenberg said “no other countries in the world” are closer partners.

But he noted an important difference: “The absolute security guarantees that we provide for NATO allies, are only for NATO allies.”

As non-members, Finland and Sweden’s combined population of 16 million don’t have the protection of NATO’s guarantee that an attack on one ally is an attack on all.

Moscow did not respond to a request for comment for this story. It has repeatedly warned both countries against joining NATO. On March 12, the Russian foreign ministry said “there will be serious military and political consequences” if they do, according to Russian news agency Interfax.

Stoltenberg has said it would be possible to allow Finland and Sweden in “quite quickly.” NATO has not commented on what a fast-track process would be; a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Defense said any decision would be taken by the countries themselves but their accession would need to be agreed by all 30 allies.

“President Putin wants less NATO on Russia’s borders,” Stoltenberg said in January, also referring to more allied troops in southeastern Europe, Poland and the Baltics. “But he is getting more NATO.”

MEMORIES OF WAR

More than 1,000 km to the southeast of the NATO drill, 80-year-old Markku Kuusela knows real war. The pensioner, who lives in Imatra, a town on Finland’s border with Russia, was evacuated to Sweden with his brother as an infant after his father was killed fighting a Russian invasion.

They returned to Finland only after the war was over.

“It is always in the back of my mind,” said Kuusela, visiting the cemetery where his father is buried. Tears welled in his eyes. “How it would have been to have a father.”

Some 96,000 Finns, or 2.5% of the population, died fighting the Russian invasion, in two wars between 1939 and 1944. A total of 55,000 children lost fathers and over 400,000 people lost homes as territory was conceded.

But the Finns, fighting under cover of dense forest, repelled the Russians and ever since, Finland has had a clear goal: strong defence and friendly relations with Russia.

The country built a conscript army – it has about 900,000 men and women in reserves – and according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, one of the largest artilleries in Europe.

For years, Finns and Russians have interacted extensively. This year, Imatra was planning to celebrate a 250-year history of Finnish tourism since a visit by Catherine the Great, the Russian empress, in 1772.

Now the Imatra border station is deserted, its stalls unused. Finland’s security service, known as Supo, says Russia’s military resources are currently focused on Ukraine and its own domestic operations, but warns the situation may change quickly.

The Ukraine invasion triggered almost 3,000 applications from Finns to join local associations of reservists as well as almost 1,000 to women’s emergency preparedness groups, the groups said.

One applicant was Pia Lumme, a 48-year-old coordinator for the Finnish National Agency for Education who lives near Imatra. She recalled her grandmother’s war memories.

“I think we Finns all share … the will to uphold this country,” Lumme said.

Finland is one of few European countries to maintain a national emergency supply of fuel, food and medicine. Building emergency shelters beneath every major building has been mandatory since World War Two. The country says its 54,000 shelters have room for 4.4 million of the 5.5 million population.

Finns’ backing for joining NATO has risen to record numbers over the past month, with the latest poll by public broadcaster Yle showing 62% of respondents in favour and only 16% against.

Supo, the security service, said on March 29 Finland must guard against potential Russian retaliation to Helsinki’s discussions on joining NATO, or interference in the public debate.

“We don’t need to make any quick decisions on our own defence, but certainly a possible membership application could lead to making us a target of interference or hybrid actions,” Haavisto told Reuters in an interview. “Finland needs to prepare for that and also listen to how NATO countries would react.”

CRISIS KITS

Sweden, which has argued that non-alignment has served its people well, has been slower to see Russia as a threat – for example, it allowed defence spending to slip and emergency shelters to fall into disrepair after the Cold War. But the mood there is also changing.

After Russia invaded Crimea in 2014, the government speeded up rearmament and boosted military strength on the island of Gotland, near the headquarters of Russia’s Baltic Fleet. It also reintroduced limited conscription that year.

Stockholm said earlier this month it would almost double defence spending to around 2% of GDP and is refurbishing a network of emergency bunkers, to shelter up to seven million people. It says there are currently around 65,000 shelters, mostly in private homes.

Around 71% of Swedes are worried about an increased military threat from Russia – up from 46% in January – according to a survey by pollsters Demoskop for daily Aftonbladet on March 2.

Three retail chains told Reuters sales of products to prepare for emergencies had accelerated again after picking up at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Sales of crisis kits, wind-up radios, water filters and water containers – pretty much everything – have increased,” said Fredrik Stockhaus, founder of Criseq, a Swedish online store. Sweden’s statistics office does not measure sales at this level of detail.

If either country does go for NATO membership, Finland looks set to move first, diplomats and politicians say. Foreign Minister Haavisto said he is in “almost daily” talks with his Swedish counterpart on the topic.

“It wouldn’t be ideal for Finland to go alone, because then all the risks in the application process would be on Finland,” said Matti Pesu, a foreign policy analyst at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs.

In Sweden, the government and opposition are conducting an analysis of security policy which is expected in May. Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson stressed on national TV on March 30 it was important to wait and see what conclusions that reaches. The ruling Social Democrats oppose joining, but four opposition parties support it.

Even so, Sweden’s non-aligned status is increasingly blurred, said Anna Wieslander, Northern Europe Director at the Atlantic Council think-tank.

“If you look at it, we are preparing to meet the adversary together and I think there is no doubt in which camp we are,” she said. “You can see the warnings Russia has given so there is no doubt on their side as well.”

(This story refiles to clarify that Nobel Peace Prize was conceived in Sweden — it is awarded in Norway)

(Additional reporting by Anne Kauranen in Helsinki; Edited by Sara Ledwith)

Business Insider

Finland appears closer to joining NATO despite Russia’s threat of military consequences if it does

Sinéad Baker – April 4, 2022

• Finland appears to be closer to joining NATO after Russia invaded Ukraine.
• A survey showed a majority there want membership, and the prime minister said a decision should be soon.
• Russia previously warned of “serious military and political consequences” if Finland tries to join.

Finland appears to be getting closer to joining the NATO military alliance despite Russia’s threat of military consequences if it becomes a member.

The country’s politicians and NATO itself have both pointed to the possibility of Finland joining soon, and a recent survey showed a majority of the country in support of membership in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Sanna Marin, Finland’s prime minister, said on Saturday the decision on whether or not to join should happen “this spring,” the Financial Times reported.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on March 31 that while the decision to join the bloc was one for Finland to make, he expected that NATO would allow the country to join quickly.

“If they apply, I expect that they will be very welcomed and that we’ll find a way to quickly agree the accession protocol and follow up on a membership of Finland,” he said.

Finland’s National Coalition party, the government’s main opposition, also supports NATO membership.

Petteri Orpo, the party’s leader, said, according to the FT: “In order to improve our security and guarantee our independence, we should join NATO. We still have a powerful and aggressive neighbor.”

Finland shares a long border with Russia.

Russia has threatened Finland should it decide to pursue membership.

In March, a Russian foreign ministry official warned of “serious military and political consequences” if Finland or Sweden, Finland’s neighbor, tried to join.

Russian President Vladimir Putin used the possibility of NATO expanding further eastward as a reason for his invasion of Ukraine. He framed Russia’s invasion as an act of self-defense against the alliance’s growth.

There also appears to be increased public support in Finland for joining the alliance.

A survey conducted by the Finnish Business and Policy Forum Eva think tank in March, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, found that 60% of people supported Finland joining NATO — a massive jump from previous years.

Joining NATO could also bring its own security risks for Finland, particularly if Russia sees it as an act of aggression.

Finnish President Sauli Niinistö said last month that applying for NATO membership would come with the “major risk” of escalation in Europe.

Finland was once part of the Russian Empire. After it gained independence, it was invaded by the Soviet Union in 1939, but it successfully fought back.

The Week

Finnish government to present NATO membership proposal to parliament by mid-April

Grayson Quay, Weekend editor – April 4, 2022

Finland’s government expects to submit a NATO membership proposal to the country’s parliament by mid-April, Reuters reported Monday.

Per Reuters, the country of 5.5 million, which shares an 800-mile border with Russia, began moving aggressively toward membership after Russia invaded aspiring NATO member Ukraine and threatened “serious military and political consequences” if Finland attempted to join the alliance.

In Finland, public support for NATO membership stood at 60 percent in March, a 34 percent increase since the autumn of 2021, according to Newsweek. Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said Russia is “not the neighbor we thought it was” and that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and threats against Finland have changed the countries’ relationship in an “irreversible” way.

Although Finland is not now a NATO member, Reuters explains, it maintains close ties with the alliance. Finnish miliary units aided in NATO operations in Afghanistan and Kosovo, participate in frequent military exercises with NATO forces, and form part of the NATO Response Force.

After World War II, during which Finland fought against the Soviet Union, Finland declined to join NATO, instead pursuing a policy known as the Paasikivi-Kekkonen doctrine. This policy “positioned Finland as a neutral country during the Cold War while maintaining good relations with” the Soviets, Wilson Center scholars Robin Forsberg and Jason C. Moyer write.

In Sweden, a country that has not fought a war since 1814, support for joining NATO has also increased, but Sweden is not moving toward membership nearly as rapidly as Finland, Reuters reports.

Insider

Zelenskyy invited Angela Merkel to look at mass graves in Bucha, saying they were the result of a 2008 decision not to let Ukraine join NATO

Sophia Ankel – April 4, 2022

• Ukraine’s president condemned European leaders for their 2008 decision not to let Ukraine join NATO.
• Zelenskyy’s comments followed shocking reports of mass casualties in Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv.
• Germany and France shot down Ukraine’s bid to join NATO during a summit in 2008.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy invited former German Chancellor Angela Merkel to look at the mass graves in Bucha, saying they were the result of her 2008 decision not to let Ukraine join NATO.

Zelenskyy’s comments came in a Sunday address to the nation after shocking reports and images emerged of mass civilian casualties in Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv that was retaken by Ukrainian forces last week.

In his speech, Zelenskyy accused Russia of “genocide” and singled out Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, the former president of France, for their roles in a 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania.

“Under optimistic diplomatic statements that Ukraine could become a member of NATO, then, in 2008, refusal to accept Ukraine into the alliance was hidden. The absurd fear of some politicians toward Russia was hidden,” Zelenskyy said.

“They thought that by refusing Ukraine, they would be able to appease Russia, to convince it to respect Ukraine and live normally next to us.”

He added later: “I invite Mrs. Merkel and Mr. Sarkozy to visit Bucha and see what the policy of concessions to Russia has led to in 14 years. To see with their own eyes the tortured Ukrainian men and women.”

During the 2008 summit, NATO leaders discussed requests by Ukraine and Georgia to join the Membership Action Plan, which is required for any country that wants to qualify for NATO membership.

While then-US President George W. Bush pressed for both countries to be given the MAP, Germany and France argued that such a step would increase friction with Russia, which had strongly opposed Ukraine’s request.

In the end, the alliance did not take any immediate action but pledged that Ukraine and Georgia would eventually become NATO members, according to an official summary of the talks. They reiterated this promise at another NATO summit in Brussels in July.

Russia has continued opposing NATO’s eastward expansion and cited it as a reason for invading Ukraine. Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.

Last month Zelenskyy said he had accepted that his country could not join NATO at the moment, telling Western officials: “It is clear that Ukraine is not a member of NATO. We understand that.”

Ukraine also offered never to join NATO during peace negotiations with Russia last week.

Los Angeles Times

Biden calls for war-crimes trial of Putin after mass graves found around Ukraine capital

Patrick J. McDonnell, Jaweed Kaleem, Jenny Jarvie – April 4, 2022

Russian leader Vladimir Putin faced mounting global condemnation Monday, with President Biden and a growing number of world leaders calling for a war-crimes trial, following the discovery in Ukraine of mass graves and streets littered with the bodies of civilians around the suburbs of Kyiv.

“This guy is brutal, and what’s happening in Bucha is outrageous,” Biden told reporters, referring to a town near Kyiv where numerous civilians were found dead, some bearing marks of torture or execution. The Ukrainian government said it has counted more than 400 civilian deaths so far in the suburbs of the capital city.

Biden previously branded Putin a “war criminal” in remarks March 17, but at that time the White House said he was speaking personally and not outlining a formal U.S. position. But six days later, the U.S. formally accused Russia of war crimes and said it was collecting evidence to help prove it.

“He is a war criminal,” Biden said of Putin on Monday. “But we have to gather information, we have to continue to provide Ukraine with the weapons they need to continue to fight.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the charred rubble in Bucha as armed guards surrounded him. The president called on the media to come to the city to “show the world what happened here.”

Zelensky has described the scenes in Bucha, where photos and videos show mass graves and dead men and women face down on residential roads, as evidence of Russian “genocide” against Ukrainians.

“Ordinary residents of an ordinary city near Kyiv,” Zelensky said later in an address to Romanian parliament. “Their hands were tied behind their backs, they were shot in the back of the head or in the eye, killed just in the streets. Civilian vehicles were crushed by military equipment. Vehicles with people! They raped women and girls.”

Zelensky also warned that the most brutal images from newly liberated areas, such as Bucha, were still to come.

“Not all evidence has been collected yet,” he said. “Not all burials have been discovered yet. Not all basements where the Russian military tortured people have been inspected yet.”

He pledged to set up a special judicial mechanism, with the participation of international prosecutors and judges, to investigate alleged war atrocities. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Monday that she had spoken with Zelensky and the European Union had set up a joint investigation team to work with the Ukrainian government to “investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

“The perpetrators of these heinous crimes must not go unpunished,” she said in a statement.

Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians in Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday dismissed the scenes outside Kyiv as a “stage-managed anti-Russian provocation,” saying that Bucha’s mayor had not spoken of atrocities immediately after Russian troops left the area last week.

The horrific scenes have generated calls for tougher sanctions on Moscow over the war, which is in its 40th day.

“We will do everything to ensure that those who have perpetrated these war crimes do not go unpunished,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Monday, citing “alleged cases of [crimes against] humanity, war crimes and — why not say it too — genocide.”

Germany and France on Monday expelled dozens of Russian diplomats. French President Emmanuel Macron described the gruesome images as “unbearable.” Macron, who said he supported additional sanctions, such as banning imports of Russian oil and coal into the European Union, said it was “very clear” that Russia committed war crimes.

And a top government official in Germany, a primary importer of Russian gas and one of the strongest holdouts against cutting off such trade, signaled Sunday that it might change course and support a ban. “There has to be a response,” Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said. “Such crimes must not remain unanswered.”

More than half of Germany’s gas comes from Russia. Europe overall receives 40% of its gas and 25% of its oil from Russia.

The Biden administration said Monday that it will try to get Russia kicked off the main human rights body of the United Nations.

“Russia’s participation on the Human Rights Council is a farce,” the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said at a news conference in Bucharest, Romania. “We cannot let a member state that is subverting every principle we hold dear to continue to sit on the U.N. Human Rights Council.”

The 47-nation Human Rights Council, based in Geneva, has been criticized in the past for including countries with questionable human rights records, such as Saudi Arabia and Cuba. The Trump administration pulled the United States from the group, but U.S. membership was restored this year.

Removing a member requires a two-thirds vote in the full 193-nation U.N. General Assembly. It has been done only once: Libya was suspended in 2011 during the chaos surrounding the overthrow of dictator Moammar Kadafi.

State Department spokesman Ned Price acknowledged that removal is a “rare” and “extraordinary” action but that the administration believes the atrocities reported in Ukraine have outraged a sufficient number of nations to join the vote against Russia.

At a White House briefing, Jake Sullivan, U.S. national security advisor, said Russia appeared to be “revising its war aims” and scaling back its initial goal of toppling Zelensky and conquering the entire country.

Russian forces were “retreating” from Kyiv and “repositioning” to concentrate on taking over already contested regions in eastern and southern Ukraine, Sullivan said, where they would probably “seek to surround and overwhelm Ukrainian forces.” Meanwhile, he said, the administration expects Moscow to continue its aerial assault on Kyiv and other major cities to cause “damage” and “terror.”

“Russia’s goal in the end is to weaken Ukraine as much as possible,” he said, warning that the conflict is shifting into what will probably be a “protracted” phase with fighting continuing for months to come.

The U.S. and NATO allies are planning to impose additional economic sanctions on Russia this week, Sullivan said, adding that he expected “additional new [defense] capabilities beyond what’s already been sent to Ukraine” to be delivered in the near future.

Pressed on why the administration rejected Zelensky’s characterization of the Bucha atrocities as a genocide, Sullivan said: “We have not yet seen a level of systematic deprivation of life of the Ukrainian people to rise to the level of genocide.”

Although they were unable to enter central Kyiv, Russia said its forces had successfully completed the “first phase” of the war against Ukraine and were shifting east to the industrial Donbas region and other areas that are home to pro-Russia separatist movements.

Russian troops appeared to have left several towns around the northeastern city of Chernihiv by Monday, according to regional Gov. Viacheslav Chaus.

Chaus, who said that about 70% of the city is destroyed, warned remaining residents not to get too comfortable. In a message posted to the Telegram app, he counseled patience as Ukrainian troops clear mines.

“We must avoid new victims,” he said.

Major aid routes into the city have been cut off for weeks, but Ukrainian news outlet RBK Ukraina reported a positive development: The 92-mile car route between Kyiv and Chernihiv had been partially reopened Monday morning.

Farther east in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, the local prosecutor’s office said Monday that shelling of residential buildings Sunday left seven people dead and 34 injured.

In Mariupol, a battered southern port city that has seen some of the worst publicly documented atrocities of the war, officials have continued to struggle to evacuate residents and send in aid.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Monday that a convoy of seven buses bound for Mariupol had been blocked in the Russian-held city of Manhush. Efforts to bring aid and evacuate residents have repeatedly fallen apart, with Ukraine accusing Russian forces of failing to honor the pledge to allow safe corridors out of Mariupol.

New strikes were reported overnight on the historic Black Sea port of Odesa and the city of Mykolaiv, both in the south. No information was available on deaths or injuries.

The shifting terrain of war has left western parts of Ukraine in relative peace as local recovery efforts began even as war rages in the south and east.

The British Ministry of Defense warned Monday that Russian fighters were in a “consolidate and reorganize” phase as they planned more offensives in the Donbas. The ministry said fighters from Wagner, a Russian paramilitary company, were staging in the area.

At the same time, the Ukrainian military said in a Monday report that a “hidden mobilization” was underway by Russians to regroup amid their pullback from some parts of Ukraine.

“The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation plan to engage around 60,000 people during the mobilization,” the report said.

According to the United Nations, at least 1,417 civilians have been killed since Russia launched the war Feb. 24. About a quarter of Ukraine’s population of 44 million has been displaced, with more than 4 million fleeing the country.

McDonnell reported from Lviv, Kaleem from London and Jarvie from Atlanta. Tracy Wilkinson and Eli Stokols contributed to this report from Washington.