April 5, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

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New Zealand said it will impose a 35% tariff on all Russian imports and extend existing export prohibitions to include “industrial products closely linked to strategic Russian industries.”

The measures will come into effect on April 25, according to a joint statement by New Zealand’s foreign ministry and trade ministry.?? ?

Export of industrial products such as telecommunications equipment and engines will be banned.?

Mahuta said New Zealand has called on Russia to be held to account for war crimes?and, along with 41 other nations, supports an International Criminal Court prosecution.

Ukrainian service members unpack Javelin anti-tank missiles at Boryspil International Airport outside Kyiv, Ukraine, delivered on February 10.

The United States authorized an additional $100 million for anti-armor systems to Ukraine, the Biden administration announced on Tuesday.

The additional shipment will be released to meet an urgent demand from Ukraine for the Javelin anti-tank?missiles, which are among the weapons that have proven most effective against Russian forces.

Shipped quickly: President Joe Biden authorized the drawdown of the Javelin anti-armor weapons from US inventories, meaning the weapons will be pulled from existing Defense Department stocks and can be shipped to Ukraine quickly.?

Billions in assistance: This latest shipment means the US has now authorized more than $2.4 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden administration, including more than $1.7 billion since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Further US support: On Friday, the US announced that it will provide another $300 million in security assistance to Ukraine, including Switchblade suicide drones, night-vision equipment and anti-drone systems. But that package, which fell under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative,?has to be?procured from defense contractors.

The United States could impose sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s adult children as early as Wednesday, according to a western official familiar with the plans.

Putin has acknowledged two daughters with his ex-wife Lyudmila Putin.

The White House has said the latest round of sanctions will be applied in conjunction with European allies.?

The Biden administration is also eyeing an expansion of sanctions on Sberbank — Russia’s largest financial institution — and Alfa Bank — another large lender — the official said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses the United Nations Security Council via video on April 5.

Ukrainian President?Volodymyr Zelensky?accused Russian troops of indiscriminately killing civilians “just for their pleasure” in an emotionally charged address Tuesday to the United Nations Security Council during which he questioned the very mandate of the Security Council itself.

Here’s what to know about his UN speech:

Read more on Zelensky’s UN speech here.

Poland is buying 250 Abrams tanks from the United States in a $4.75 billion deal signed Tuesday in Warsaw.

Deliveries are slated to start later this year as Poland, a NATO member that borders Ukraine in the east, ramps up its defenses following Russia’s invasion of its neighbor.

The top-of-the-line US tanks will go to the Polish Army’s 18th Mechanized Division, which is based near the border with Ukraine.

The deal includes maintenance vehicles, portable bridges, training and logistics as well as ammunition, B?aszczak said.

The Defense Ministry said the deal, first agreed last July, is one of the largest in Polish history.

As part of the modernization of its military, Poland is also buying US-made F-35 stealth fighter jets in a deal signed in 2020. Those 32 warplanes are scheduled to begin arriving in Poland in 2026.

More than a dozen female Ukrainian soldiers captured by Russian forces were “subjected to torture and ill-treatment in?captivity,” according to a Ukrainian human rights official.

The 15 women were among 86 soldiers?released?from?Russian?captivity?on Friday.

Following their capture by?Russian?forces, the women were taken to Belarus and then to a pre-trial detention center in Bryansk, Russia, where they “were tortured and threatened,” Lyudmyla Denisova, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, said on her official Telegram page.

Stripped naked: According to Denisova,?female?prisoners were stripped naked in the presence of men, forced to squat, cut their hair, and interrogated in an effort to break their morale. Some of the women were also forced to take part in the filming of Russian propaganda videos.

Article 13: Denisova said Russia’s actions amount to a violation of Article 13 of the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War.?Article 13 states that “prisoners of war must at all times be humanely treated.”?

Denisova previously said on Monday that Ukrainian prisoners of war had been subject to beatings, starvation, frostbite, and intimidation while in?Russian?captivity.

Following negotiations last week, Ukraine and Russia’s exchange of 86 prisoners from each side marked the conflict’s largest prisoner swap to date.

European leaders have planned to phase out?Russian coal imports?in response to harrowing?scenes in Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv.

On Tuesday, the European Commission proposed a phased ban of 4 billion euros ($4.3 billion) worth of Russian coal imports per year as part of a fifth package of sanctions designed to further diminish Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war chest. Other proposals target Russian technology and manufacturing imports, worth another 10 billion euros ($10.9 billion).

Europe has imposed?punishing sanctions on Russia’s economy?since Putin’s tanks rolled into Ukraine in late February, but stopped short of targeting Russia’s energy sector — until now. Images of unarmed civilians, bound and shot, lying along Bucha’s roads — which were until recently under Russian occupation — have convinced leaders to change tack.

More details on the new round of sanctions, including the timeline for the ban on coal, are expected Wednesday when EU ambassadors meet for talks. The measures still need the approval of all 27 member states.

Sanctioning coal will bite some European countries, but it’s among the easiest energy sources to wean off — much of the world is already doing just that. The trickier question is: What happens next?

Read the rest of this story here.

The US will announce new sanctions on Russia Wednesday in?coordination with Group of 7 nations and the European Union, according to an administration official.

The official said the sweeping package “will impose significant costs on Russia and send it further down the road of economic, financial, and technological isolation.”

The new sanctions package will:

The new sanctions package will mark the latest escalation in efforts by the US and its allies to impose costs on Russia for its invasion and, over time, cut off critical economic sectors the country utilizes to wage the ongoing war.

They also follow new revelations of further atrocities committed by Russian forces in northern Ukraine, with the images of the atrocities committed in Bucha serving as an accelerator to ongoing discussions between the US and its European allies to ramp up the economic costs, officials said.

The official added, “We had already concluded that Russia committed war crimes in Ukraine,?and the information from?Bucha?appears to show further evidence of war crimes. And as the President said, we will work with the world to ensure there is full accountability for these crimes. One of those tools is sanctions — and we have been working intensively with our European allies on further sanctions.”

More context: The expected sanctions come after the US Treasury announced it will no longer allow Russia to pay down its debt using dollars stockpiled at American banks. While Washington had imposed sanctions on the Russian Central Bank freezing their foreign currency at US banks, the Treasury Department had previously allowed Russia to use those reserves to repay its debt.

It’s a move that officials say will substantially raise the risk of default and undercut urgent efforts by the central bank to stanch the economic bleeding that immediately arrested the Russian economy in the wake of the Western response to the invasion.

Read more about the sanctions here and watch CNN’s reporting below:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky questioned the effectiveness of the UN Security Council in a taped address on Tuesday, repeating his comments from his virtual speech at the UN earlier on Tuesday.?

“I’m sure the world will see this and make conclusions,” he said.?

Zelensky also repeated his call for Russia to be removed from the UN Security Council.?

“I suggest to the UN Security Council, and all other countries who honor international law, some specific actions that can change the situation. In particular, we are talking about a general conference in Kyiv to see how we can reform the global architecture in light of the Russian Federation still holding permanent seat in the United Nations,” he said.??

Zelensky addressed his conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron in which they spoke about the humanitarian situation in the temporary occupied regions of Ukraine.??

“We also agreed that France will provide necessary technical support and aid to investigate crimes of Russian occupiers in Ukraine,” he said.??

Zelensky also pushed for new sanctions after the massacre of civilians in Bucha.?

“This is not just about how our people are going to assess those sanctions but in fact how western societies are going to evaluate these sanctions after what the world has seen in Bucha,” he said, “Sanctions have to really respond to the severity of the crimes committed in Ukraine.”

He noted that the “hardest battles” are still being fought in Donbas and Kharkiv.?

Zelensky also said that he is preparing to meet with the president of the European commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

“Together will be working in Kyiv, this will be appreciated by many people in the world because now Kyiv is the capital of the global democracy and fight for freedom for everyone on the European continent,” Zelensky said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Brussels Tuesday ahead of this week’s high-stakes NATO foreign ministerial as US officials warn that Russia’s war in Ukraine could be entering a protracted new phase.

Speaking to reporters en route to the Belgian capital, the top US diplomat said it was “an important moment” to coordinate with allies and partners “on a number of fronts.”

“We of course have the horrific atrocities that have been revealed for all the world to see in Bucha. I suspect, alas, we will see more of that where Russian forces pull out,” he said. “As I said, it’s like a receding tide and we’re seeing in very stark terms the death and destruction that’s being left in its wake.?So,?there’s obviously a lot of focus on that.”?

Blinken said the ministerial, which comes just weeks after NATO leaders gathered in Brussels, will also focus on “the work we’ve been doing together to support the Ukrainians and we’ll be looking at ways to sustain that and build on that, the work we are doing to put pressure on Russia and Putin, and we’ll be looking on ways to not only sustain that but build on that.”

“And of?course work to strengthen and shore up the NATO alliance,” Blinken added.

US Ambassador to NATO Julie Smith told reporters earlier Tuesday that there would be a separate session at the NATO ministerial with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, saying “it’s important for us to hear directly from the Ukrainians firsthand what their assessment is of these fast-moving developments on the ground, and what more we can all do to help the Ukrainians in this moment.”

While in Brussels, Blinken will meet not only with his NATO counterparts at the ministerial, but also with the “Quint” — Italy, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom — and the “Quad” — France, Germany and the UK. He will also meet with his Australian and Japanese counterparts.

Residential buildings destroyed in the town of Borodianka are seen on Tuesday, April 5.

Oksana Kostychenko walks down a narrow pathway, leading to her back garden in Borodianka. The flower beds on one side are surprisingly well arranged, contrasting with the wanton?destruction all around.

Near her garden shed is the body of a man laying face-down with a bag over his head and hands tied behind his back. His trousers are pulled down. There are large bruises on his left leg and a large wound on his head.

Next to his body is a single bullet casing.

The body is one of many recently found in cities to the east of Kyiv that were occupied by Russian forces.

Borodianka was home to 13,000 people before the war, but most fled after Russia’s invasion. What was left of the town, after intense shelling and devastating airstrikes, was then occupied by Russian forces, which moved in on Feb. 28.

Read the rest of this story here.

A woman and children sit for a meal after their arrival at a hub for displaced people in Zaporizhzhia on April 5.

A total of?3,846 people were evacuated through Ukrainian evacuation corridors on Tuesday, according to a statement posted on Telegram by Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.?

Vereshchuk?previously stated that a total of seven evacuation corridors had been planned for Tuesday.?

According to the official, 2,216 people went to Zaporizhzhia through evacuation corridors from Mariupol and Berdiansk?in their own vehicles. This included 1,496 people from Mariupol and 720 people from Polohy, Vasylivka, Berdiansk and Melitopol.

Seventeen minibuses, which were sent to Berdiansk early Tuesday, also came back to Zaporizhzhia. They evacuated 150 people from the cities of Lysychansk, Severodonetsk, Rubizhne and Kreminna. Another?1,080 people were evacuated from the Luhansk region.

The?International Committee of the Red Cross?accompanied a convoy of seven buses and more than 40 private cars sent to evacuate civilians from Mariupol. The convoy was forced to return after a blockade in Manhush, a Russian-held town about 20 km (about 12 miles) from Mariupol.?

According to Ukrainian officials, Russian forces continue to?block the passage of humanitarian goods to the besieged city.

Ukrainians fleeing?Russia’s invasion of their country?have arrived?at the Mexican border?city of Tijuana?to seek US asylum and more are expected to come, a Tijuana city official and a volunteer told CNN on Saturday.

Tijuana?city officials said Monday that they had opened a sports complex to house the overflow of Ukrainian migrants, according to Enrique Lucero Vazquez, the director of?Tijuana’s immigration services.

Vazquez said that about 2,000 Ukrainians are currently in?Tijuana, both near the border crossing with the United States and at the sports complex called “Unidad Deportiva Benito Juarez.”

Last month, a senior administration official announced that the United States will welcome up to 100,000 Ukrainians and?others fleeing Russia’s aggression.

More than 4 million refugees have now fled Ukraine, according to data from the UN refugee agency, with the vast majority of those refugees having fled to Ukraine’s western neighbors across Europe.

Here’s a look at some images from the ground in Tijuana:

Ukrainian refugees wait near the San Ysidro Port of Entry at the US-Mexico border on Monday, April 4, in Tijuana, Mexico.?

An aerial view of a Ukrainian refugee camp near the San Ysidro Port of Entry in Tijuana, Mexico, on Saturday, April 2.

Ukrainian refugees wait to enter the United States at the San Ysidro Port of Entry at the US-Mexico border, in Tijuana, Mexico, on Monday.

A volunteer calls out numbers at a makeshift camp where Ukrainians are staying to hold their place in line near the San Ysidro Port of Entry in Tijuana, Mexico, on Monday.

A Ukrainian family arrives at a shelter at the Christian church, Calvary San Diego, in Chula Vista, California, after crossing into the US from Tijuana, Mexico, on Friday, April 1.

Volunteer Silas Breen, below left, from the Calvary Bible Institute, prays with David, from Ukraine, at Calvary San Diego's shelter for Ukrainians arriving from Tijuana, Mexico, last Friday, in Chula Vista, California.

CNN’s Rosalina Nieves, Rosa Flores, Sharif Paget and Karol Suarez contributed reporting to this post.

The city of Lviv, in western Ukraine, is home to the Football Club Karpaty Lviv, a minor league soccer team. But as the Russian invasion continues, it’s now also home to Ukrainian refugees, fleeing violence and seeking safety.

Oleg Smaliychuk, the owner of the team, has opened the club’s offices as a resting place for hundreds of Ukrainian refugees.

“We left because?of our children.?We left our town because we were?afraid of their psychological?state.?We have a war there, and we were very scared,” said Katia, a woman currently living at the soccer club with her sister-in-law and their four kids, via translator.

CNN’s Jake Tapper visited with Katia and her family, who fled Donetsk, heading west in hopes of avoiding the violence that plagues their city.

“I miss my?grandmother and I would like to?be back in my town.?Because here everything looks very?unfamiliar to me,” says 11-year-old Yegor, the eldest of the children.

Smaliychuk, the team’s owner, told CNN he’s been so impacted by the violence and terror, that he is contemplating a new career path.

As he was interviewed by Tapper, Smaliychuk didn’t pause as he heard the air raid siren, an all-too-familiar reminder of the state of affairs in his country. Instead, he continued loading ammunition into his firearm, focused on his new calling.?

“I definitely want?to go where I can avenge our?children,” he said.

Watch CNN’s reporting from the ground:

Estonian Foreign Minister Eva-Maria Liimets told CNN on Tuesday that it was “absolutely appropriate” for Estonia to reduce the number of Russian diplomatic staff in the country and urged other nations to step up sanctions and pressure on Russia.

Earlier on Tuesday, Estonia announced it will shut down both Russian consulates in the country and expel 14 staff in light of the atrocities revealed to have been committed by Russian forces against Ukrainian civilians.

Liimets added, “This is not enough to pressure Russia to stop the war, and therefore we also work with sanctions with the fifth package of sanctions within the European Union.”

The foreign minister also noted that Estonia would like to see reforms to the United Nations Security Council, of which Russia is a permanent member.?Liimets said permanent members should not have veto rights when it comes to matters related to atrocities.?

“It is very unfortunate to see that among those permanent member states, there is also an aggressor and the aggressor has sabotaged the whole work of the United Nations Security Council,” she said.

The foreign minister also urged other UN member states to support Ukraine with military assistance, and to “continue to politically and economically isolate Russia.”

“Estonia started to provide defensive equipment to Ukraine already before the war started,” Liimets told CNN. “It is very important that all the countries who have this opportunity to provide military assistance to Ukraine do it now.”

“We must continue to put additional pressure to Russia to stop this unjustified and unprovoked war in Ukraine,” she said. “And here definitely, Ukraine needs the support of every member state of the United Nations.”

Yevheniya Kravhuck, a Ukrainian parliament member, said that the only way to win the war against Russia is on the battlefield, because there is no other way to reach Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Kravchuk went on to describe the devastated city of Mariupol as a “mass graveyard” where officials are having a hard time getting into to assess civilian casualties.

“We can’t even get there.?You showed these numbers that?United Nations say, they killed?civilians, but it’s much, much?more.?Only in Mariupol, local?consulate say it’s more than?5,000 of civilians dead, and we?can’t get there to count, to find?out what’s going on there,” she said.

Kravchuk, whose husband is the head of a police department in Kyiv, described efforts by Ukrainian police to document war crimes using forensics. She also said that officials are running out of places to put bodies of the dead and that they are in need of more refrigerators.

“Right now a lot police men?from other districts, that were?not affected, they are taken to these northern parts, and they work?there.?They ask to have their forensic?experts to put every?documentation on these war?crimes.?Because we need international?tribunal afterwards to make sure?that everyone who killed people?will be punished.?Because this evil cannot just go?unpunished,” she said.

Watch the interview:

Russian forces launched missile strikes in western and northeastern Ukraine Tuesday, hitting what Russian Ministry of Defense spokesperson Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov described as military facilities.?

In a statement, Konashenkov said Russia launched precision?air-launched missiles at targets in the vicinity of Zolochiv in western Lviv oblast and Chuhuiv in northeastern Kharkiv oblast.

He claimed the strikes destroyed a command post of a territorial defense unit, a fuel storage facility and an armored vehicle repair plant.

CNN could not independently verify that information.

There have been no “major advances” in negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, and the horrors witnessed over the weekend in the Ukrainian town of Bucha are not helping the talks, an Elysee Palace source said on Tuesday.??

The source added that Zelensky was still keen on “maintaining and advancing the talks with the Russians,” as well as on France’s mediation role.?

The two leaders discussed the concrete measures to be put in place to “make sure that Russia’s crimes do not remain unpunished,” said the source, including France’s offer last week to send additional funding to the International Criminal Court.?

Macron reiterated his country’s willingness to contribute to the investigation and documentation of the violence perpetrated against civilians, according to the source, and asked Zelensky about the reports of alleged rape committed by Russian soldiers against Ukrainian women “which the Ukrainian president confirmed,” added the source.??

The condition in the besieged city of Mariupol was also discussed in the meeting, and Zelensky informed Macron that that only 2,000 people were able to leave this week because the “Russians were blocking” the evacuation corridors, according to the source.

The White House expanded upon news Tuesday that?the US will no longer allow Russia to pay down its debt using dollars stockpiled at American banks,?a shift aimed at piling additional pressure on Moscow.?

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that the goals of the move were, in part, to deplete Russia’s financial resources.

She continued, “The biggest part of our objective here is to deplete the resources that Putin has to continue his war against Ukraine, and obviously causing more certainty – uncertainty — and challenges to their financial system is a part of that but it is forcing them to choose those options and to also deplete the resources, making it more difficult for him to continue to fight the war.”

As CNN previously reported, the move came to light on Monday when Russia faced another deadline to make a debt payment and avoid its first foreign debt default in more than a century. After Russia invaded Ukraine, Washington imposed sanctions on the Central Bank of Russia that froze its foreign currency reserves at US banks.

Yet the US Treasury Department had previously permitted Russia to use those frozen foreign currency reserves to repay debt. That allowed Russia to narrowly avoid a default.

The United Nations on Tuesday said that the images of the atrocities carried out in the Ukrainian town of Bucha show “all the signs” that civilians were “directly targeted and directly killed.”??

Addressing a virtual press briefing, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights spokesperson Liz Throssell reiterated the UN’s “horror” at images that emerged showing civilian bodies strewn across the streets of the town located northwest of Kyiv.??

“What we have seen emerging from Bucha and from other areas clearly points to very disturbing developments. That the brutality, the targeting of the civilians really underscores that this is so concerning. You know, really looking at the video and the footage coming out of there is all the signs that the victims were directly targeted and directly killed,” Throssell said.??

Here are some more of the latest headlines from the Russia-Ukraine conflict:

Portugal will expel 10 staff members of the Russian embassy in Lisbon, Portuguese foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.?

The activities of the 10 employees, declared now as “persona non grata,” were “contrary to national security” of Portugal, the statement said, adding that they will have two weeks to leave the country.?

None of the 10 people are “career diplomats,” according to the ministry.???

Italy, Sweden, Spain, Estonia, Denmark and Latvia all announced Tuesday that they would?expel?Russian diplomats and staff members from their respective territories.?

The US Treasury Department on Tuesday sanctioned what it called Russia’s “most prominent” dark web market, a place where cybercriminals sold hacking tools and where millions of dollars in ransomware payments changed hands.?

The sanctions coincided with a move by German police to shut down the computer servers of Hydra, as the dark web market is known, and seize $25 million in cryptocurrency.??

Since emerging in 2015, the Hydra dark web market —?an internet-based network accessible through specialized software — has been a haven for illicit commerce, according to researchers and US officials. Over $5 billion in bitcoin transactions have taken place on Hydra, according to Elliptic, a firm that tracks cryptocurrency.?

That includes about $8 million in ransom payments made to hackers that have deployed three prominent strains of ransomware in attacks on US companies.??

After a spate of ransomware attacks on US critical infrastructure last year, the Biden administration has looked to choke off sources of funding for cybercriminal gangs. The Treasury Department in September sanctioned Suex, a cryptocurrency exchange that US officials accused of doing business with hackers behind eight types of ransomware.

Oleh Syniehubov, the military governor of Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, said Tuesday that Russian shelling had killed six people and injured another eight in the city of Kharkiv and the region over the past day.?

On Monday,?Col. Oleksandr Motuzyanyk, spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, said Russia was focusing efforts to surround Ukraine’s Joint Forces Operation troops in the country’s east and capture the city of?Kharkiv.?

“The Kharkiv?region is ready for any scenario, our Armed Forces of Ukraine are on the positions and defending the region. We have to keep a strong rear,” Syniehubov said.

The military governor of Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region posted a video Tuesday that appeared to show shelling of a children’s hospital on Monday.

“Yesterday’s attack on a secret medical facility — a children’s hospital,” Vitalii Kim said, without further elaboration.

The video appears to show CCTV footage of a blast hitting parked ambulances.?

Late Monday evening, Kim put out a separate statement reporting casualties in the city due to shelling.

It was unclear if Kim was referring to the same incident in both statements. On Tuesday, the aid group?Doctors Without Borders (MSF)?gave a more detailed statement that describing a strike on a hospital in Mykolaiv.

“Several explosions took place in close proximity to our staff over the course of about 10 minutes,” said Michel-Olivier Lacharité, MSF head of mission in Ukraine, in the statement furnished by MSF. “As they were leaving the area, the MSF team saw injured people and at least one dead body. However, we are not in a position to give exact numbers of dead and injured. Fortunately, our staff were able to take cover and were not hurt in the explosions, although the windows of their vehicle, parked outside the hospital entrance, were blown out by the blasts.”

MSF also stated that the regional pediatric hospital, about 300 meters away, was also hit in the strike.

A pair of Democratic lawmakers is asking US President Joe Biden to increase cybersecurity assistance to Ukraine and European allies in the aftermath of a hack that disrupted service at a key Ukrainian internet service provider last month.?

In a letter to Biden on Tuesday shared with CNN, Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Bill Keating, both of Massachusetts, expressed concern that Russia could lash out with further cyberattacks in Ukraine or with hacking that tests NATO’s resolve as Russian military progress in Ukraine stalls.

A cyberattack last week on Ukrtelecom, which describes itself as Ukraine’s largest “fixed line” internet and phone provider, that reportedly knocked connectivity down at the telecom operator to 13% of its pre-war levels.

The lawmakers, both members of their respective chamber’s foreign affairs committees, want a newly formed cybersecurity bureau at the State Department to bolster US cooperation with Ukraine and European allies on cybersecurity issues, and in turn help defend against Russian hacking threats.?

A spokesperson for Markey’s office called the $37 million the White House requested from Congress to run the bureau in fiscal 2023 a “strong starting point,” but said that it was “imperative” that the State Department coordinate with government entities like the US Cyber Command and the Department of Homeland Security that have long provided cybersecurity assistance to Ukraine.?

CNN has reached out to the White House for comment.?

Separate from the new bureau, the State Department has overseen millions of dollars in aid to Kyiv to shore up its networks in recent years. And the head of US Cyber Command, the military’s hacking unit, said Tuesday that the command dispatched a team of cyber specialists to Ukraine late last year to help defend Ukrainian infrastructure.

More on the hacks: While there have been an array of Russia-linked hacking incidents against Ukrainian organizations since the war began, there haven’t been the level of disruptive hacks against critical infrastructure that some analysts feared.??

One exception was a cyberattack at the onset of the war that knocked out internet service for tens of thousands of satellite modems in Ukraine and elsewhere in Europe. US officials are investigating that incident as a potential state-sponsored Russian hack, CNN previously reported.

On March 21, Biden warned US business executives that “the magnitude of Russia’s cyber capacity is fairly consequential and it’s coming.” So far, no consequential hacks on US organizations publicly attributed to the Russian government have emerged. But US officials continue to prepare for the possibility.?

Markey and Keating asked Biden to “promptly” nominate an ambassador-at-large to lead the State Department’s new cybersecurity bureau.?(Secretary of State Antony Blinken told State Department employees Monday that Biden would nominate someone for the role “very soon.”)

The Democratic lawmakers also want to know what lessons the Biden administration have learned from Russian hacking in Ukraine in recent weeks.?

“How is the Administration coordinating U.S. government agencies to apply these lessons to shore up potential U.S. vulnerabilities as well as those of our allies and partners?” Markey and Keating wrote to Biden, asking for answers by April 29.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has so far addressed 19 global parliaments in a bid to drum up support during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to CNN’s count.?

Described by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison last month as a “lion of democracy,” Zelensky has also addressed four multilateral institutions — the United Nations Security Council, the European Council, G7 and NATO — and he also spoke virtually at the Doha Forum. In addition, he delivered a pre-taped message to the Grammy Awards on Sunday evening.??

His first virtual address was to the European Parliament on March 1 and his latest address was to the Spanish Parliament on Tuesday.??

His second address was to the UK Parliament on March 8, with subsequent addresses every few days to the following countries’ governments: Poland, Canada, United States, Germany, Switzerland, Israel, Italy, France, Japan, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Australia and Romania.

Attendees applaud the appearance of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Spanish Parliament on April 5 in Madrid.

President Volodymyr Zelensky invoked the Nazi and Italian fascist air raid bombing of the Spanish Basque town of Guernica in 1937 as he described Russia’s modern-day Ukrainian invasion.

Guernica came under a surprise attack in April 1937, during Spain’s civil war, when?the German and Italian?dictators — Adolf?Hitler and Benito Mussolini — sent warplanes to support General Francisco Franco, the eventual winner of the conflict.

Pablo Picasso’s iconic painting, Guernica, depicted the deadly attack.

The Ukrainian leader?thanked Spain for its recent shipments of weapons to Ukraine, but asked for more. He lauded Spain’s support of economic sanctions against Russia, but also called for more,?“really powerful sanctions.”?

Zelensky said that while some Spanish companies have stopped business dealings in Russia after the war started, others have continued doing business with?Moscow, and he cited several by name.???

“I think you know them better than me,” he told the parliament. “Please stop doing business with Russia.”

Twitter said Tuesday it will no longer amplify or recommend Russian government accounts on its platform, bringing its stance on Kremlin-linked accounts closer in line with its approach to Russian state media.?

Twitter accounts operated by the Russian government will no longer “be?amplified or recommended to people on Twitter, including across the Home Timeline, Explore, Search, and other places on the service,” the company said?in a blog post.??

The move reflects a new policy Twitter said it is unveiling to ensure the free flow of information. The policy states that Twitter will not amplify or recommend accounts on its platform run by governments that are “engaged in armed interstate conflict” and that are also simultaneously restricting “access to free information.”

The policy is being invoked for the first time against Russia in light of its invasion of Ukraine, and it follows concerns voiced by civil society groups that official Russian accounts have continued to promote propaganda about the war.

However, Tuesday’s announcement stops short of a full ban, in another example of the policy tightrope that social media companies have had to walk since Russia’s invasion.?

The Russian government collectively has millions of followers across numerous accounts, including several operated by the office of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russia’s foreign and defense ministries, and diplomatic missions.?

Twitter’s announcement comes after critics?highlighted the discrepancy?between the company’s earlier actions to limit Russian state media on its platform — such as content from Sputnik and RT — and its comparatively hands-off approach to Russian government accounts.?

People receive humanitarian aid in Bucha, located near Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 5.

The?US?will announce new sanctions on Russia Wednesday in coordination with G7 nations and the European Union, according to a member of US President Joe Biden’s administration, who said the?sweeping package “will impose significant costs on Russia and send it further down the road of economic, financial, and technological isolation.”

The new sanctions package will?ban all new investment in Russia, increase sanctions on financial institutions and state-owned enterprises in Russia and sanction Russian government officials and their family members.?

The official added, “We had already concluded that Russia committed war crimes in Ukraine, and the information from Bucha appears to show further evidence of war crimes. And as the President said, we will work with the world to ensure there is full accountability for these crimes. One of those tools is sanctions — and we have been working intensively with our European allies on further sanctions.”

A Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) team in Ukraine has described a hospital bombing on Monday in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, in which they witnessed several injuries and one death, according to a news release.

The four-person MSF team visited Mykolaiv on Monday to meet with city and regional health authorities and visit the city’s oncology hospital.?At around 3:30 p.m. local time, the area around the hospital came under fire, according to the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) statement released Tuesday.

“As they were leaving the area, the MSF team saw injured people and at least one dead body. However, we are not in a position to give exact numbers of dead and injured,” Lacharité said in the statement.

“Fortunately our staff were able to take cover and were not hurt in the explosions, although the windows of their vehicle, parked outside the hospital entrance, were blown out by the blasts,” the statement said.

MSF also said the region’s pediatric hospital was also hit by the blasts. No large crater was visible, according to MSF, but their team described numerous small holes in the ground throughout a large area.

CNN previously reported that?Russia’s bombardment of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine near the Black Sea continued on Monday as it has for weeks, with strikes through the morning and afternoon there.?A CNN team at a crossroads just south of Mykolaiv was just meters away from incoming artillery rounds on Monday, leaving their vehicle destroyed.?

A United Nations humanitarian supply convoy has arrived in Sievierodonetsk in east Ukraine, according to a press release from the UN.

The convoy included eight trucks of critical supplies, including food rations, canned goods, flour, solar-powered lamps, mattresses, plastic sheeting and blankets for approximately 17,000 people, as well as four hospital electricity generators.

The supplies came from the International Organization for Migration, INGO People in Need, the UN Refugee Agency, the UN Children’s Fund and the World Food Programme, the release states.?

“Eastern Ukraine continues to bear the brunt of the intensifying hostilities, with thousands of people cut off from gas and water supplies and residential buildings repeatedly hit by shelling in Sievierodonetsk, preventing people from safely evacuating and severely restricting their access to basic necessities,” the UN said in a statement.?

The items will be delivered to people through the Ukrainian Red Cross, “while deliveries will also be made to vulnerable people who remain in their homes or bunkers around Sievierodonetsk,” the UN said.

The United Nations on Tuesday said that the images of the atrocities carried out in the Ukrainian town of Bucha show “all the signs” that civilians were “directly targeted and directly killed.”??

Addressing a virtual press briefing, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) spokesperson Liz Throssell reiterated the UN’s “horror” at images that emerged showing civilian bodies strewn across the streets of the town located northwest of Kyiv.??

She made particular reference to “disturbing” images of people with their hands tied behind their back and of partially naked women whose bodies have been burnt, saying they “strongly suggest” the direct targeting of individuals.?

“We have been talking about war crimes in the context of shelling, bombardment, and artillery attacks. Now they need to be investigated. But you could argue there was a military context, for example, to a building being hit. It’s hard to see what was the military context of an individual lying in the street with a bullet to the head or having their bodies burned,” Throssell continued.?

As the OHCHR is trying to currently gain access to Bucha, she didn’t have “exact information” to share regarding the situation on the ground.?

“Given the way that our office works, we are not saying that a specific incident is a war crime. We can’t establish that yet. That is why there needs to be detailed forensic examinations, for example,” she added.??

Throssell paid tribute to the “crucial role” that journalists are playing in documenting these scenes, mentioning the “multiple teams” involved in “reporting, analyzing, and sending video footage.”?

Technicians try to fix the internet in Bucha, located on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 5.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the United Nations Security Council, asking the world’s leading powers to hold Russia accountable and provide guarantees to Ukraine.

If you’re just joining us, here’s what you need to know.

Zelensky at the Security Council: The president said he wants full and transparent investigations along with “maximum access for?journalists, maximum cooperation?with international institutions,?involvement of the International?Criminal Court — complete and?full accountability.”

He added, “I’m sure that every member state?of the UN should be interested?in this.?For what??In order to punish once and for?all those who consider?themselves privileged and believe that they can get away?with anything. So, show all the other potential?war criminals in the world how?they will be punished if the?biggest one is punished.”

US pushes UN to expel Russia from the Human Rights Council: Following up on her announcement that she will call for Russia’s expulsion from the UN Human Rights Council, the United States ambassador to the UN made the case in her speech Tuesday.

“Russia should not have a position of authority in a body whose very purpose is to promote respect for human rights. Not only is it the height of hypocrisy, it is dangerous,” Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said addressing the Security Council Tuesday.

“Every day, we see more and more how little Russia respects human rights,” she added. “Russia’s participation on the Human Rights Council hurts the Council’s credibility. It undermines the entire UN. And it is just plain wrong.”

The number of countries expelling Russian diplomats continues to increase: Just on Tuesday, countries such as Italy, Spain, Sweden and others announced they were expelling a number of Russian diplomats.

UN estimates close to 1,500 Ukrainians killed and more than 2,100 injured so far: At least 1,480 civilians have been killed and at least 2,195 have been injured in Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, said Rosemary DiCarlo, the United Nations’ under secretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights believes the actual figures of civilian casualties to be “considerably higher,” she added.

Residents look for belongings in the ruins of an apartment building destroyed during fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces in Borodianka, Ukraine, on April 5.

The Ukrainian town of Borodianka has been completely destroyed by fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces, new videos show.?

CNN has geolocated and verified the authenticity of the videos that were first published on Tuesday.?

On March 1, a Russian airstrike destroyed at least two apartment complexes in Borodianka; it was the first report of damage in the village roughly 30 miles — 50 kilometers — northwest of Kyiv.??

Since then, the town has been the site of intense firefights and military strikes.?Drone footage from March 4 shows the middle of another apartment complex collapsed into a heap of rubble from a military.?Video posted to Chechen leader?Ramzan Kadyrov’s Telegram channel showed his fighters walking the streets of the village around that time.??

CNN previously reported that Russian forces took temporary control of a psychiatric hospital — it held nearly 700 patients — in Borodianka on March 5.??

At the time, regional governor Oleksiy Kuleba said that the village had no water or electricity.?

“There is no?Borodianka — it is almost completely destroyed,” Kuleba said. “The city center is just awful.?Borodianka?is under the influence of Russian troops, they control this settlement.”?

Now that Russian forces have retreated, the full scope of destruction is coming into view.??

“There is already information that the number of victims of the occupiers may be even higher in Borodianka and some other liberated cities,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address on Monday. In many villages of the liberated districts of the Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy regions, the occupiers did things that the locals had not seen even during the Nazi occupation 80 years ago.”?

The complete and total destruction seen in the videos from Borodianka is only comparable to the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol.?

Both videos start near the two apartment complexes that CNN reported were hit on March 1.?Every single building along Lenina Street — the main thoroughfare through the town — has been hit.?

Entire village blocks have been reduced to rubble.?The burnt metal frames of military vehicles are also seen on the side of the debris-littered road.?

A crude sign — it’s just spray-painted sheet metal — reads, “Civilian traffic is prohibited.”??

UN Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said Tuesday that he met with Russian senior officials in Moscow on Monday “in the pursuit of a humanitarian ceasefire” and that he hopes to meet with Ukrainian officials for the same reason on Wednesday.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had previously charged Griffiths on March 28 with meeting with the parties involved to seek arrangements for a humanitarian ceasefire in Ukraine.

Griffiths said he came away from these meetings “believing that we have a long road ahead of us.”

“But it must be traveled, and Madame President, we will travel it,” Griffiths said, addressing the UN Security Council and its current president, UK Ambassador to the UN Barbara Woodward.

Griffiths added that he hopes to travel to Ukraine on Wednesday to have discussions with senior Ukrainian government officials on the same issues.

The United Nations and its partner organizations continue to make “every effort to dramatically increase [their] support to affected civilians,” Griffiths said.

Here’s a summary of the humanitarian aid that has been provided to Ukraine so far, according to the UN:

Gen. Paul Nakasone, head of Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, on April 5 during a Senate Armed Services hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington.

US Cyber Command has “stepped up” its efforts to help defend Ukraine from hacking threats since Russia’s invasion in late February, the command’s leader told lawmakers Tuesday in some of the most detailed comments yet on US military cyber assistance to Ukraine.?

The command at the end of last year sent “hunt forward teams” — or cyber specialists trained to analyze malicious cyber activity — to Ukraine for over two months to help Kyiv prepare for potential Russian cyberattacks, Gen. Paul Nakasone, head of Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, told the Senate Armed Services Committee.?

Cyber Command’s support for Ukraine has also included “remote analytic support” and helping defend critical computer networks from outside the country, Nakasone said in prepared testimony.

While there have been an array of Russia-linked hacking incidents against Ukrainian organizations since the war began, there haven’t been the level of destructive hacks against critical infrastructure that some analysts feared.?

One exception was a cyberattack at the onset of the war that knocked out internet service for tens of thousands of satellite modems in Ukraine and elsewhere in Europe. US officials are investigating that incident as a potential state-sponsored Russian hack, CNN previously reported.

Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield addressing the UN Security Council on April 5.

The United States Ambassador to the United Nations made a case for seeking the suspension of Russia from the Human Rights Council — something she and other UN Member states are calling for, which would require a vote in the General Assembly.?

Departing from her prepared remarks, she said she believes, like the Ukrainian president who spoke moments before her, that “this moment requires responsible world powers and global leaders to show some backbone and stand up to Russia’s dangerous and unprovoked threat against Ukraine and the world.”

She has just returned from Moldova and Romania, telling the Security Council “I saw with my own eyes the refugee crisis caused by Russia’s unconscionable war.”?

“We’ve all seen the gruesome photos. Lifeless bodies lying in the streets, apparently summarily executed, their hands tied behind their backs,” she added.

While authorities work to independently confirm the events in the images, she reiterated that the US “has assessed that members of Russian forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine.”

“And even before seeing the images from Bucha, President Zelensky, along with others in the region, were reporting that children were being abducted –and we heard him say that today. Also abducted are mayors, doctors, religious leaders, journalists, and all who dare defy Russia’s aggression,” she said.

She cited what she called credible reports including by Mariupol’s city council that Russia is funneling individuals through so-called “filtration camps” to relocate individuals to Russia.?

“I do not need to spell out what these so-called “filtration?camps” are reminiscent of. It’s chilling and we cannot look away,” she said.?

“Every day, we see more and more how little Russia respects human rights,” she said.?

Since the start of the economic sanctions against Russia, Belgium has blocked 196.4 billion euros (or about $215 billion) worth of transactions and 2.7 billion euros ($3 billion) in Russian assets in the latest figures announced by the Belgian Minister of Finance Vincent Van Peteghem.

In a statement, the Belgian Finance Ministry said the frozen assets belong to 877 people and 62 entities that appear on the European sanctions list, and the blocked transactions are the result of the other restrictions imposed by the European Union on Russia.

Additionally, Belgian customs officials have also searched 23,191 containers in Belgian ports since the sanctions began.

From those searches, “an infringement was observed on 3 containers containing luxury products,” the Ministry said.

Furthermore, “1,000 luxury vehicles” are being held at the Port of Zebrugge waiting for inspection.

“These are shipments from outside the EU and sold to Russian customers. The shipments were already on their way when the sanctions were published,” the statement read.

In a statement, Van Peteghem said: “The financial sanctions against Russia are already having a major impact today,” but cautioned, “it is clearly not enough for the Russian regime to stop the brutal invasion and inhumane war scenes.”

“That is why we should not hesitate and push through with a fifth package of sanctions,” he added.?

He also called on, “all Member States to follow the measures very strictly, just like Belgium.”

At least 1,480 civilians have been killed and at least 2,195 have been injured in Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, said Rosemary DiCarlo, the United Nations’ under secretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs.

Citing updated numbers from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, DiCarlo said OHCHR believes the actual figures of civilian casualties to be “considerably higher.”

She noted that the number of Ukrainian civilians in the conflict has “more than doubled” since she last briefed the Security Council on March 17.?

DiCarlo also noted that medical care and basic services are also being disrupted in Ukraine, with at least 85 attacks on health care facilities recorded as of April 4, according to the World Health Organization. These attacks have resulted in at least 72 deaths and 43 injuries, DiCarlo said.

The UN is also “seriously concerned” about the “arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances of persons who have been vocal against the Russian invasion,” DiCarlo said.

“OHCHR has documented the arbitrary detention and possible enforced disappearance of 22 journalists and civil society members” in Ukraine, as well as 24 local officials who have been detained in regions under Russian control, 13 of whom have been released, DiCarlo said. She added that as of March 30, OHCHR has also recorded seven journalists and media workers killed.

There have been allegations “of conflict-related sexual violence” by both Russian and Ukrainian forces and civil defense militias, DiCarlo continued. “The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine continues to seek to verify all these allegations.”

US Permanent Representative to NATO Julianne Smith said Tuesday that the alliance is gathering evidence to hold Russian President Vladimir Putin and his team accountable for “war crimes” in Ukraine.??

“What we have to do is collect the information we need to hold Putin and his team in Moscow accountable, and you can do that through multiple paths there of course is the ICC path. There’s a United Nations option. There are multiple ways to do that,” she said at a news conference in Brussels.???

Answering a question about how United States will help with the investigation to the alleged war crimes committed by the Russian forces in Ukraine, Smith said, “First and foremost, what we want to do is ensure that we expose the truth and in order to expose the truth and fully understand what is happening on the ground we need to collect as much information as possible.”??

“We are now relying on first-hand accounts from Ukrainian citizens. We are seeing some international organizations, NGOs are starting to collect information as well. Putting together a narrative, trying to put together some sense of what has gone on, as we’ve looked again at these horrific images coming out of Bucha, but, but possibly in other locations as well,” she added.???

Smith cautioned that it is “too soon to say definitively what happened” in Bucha and other cities where alleged war crimes have been committed by Russia, but added that “we’re quite confident that […] we will be able to put together the evidence we need to hold Putin accountable.”??

She said that one of NATO’s strategies to take preventive actions in Ukraine has been to try to get out ahead of Putin’s “strategic choices.”?

“If you call them out on what we believe they might be planning maybe that alters, his calculus, a little bit,” the ambassador added.??

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressing the United Nations Security Council in New York City on April 5.

In his Tuesday address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the United Nations Security Council to provide security guarantees to Ukraine.

“Where is the security that the Security Council needs to guarantee? It’s not there. Although there is a Security Council. So where is the peace? What are those guarantees that the United Nations need to guarantee?” he asked in his speech.

Speaking through a translator, he stressed accountability for Russia “must be inevitable.”

“I would like to remind you of Article 1, Chapter 1 of the UN Charter. What is the purpose of our organization? Its purpose is to maintain peace,” he said. “And now the UN Charter has been violated literally, starting with Article 1. What is the point of all the other articles?”

Calling the Russian actions as “war crimes,” Zelensky said he wants full and transparent investigations. He added:

“So, show all the other potential?war criminals in the world how?they will be punished if the?biggest one is punished,” he urged the UN Security Council.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appears on screens as he addresses the?United?Nations?Security Council via video link during a meeting at the?United?Nations?Headquarters in Manhattan, New York City, on April 5.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for members of the Russian military?and “those who gave them orders” to carry out attacks in Ukraine to be tried for “war crimes.”?

He called for any Russians who have given “criminal?orders” and “carried out them by?killing our people” to be brought before a tribunal, similar to the?Nuremberg trials that occurred after World War II when Nazis were put on trial.?

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that the horrors found in Bucha after Russia’s withdrawal there may also emerge in other cities across Ukraine.?

“Now the world can see what the Russian military did in Bucha while it was under their occupation, but it has yet to see what they have done in other occupied cities,” the president said during his remarks.?

He also demanded accountability, saying Ukraine was suffering the worst war crimes since the end of World War II with Russian troops targeting civilians with artillery and air strikes, creating mass starvation by blockading cities.?

“The massacre in our city Bucha is only one of many examples, unfortunately, of what the occupiers have been doing in our land for the past 41 days.?And there are many more cities, similar places, where the world has yet to learn the full truth,” Zelensky said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appears on a screen as he addresses the?United?Nations?Security Council via video link during a meeting at the?United?Nations?Headquarters in Manhattan, New York City, on April 5.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the UN Security Council that he expects Russians “will blame everyone just?to justify their own actions” in Ukraine.

“They will say that there are?various versions, different?versions, it’s impossible to?establish which ones of those?versions is true,” he said, speaking through a translator, via videoconference.?“They will even say that the?bodies were, of those were?allegedly thrown away and all?the videos are staged, but it is?2022 now.”?

Zelensky said “we have conclusive evidence that?there are satellite images” that show what really happened during the attacks on Bucha, adding, “we can conduct full and?transparent investigations.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressing the United Nations Security Council on April 5.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky opened his remarks to the UN Security Council by addressing what he witnessed in Bucha, saying of the Russians who attacked the Kyiv suburb,?“there is not a single crime?they would not commit there.”

Speaking through a translator, Zelensky said:

He said that the Russians killed civilians in Bucha “just for their pleasure.”?

“They cut off limbs, slashed?their throats, women raped and?killed in front of their?children.?Their tongues were pulled out?only because the aggressor did?not hear what they wanted to?hear from them,” Zelensky added.

He said these actions are no different than “other?terrorists.”?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressing the United Nations Security Council on April 5.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is now addressing the United Nations Security Council.

Earlier today, he spoke about the need for “serious players who are ready to go all the way” when it comes to security guarantees.

“We need serious players who are ready to go all the way. We need a circle of countries who would within 24 hours provide us with any weapons,” Zelensky said.

He also cast doubt on the possibility of meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin after he accused Russia of genocide. Zelensky paid a visit to the Kyiv suburb of?Bucha on Monday, an area where shocking images of civilian bodies strewn on the streets emerged over the weekend. During the visit he said that it was?“very difficult to negotiate” with Russia “when you see what they have done here.”

The road between Kyiv and the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv has reopened, the Chernihiv regional military governor said Tuesday.?

“Yesterday we resumed the route [between Chernihiv and Kyiv], thanks to the Operational Command North, to the military. There is a direct connection between Kyiv and Chernihiv now. We will open a few more routes, as the traffic is very high,” said Viacheslav Chaus, head of the Chernihiv regional administration, in remarks on national television.

Russia’s military announced a pullback from the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions following a meeting last week between Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Istanbul.

The discovery of murdered civilians in areas retaken by the Ukrainian military from the Russians has sparked outcry, particularly after evidence came to light of a massacre in the Kyiv suburb in Bucha. Chaus warned that evidence of possible war crimes would surface in the Chernihiv region.

“A lot of settlements were destroyed in our region. Mostly these are settlements near the city of Chernihiv, where the enemy lived in our houses, and our people were in basements, they were tortured and killed,” he said. “These are in the settlements of Nizhyn and Pryluky districts, the situation there is also critical.”?

Chaus added, “many innocent children were killed. [There were] moral, psychological traumas … The day before yesterday, I was in Yahidne, a village 10 to 15 kilometers (six to nine miles) from Chernihiv. People sat in basements there, they were rarely let out. The children wrote the words of the anthem of Ukraine on the walls at night there … It’s awful.”

Certain supplies, including fuel and seeds, should be regulated by the government, President Vladimir Putin?warned Russia in a televised address. But he blamed it on global shortages?of food and not on western sanctions against Russia.?

Putin said the manure market is already regulated by the government, and it is necessary to control the supply of fuels, seeds and pedigree stock to the country.

“In conditions of external restrictions, a most important issue is the availability of modern equipment and repair parts,” he added.

Western sanctions against Russia were laid because of “mistakes in the economic, energy, and food policies” of developed countries, which led to higher prices and lack of food supplies, Putin claimed.

“Against the background of minimal food supplies in the world, new sanctions are being imposed, the work of enterprises and logistics of fertilizer supplies from Russia and Belarus are being blocked, and our own fertilizer production in the West is falling due to high natural gas prices, which is also, in fact, the result of the activities of our partners in the West,” he said.

“In these current conditions, a shortage of fertilizers on the global market is inevitable,” he said, adding, “Not all countries will be able to buy the necessary amount of fertilizers for the current season, which means that crop yields will also decrease.”

Despite all of these negative factors, Putin claimed Russia has “food self-sufficiency.”

“For the main food groups, our domestic market is fully provided with its own food, its own production, and for some goods, such as sunflower oil, grain, the capacities of domestic enterprises cover the demand in excess and very good export potential for Russia has emerged,” he said.

During a Congressional hearing on Tuesday, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is “the greatest threat to peace and security of Europe and perhaps the world” in his 42 years serving in the US military.

Despite the “horrific assault on the institutions of freedom” that Russia has made through this invasion, Milley said, “It is heartening to see the world rally and say ‘never again’ to the specter of war in Europe.”

“Your military stands ready to do whatever is directed in order to maintain peace and stability on the European continent — a peace that ensures global stability and international order where all nations can prosper in peace,” Milley added.

Milley went on to say the world is “becoming more unstable and the potential for significant international conflict is increasing, not decreasing.”

“We are now facing two global powers: China and Russia, each with significant military capabilities both who intend to fundamentally change the rules based current global order,” Milley said. “We are entering a world that is becoming more unstable and the potential for significant international conflict is increasing, not decreasing.”

Ivan Fedorov, mayor of the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol, said Tuesday that Russian troops had been blocking the delivery of humanitarian supplies and hindering the evacuation of civilians.?

Melitopol is around 60 miles south of Zaporizhzhia, the regional capital, which is under Ukrainian control. Fedorov said the road between Melitopol and Zaporizhzhia in peacetime usually requires a one-hour drive, but navigating Russian checkpoints can take more than five or six hours.

“Due to the fact that the Russian occupiers are blocking the passage of humanitarian goods and are doing everything to ensure that our citizens do not receive aid, now the humanitarian goods can stay [stranded] on the route for two or three days,” he said. “Unfortunately, food and basic necessities did not reach our people because they were immediately confiscated and looted by the Russian occupiers.”

CNN could not immediately verify those claims.?An evacuation convoy heading to the besieged city of Mariupol was turned back by Russian forces, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Tuesday.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks to members of the media, before departing for Brussels from Joint Base Andrews, in Maryland, US, on April 5.

The atrocities Russia has committed during their invasion of Ukraine that the world has now seen from images coming out of Bucha are not the “random act of a rogue unit,” but a “deliberate campaign to kill, to torture, to rape, to commit atrocities,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters before boarding a plane to Brussels on Tuesday morning.?

Blinken is traveling to Brussels to meet with other NATO foreign ministers and G7 foreign ministers.

The images coming from Bucha of mass graves and bodies piled in body bags “reinforces our determination and the determination of countries around the world to make sure one way or another, one day or another, there is accountability for those who committed these acts.”

Blinken said the US is working with other countries to “put the evidence together” to support both Ukraine’s and the UN Human Rights Council’s investigations into whether or not Russia has committed war crimes.

“Horrifically, tragically, what we’re seeing in Bucha and in other places supports that, but in all of these instances, there’s a very important effort to put the evidence together, to compile it, document it, to support the different investigations that are going on. That’s what we’re doing, that’s what others are doing,” Blinken said.

A woman walks near a damaged building in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, in the Donbas region of Ukraine, on April 3.

NATO is expecting Russia to conduct a “very concentrated” attack in the east of Ukraine, with the aim of capturing the entire Donbas region, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday.

“We now see a significant movement of troops away from Kyiv to regroup, re-arm and re-supply, and a shift in focus to the east,” he told reporters in Brussels.?

Pro-Russian separatists already control parts of the Donbas region. Fighting has endured there since 2014, and?Russian?President Vladimir Putin formally recognized the two breakaway regions of Luhansk and Donetsk as independent republics, just before the recent invasion began.?

“So this is a crucial phase of the war,” warned Stoltenberg.

Ukrainian Foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba will join NATO foreign ministers for a summit in Brussels Thursday, in which allies will “discuss what more they can do” as Ukraine “faces this new offensive”, Stoltenberg said.

“Our allies are determined to provide further support to Ukraine, including anti-tank weapons, air defense systems and other equipment.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, center, waits for the start of the weekly College of Commissioners meeting at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on April 5.

The European Commission said Tuesday it is proposing a fifth package of sanctions against Russia which aims to “cut even deeper into the Russian economy,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.?

The proposed measures include an import ban on coal from Russia worth 4 billion euros per year (or about $4.3 billion).

“This will cut another important revenue source for Russia,” von der Leyen said.

The Commission is also proposing a full transaction ban on four key Russian banks, among them VTB, the second largest Russian bank as well as a ban on Russian vessels and Russian-operated vessels from accessing EU ports.

The new package of sanctions also proposes further targeted bans on exports to Russia, worth 10 billion euros (about $10.9 billion), including technology such as quantum computers and advanced semiconductors, but also sensitive machinery and transportation equipment.

“We are working on additional sanctions, including on oil imports, and we are reflecting on some of the ideas presented by the Member States, such as taxes or specific payment channels such as an escrow account,” said the European Commission President.

“It is important to sustain utmost pressure on Putin and the Russian government at this crucial point,” she added.

EU Member States will need to sign off on the Commission’s proposal.

Italian Foreign Minister?Luigi?Di?Maio?speaks during a news conference following talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, Russia, on February 17.

More countries continue to expel Russian diplomats as part of the fallout from Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Here’s a list of countries and the actions they have taken:

Italy has expelled 30 Russian diplomats for “national security” reasons, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio?said in?Berlin on Tuesday.?

The decision “taken in agreement with other European and Atlantic partners” was needed for “reasons related to our national security, in the context of the current crisis resulting from the unjustified aggression against Ukraine by the Russian Federation,”?Di Maio said.?

“Italy is available to act as a guarantor of security and peace in Ukraine and we will do whatever it takes to carry out this work.”

Spain is expelling “about 25 Russian diplomats and embassy staff who represent a threat to the security interests of our country,” Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said Tuesday at news conference in Madrid.?

The expulsions also “come after the terrible actions in recent days in Ukraine, especially in Bucha,” Albares said, in reference to images of Ukrainian civilians killed in that town at close range.?

Spain’s Foreign Ministry press office said those expelled will have a few days to prepare for their departure. The list does not include the Russian ambassador to Spain, the press office added.?

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, appears after the meeting of the Council of Ministers, at La Moncloa, on April 5 in Madrid, Spain.

Sweden has expelled three Russian diplomats?for carrying out intelligence operations in the country?in?breach?of?diplomatic relations, Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said in a news conference in Stockholm on Tuesday, condemning “war crimes committed by Russia” in reference to scenes from Bucha.

She added that Sweden wants “to see a fifth sanction package as soon as possible that goes further when it comes to Russian exports of fossil fuels.”?

Latvia announced Tuesday that it was closing two Russian consulates and expelling staff over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Tuesday.?The Russian ambassador to Latvia was told that the consulates in the Latvian cities of Daugavpils and Liepāja must close and their staff leave the country by the end of the month, the foreign ministry added.

“The decision was taken in solidarity with Ukraine in its fight against the unprovoked and unjustified military aggression and war started by Russia,” a ministry statement read.

Estonia?has said?it will shut down both Russian consulates in the country and expel 14 staff in light of the atrocities revealed to have been committed by Russian forces against Ukrainian civilians.?

Seven of the employees have diplomatic status, according to a statement from Estonia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The former Soviet state is the latest European country to participate in Tuesday’s mass expulsion of Russian diplomats.?

Consulates in Narva and Tartu will close and staff have until April 30 to leave, the Russian ambassador was told, according to the Estonian Foreign Ministry. Russia still has an embassy operating in Estonia’s capital city of Tallinn.?

Several European countries – including France, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands – also decided to expel Russian diplomats. Denmark said Tuesday it has expelled 15 alleged Russian intelligence officers it claims were working undercover as diplomats.

Russia’s response: Russia on Tuesday warned the European Union of “adequate reciprocal measures” after the bloc designated 19 Russian diplomats to the European Union as “persona non grata” over its invasion of Ukraine, the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the EU said in a statement.??

“This openly unfriendly — moreover, hostile and, most importantly, completely groundless step continues the European Union’s policy of dismantling the partnership between Russia and the EU, which until recently both sides proudly called strategic,” the statement said.??

The expulsion of Russian diplomats is a “short-sighted step” that will “inevitably lead to retaliatory steps,” the Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on a regular conference call on Tuesday.

CNN’s Li Lian Ahlskog Hou, Benjamin Brown, Amy Cassidy and Al Goodman contributed reporting to this post.

NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg speaks during a press conference at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on April 5.

NATO’s chief has?called out China for being “unwilling to condemn Russia’s aggression,”?accusing it of “joining Moscow in questioning the right of nations to choose their own path.”

Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg?was addressing reporters in Brussels ahead of a summit of NATO foreign ministers plus Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, which will take place on Wednesday.?

Before the invasion of Ukraine began, allies China and Russia proclaimed their friendship had “no limits.” But Beijing has since been quietly distancing itself from Russia’s sanction-hit economy.?

While refusing to condemn Russia’s attack on Ukraine, China?has?repeatedly denounced?sanctions against Moscow?as an ineffective way of resolving the crisis.

Families arrive at the main train station as they flee the eastern city of Kramatorsk, in the Donbas region of Ukraine, on April 3.

More than 7.1 million people are internally displaced in Ukraine, having been forced to flee their homes,?according to the latest International Organization for Migration (IOM) report.

It reports a 10% increase in the number of internally displaced people since the IOM’s first survey on March 16.

“Humanitarian corridors are urgently needed to allow the safe evacuation of civilians and ensure the safe transportation and delivery of much-needed humanitarian aid in order to rapidly assist those internally displaced,” IOM Director General António Vitorino said.

More than 50% of displaced households have children, 57% include elderly members and 30% have people with chronic illnesses, according to the survey. More than one-third of displaced households indicated that they have had no income in the last month, the IOM said.

With more than 4.2 million people refugees having left Ukraine for neighboring countries, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, a total of at least 11.3 million people have been displaced since the Russian invasion began in late February.

Following US President Joe Biden’s calls for a war crimes trial against?Russian President Vladimir Putin,?the Kremlin said personal insults are “unacceptable and disgraceful.”

Biden?has accused Putin?of war crimes?for atrocities allegedly committed by Russian forces in the Ukrainian town of Bucha.?

“Personal insults against the President of Russia continue, this is bad. We consider this unacceptable and disgraceful of the US President,” the Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a regular conference call.

Austria’s Chancellor Karl Nehammer will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraine in the coming days, his office said Tuesday.

Nehammer spoke to Zelensky on Monday evening, a spokesperson added.

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer gives a press statement on the current situation in Ukraine after a meeting of the crisis cabinet in Vienna, Austria, on February 22.

Austria aims to continue to offer “the best possible humanitarian and political support” to Ukraine, a statement by the Austrian Chancellery said, adding that Vienna had already provided funding and equipment to Ukraine and will provide further help soon.

Nehammer’s office said it would be making no further details of the trip public for security reasons.

European finance ministers will meet in Luxembourg on Tuesday to discuss imposing further sanctions on Russia following reports of alleged war crimes in Bucha.

“We have new images from satellites on what is happening, what was happening in Bucha. And we have to react,” Paolo Gentiloni, European Commissioner for the Economy, said Tuesday. He reiterated that “nothing is off the table.”

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said that oil and coal sanctions “are a possibility.”

Le Maire said he was not sure what the position of the 27 member states will be, but said he thinks there is “total determination” of all the member states to “enforce sanctions.”

French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire give a joint press statement in Berlin, Germany, on March 31.

Lithuanian Finance Minister Gintare Skaiste also called for taking the sanctions to the next level by cutting Russia from its main revenues resources – its energy sector.

“I think we should cut buying from Russia, oil, gas and coal. And Lithuania is the first country in the European Union to say goodbye to Russian gas,” Skaiste?said.

Skaiste added that in refusing to buy gas from Russia her country had set “a good example” to other European countries.

She added that closing ports and roads for Russian goods and cutting Gazprombank from SWIFT should also be considered.

Gazprombank is used by foreign buyers to pay for Russian gas purchases.

The EU is expected to announce further sanctions on Russia as early as this week and working on it as a “matter of urgency.” The bloc could strengthen existing sanctions or move forward with cutting off some Russian energy exports.

Germany’s Finance Minister Christian Lindner said Monday that cutting off gas supplies was not possible right now. “We need some time and so we have to differentiate between oil, coal and gas at the moment,” he added.

Residents in the eastern Ukrainian town of Rubizhne have been told to stay indoors after a Russian strike hit a tank of nitric acid, causing a cloud of toxic smoke to cover the area.

It is unclear how much acid was in the tank but the substance is “quite toxic,” the head of the Luhansk regional military administration, Serhiy Haidai, warned on Tuesday.

People have been told to stay indoors or wear a face mask dipped in sodium solution and watch the direction of the wind.

It comes as the Russian military said it is?shifting its focus?to the eastern Donbas region following a withdrawal of forces from around Kyiv and northern Ukraine.

Denmark's Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod speaks to press members ahead of EU General Affairs Council meeting in Brussels, Belgium, on January 25.

Denmark has expelled 15 alleged Russian intelligence officers it claims were working undercover as diplomats, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Tuesday.

Russia’s ambassador to Denmark was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Copenhagen, where the government relayed its “strong condemnation of Russia’s brutality against Ukrainian civilians in Bucha” and “emphasized that deliberate attacks against civilians are a war crime,” it said. They have been given 14 days to leave the country.

The Russian Embassy in Denmark responded by saying “no evidence” was offered to the ambassador to prove the diplomats were spies.

“All employees of Russian foreign institutions in Denmark strictly follow the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations in their activities,” the Russian?Embassy said in a statement.?

“This step of the Danish side has no grounds and is aimed at further destruction of relations between our countries. It is not going to remain unanswered.”

Denmark’s move follows the expulsion of Russian intelligence officers from several other European countries, including France, Germany and the Netherlands in response to the war in Ukraine.?

However, Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said in parliament that Denmark?does not want to break diplomatic relations with Moscow and clarified that the expulsion does not include the Russian ambassador or the rest of the embassy staff in Copenhagen.?

“It is only a matter of expelling intelligence officers,” he said?in response to dramatic changes in the?European security picture in recent weeks.?

Lawyer of the human rights group 'Memorial' Ilya Novikov, center, speaks to the media after Moscow City Court ordered the closure of a branch of the Memorial group, in Moscow, Russia, on December 29.

The Memorial Human Rights Center, one of Russia’s most prominent and storied human rights organizations, announced its closure Tuesday in a statement published online.

Russia’s Supreme Court ordered the closure of Memorial last December as part of a campaign of legal and administrative attacks on the country’s civil society and human rights organizations.

“Today, on April 5, 2022, the Memorial Human Rights Center will be liquidated,” the official statement reads, warning that “a return to the totalitarian past is possible, it is happening now, in front of the whole world.”

Memorial, one of the country’s oldest human-rights organizations, monitors political repressions in modern Russia and has documented the crimes of totalitarian rule in the Soviet Union.

The Office of the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights, among other human rights watch groups, condemned the court’s decision to shut down the center.

Some context: Human rights groups and advocates for democracy have come under increasing attack in Russia in recent years.

Thousands of protesters were detained last year for taking part in several demonstrations supporting Alexey Navalny, the country’s best-known political opponent of Putin.

Demonstrations during the first few months of 2021 were met with a strong crackdown by police, including widespread arrests and an allegedly disproportionate use of force.

Several rights groups – including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International – wrote in an open letter published in early December: “Memorial is at the very heart of Russia’s civil society, and by targeting it, authorities are hoping to destroy Russia’s civil society at large.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is due to address the United Nations Security Council at 10 a.m. ET on Tuesday after warning that worse atrocities may emerge amid the ongoing retreat of Russian forces around Kyiv.

World leaders have continued to condemn civilian deaths as Ukrainian forces liberate more cities and expose the true horrors of the war.

Here are the latest developments on the war in Ukraine:

Red Cross workers released: Aid workers from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), who were initially detained in Russian-held territory while attempting to evacuate desperate residents of Mariupol, have been released, according to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.?An evacuation convoy of seven buses accompanied by the ICRC was held in Manhush, a Russian-held town to the west of Mariupol, on Monday but were released later that night.

“Difficult” situation in Luhansk region: The situation in the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine is “difficult” amidst heavy Russian bombardment, according to Serhiy Haidai, chair of the Luhansk regional military administration. It comes as the Russian military said it is shifting its focus to the eastern Donbas region following a withdrawal of forces from around Kyiv and northern Ukraine.

Zelensky on Russia negotiations: Ukrainian leader Zelensky has cast doubt on the possibility of meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin after he accused Russia of genocide. Zelensky paid a visit to the Kyiv suburb of?Bucha on Monday, an area where shocking images of civilian bodies strewn on the streets emerged over the weekend. A meeting could happen if Russia were to “bear all the punishments” of committing genocide, Zelensky said.

Satellite images undermine?Russia’s claims: New satellite images from Maxar Technologies?show the bodies of dead civilians in Bucha had been laying in the street for weeks, including when the town was under Russian control. Moscow claimed footage from Bucha was “fake” but the new pictures show objects on Yablunska street match the exact locations where bodies are seen in the street in the video.

CNN team witnesses removal of bodies: Ukrainian officials have shown international media the removal of five bodies from a basement in Bucha. A CNN team visited the basement before the removal and saw the bodies, which were in an advanced stage of decomposition. Five men had been tortured and executed by Russian soldiers, an adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister, Anton Gerashchenko, told CNN on the ground. CNN cannot independently verify Gerashchenko’s claims.

A civilian ship in the port of Mariupol is on fire and sinking after being hit by Russian troops, according to Ukraine’s Ministry of Interior.

The ship, under a Dominican Republic flag, was berthed in the port when it was hit by shells during an ongoing attack on the besieged southern Ukrainian city, the ministry said in a statement Tuesday on its Telegram channel.

A fire broke out in the engine room before spreading and at least one crew member is known to have been injured, the statement said.

Maritime border guards were able to evacuate some crew to safety but say it is it impossible to continue the rescue operation due to “constant shelling.”

According to the ministry, the captain sent a distress signal using the international maritime safety channel when it came under fire.?

“Warning! Warning! The ship under the flag of the Dominican Republic was brutally destroyed, everything was destroyed, the captain’s bridge was destroyed. Fire in engine room. There are wounded on board,” the captain reportedly said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks on Ukrainian TV channel 1+1 on April 5.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has cast doubt on the possibility of meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin after he accused Russia of genocide.

“It might happen that there will be no negotiations,”?Zelensky said on Ukrainian state TV on Tuesday.?

Zelensky said it would be understandable to not speak to Putin after accusing Russian troops of carrying out war crimes in Ukraine. “It would be easy to say I’m not going to talk to you – and it would be understandable, after what you have done, that’s why.”

A meeting could happen if Russia were to “bear all the punishments” of committing genocide, he said.

Zelensky paid a visit to the Kyiv suburb of?Bucha on Monday, an area where shocking images of civilian bodies strewn on the streets emerged over the weekend. During the visit he said that it was?“very difficult to negotiate” with Russia “when you see what they have done here.”

German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier, left, shakes hands with Russian president Vladimir Putin ahead of a joint press conference following their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on 25 October 2017.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, long an advocate of Western rapprochement with Russia, expressed regret for his earlier stance, saying his years of support for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline had been a clear mistake.

Steinmeier, a Social Democrat who served as Foreign Minister under Chancellor Angela Merkel before being elevated to the presidency, said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine meant he and others had to reckon honestly with what they had got wrong.

Steinmeier was a prominent member of a wing of his Social Democratic Party, led by former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, that argued close economic ties to Russia were a way of anchoring it within a Western-oriented global system.

The now-canceled Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which critics said would have weakened Ukraine by cutting it out of the energy transit business, was a centerpiece of that strategy.

When Steinmeier arranged a “solidarity concert” for Ukraine, Melnyk tweeted sarcastically that the only soloists appeared to be Russian. “An affront,” he wrote. “Sorry, I’m not coming.”

Germany’s president is meant to be a unifying figure who stands above the cut and thrust of daily politics, one who enjoys the moral authority to exhort people to better behavior.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks during a press conference after a virtual summit with China's President in Brussels, Belgium, on April 1.

Top European Union diplomats will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv this week, according to the chief spokesperson of the European Commission.

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the EU’s foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, will meet Zelensky “prior to the pledging event ‘Stand Up For Ukraine’ on Saturday in Warsaw,” spokesman Eric Mamer said.

Last week, the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, traveled to meet with Zelensky and addressed a special session of the Ukrainian parliament.

Her visit was welcomed by the Ukrainian leader who, in a speech posted to social media, called it an “important moment” for the country.?

Last month, the Prime Ministers of Poland, Czech Republic and Slovenia journeyed to Kyiv.

The Russian military has claimed it carried out long-range strikes with sea-launched missiles on what it described as a training center for Ukrainian special operations forces in southern Ukraine.

CNN could not immediately verify that claim. The Russian military describes foreigners who have volunteered to fight for Ukraine as “mercenaries.”

Konashenkov added that Russian forces air-launched precision missiles targeting fuel storage facilities in four locations: In Kremenets, Cherkasy, Zaporizhzhia and Novomoskovsk.

Russian forces have targeted fuel supply and storage facilities around Ukraine since the invasion.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in his office in

Ukraine needs “serious players who are ready to go all the way” when it comes to security guarantees, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Speaking to journalists on Ukrainian state TV Tuesday, Zelensky said Ukraine has not yet received “a specific list of these countries that are prepared to 100% stand up for us.”

He said Ukraine is currently discussing security guarantees with countries including France, US, Germany, Turkey, Britain and Poland.

These countries need to be states “who have real influence over the sanctions policy” and who are prepared to mobilize “as soon as we hear any threats from the Russian Federation,” he added.

On the topic of NATO membership, Zelensky said that even if Russia “sets it as a condition” that Ukraine does not join the alliance, the country has “given away too many lives not to be frank.”

Graves with bodies of civilians next to apartments blocks in Bucha, Ukraine, on April 4.

South Korea’s Foreign Affairs Ministry has expressed concern over the alleged massacre of civilians in Ukraine.

The discovery of civilian bodies strewn across streets as well as a mass grave in Bucha, outside Kyiv, has stirred international outrage.

The ministry also said it supports UN Secretary General António?Guterres’ earlier statement which called for an independent investigation on the killing of civilians in Bucha.

Local residents gather outside a damaged apartment building in the southern port city of?Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 4.

Aid workers from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) were detained in Russian-held territory while attempting to evacuate desperate residents of Mariupol, a spokesperson told CNN Tuesday.

An evacuation convoy of seven buses accompanied by the ICRC was held up Monday in Manhush, a Russian-held town to the west of Mariupol, according to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.?

Vereshchuk?announced the ICRC team’s release in a statement posted to Telegram earlier on Tuesday, remarking that “despite the promises of their leadership, the [Russian] occupying forces do not allow anyone to go to Mariupol.”

“The occupiers blocked representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Manhush. They were released last night after negotiations and sent to Zaporizhzhia,” Vereshchuk added.

The ICRC said it remains “focused” on efforts to evacuate people in the besieged city of Mariupol.

The ICRC delegation set off on its journey from Zaporizhzhia to Mariupol last Saturday, an ICRC press officer told CNN.

Vereshchuk said a total of seven humanitarian corridors are planned for Tuesday around Ukraine, and that a convoy of seven buses was on its way from Manhush to nearby Berdiansk, accompanied by the ICRC.

Some context: Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko said Monday his city was “on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe,” with more than 100,000 people still requiring evacuation.

Boichenko said no evacuation buses had yet reached Mariupol, despite agreements between Russia and Ukraine to open humanitarian corridors. Some residents, he said, had managed to reach the nearby Russian-held city of Berdiansk in private cars, but added that the route was “very difficult and intermittent.

The situation in the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine is “difficult” amidst heavy Russian bombardment, according to Serhii Haidai, chair of the Luhansk regional military administration.

Some context: The Russian military has said it is focusing its efforts on the eastern Donbas region following a withdrawal of forces from around Kyiv and northern Ukraine.

Haidai said last week attempts had been underway to evacuate civilians from small towns in his region, even without such agreements with the Russian side.

People take part in a fundraising demonstration to support Ukraine in Tokyo's Shinjuku district on March 26.

The Japanese government will provide an additional $100 million of humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and neighboring countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Tuesday.

The funds will be used to support medical and food assistance efforts, the ministry said in a statement, as well as for those displaced and in other countries such as Poland, Moldova and Romania.

This will bring the total amount of aid provided to $200 million since the first package was announced on March 11, the ministry said.

Some of the nine international and Japanese organizations that have received funds include the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), according to the ministry.

Ukrainian servicemen walk down a destroyed street in Bucha, Ukraine, on April 4.

As Ukrainian forces reclaimed the areas around Kyiv, the horrors of what life was like for residents while under Russian occupation soon came to light.

The discovery of civilian bodies strewn across streets as well as a mass grave in the northwest suburb of Bucha has stirred international outrage, with many Western leaders calling for war crimes investigations and increasing sanctions on Russia.

Here are the latest developments:

When the war criminal is a world leader, how do you negotiate with him?

The mounting evidence of Russian atrocities – over the weekend, it was in the town of Bucha outside Kyiv — led US President Joe Biden to say Monday that Vladimir Putin must be put on trial.

“We have to get all the details so this can be an actual — have a war crime trial,” Biden told reporters in Washington. “This guy is brutal and what’s happening in Bucha is outrageous and everyone’s seen it.”

That truth is complicated by the hard fact that this war is most likely to end through negotiations with Putin, whose hold on power in Russia seems absolute.

When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky toured the wreckage in Bucha, he noted the obvious.

“It’s very difficult to negotiate when you see what they have done here,” Zelensky said.

Read the full analysis here:

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives to attend his annual news conference in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Dec. 23, 2021.

Related article Analysis: Ukraine's dilemma: How to negotiate with someone who could be a war criminal

Western outrage, new sanctions, and promised state-of-the-art weapons came too late to save the man found shot dead next to his bike on a grassy bank outside Kyiv.

The man was pictured in a weekend of?horrific imagery from Ukraine.

He was one of many blameless civilians whose destiny randomly collided with?President Vladimir Putin’s barbaric invasion. Scenes being revealed as Russian troops pull back from Kyiv are causing searing flashbacks to atrocities last visited on Ukrainians by the Nazis in World War II.

This is one snapshot of the bloody price Ukrainian civilians are paying for Putin’s obsession with Russia’s Cold War humiliation, and it encapsulates how global responses to crimes against humanity – short of military action – struggle to keep pace with a vicious on-the-ground war.

The sense of revulsion about what is happening in Ukraine produced new momentum to hold Russia accountable on Monday.

But the awful tragedy being revealed in Ukraine is that all of the measures the West is prepared to contemplate to punish Moscow and impact the long-term course of the war cannot do much to save civilians being targeted now.

Read the full analysis:

President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin seen after the negotiations of leaders of states in Normandy format in Minsk (Photo by Mykhaylo Palinchak / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)

Related article Analysis: The West is running out of ways to punish Putin

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the number of civilian casualties may be much higher in other cities liberated from Russian control as an increasing number of leaders — including US President Joe Biden — say atrocities?allegedly committed by Russian forces?in Bucha are a “war crime.”?

Here are the latest developments on the war in Ukraine:

Satellite images show the bodies have been on the street in southern Bucha, since at least March 18.

New satellite images from Maxar Technologies show the bodies of dead civilians in Bucha had been laying in the street for weeks, including when the town was under Russian control.

The New York Times first published the images on Monday.

Disturbing video showing the bodies in Bucha was geolocated, authenticated and reported on by CNN on Friday.?It came to light the same day Ukraine declared the town liberated from Russian troops.

Objects seen in the street on the satellite images match the exact locations that bodies are seen in the street in the video.

In response to the footage of Bucha on Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed the video was “fake” and “staged.” It said the video, photos, and the allegations of war crimes were “another provocation.”

But the satellite images refute that claim from the Russians: Objects seen in Yablunska street on the satellite images match the exact locations that bodies are seen in the street in the video.?The satellite images show the bodies were on the street in southern Bucha since at least March 18, when Russia was in control of the town. Russia held Bucha until March 31.

CNN has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.

The number of civilian casualties may be much higher in Borodyanka and other liberated Ukrainian cities than?Bucha, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address on Monday.?

In Bucha, Zelensky said there were?more than 300 people killed,?but that the total number of casualties will likely increase as the whole city is checked.??

Zelensky underscored the importance of journalists documenting the aftermath in liberated Ukrainian cities.?

“We provide maximum access for journalists to Bucha and other liberated cities of Ukraine. For hundreds of journalists from around the world. And we are interested in having thousands of journalists there. As many as possible! For the world to see what Russia has done,” he said.?

Zelensky cautioned that Russia will try to cover up the traces of violence committed in Bucha and other cities.?

“They are trying to distort the facts. But, as then, they will not succeed. They will not be able to deceive the whole world,” Zelensky said.?

Zelensky repeated his plea to be sent more weapons to fight Russian forces.

“I emphasize once again: Ukraine must get all the necessary weapons to drive the occupiers out of our land as soon as possible, to liberate our cities. And if we had already got what we needed - all these planes, tanks, artillery, anti-missile and anti-ship weapons, we could have saved thousands of people,” he said.?

Bodies found in the town of Bucha were gathered to be buried on Monday.

Ukrainian officials showed international media the removal of five bodies from a basement in Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv recently retaken by Ukrainian forces.

A CNN team visited the basement and saw the bodies before removal. They were in advanced stage of decomposition.

Five men had been tortured and executed by Russian soldiers, an adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister, Anton Gerashchenko, told CNN on the ground. CNN cannot independently verify Gerashchenko’s claims.

The men were found in an area held by the Russian military until a few days ago. Several?foxholes, trenches and positions for armored vehicles were still visible?around the site, as were leftover Russian rations.?Several “V” letters — informal symbols for the Russian military campaign — were also painted at the entrance to the territory.?

The?dead?men had their?hands tied behind their backs and most of them?had several gunshot wounds, not just to the head, but also to the lower limbs. There were several cartridge casings on the floor next to the bodies.?

Volunteers removed the bodies and placed them in body bags, which were later taken away.??

A volunteer told CNN they have been recovering bodies in large numbers, saying, “it’s in the hundreds, not dozens.”?The volunteer and his unit showed CNN the body bags of at least 30 people who had been recovered on Sunday,?plus an additional nine?on Monday, including the five found in the basement.??

That unit is one of several?operating in the outskirts of Kyiv.

President Joe Biden on Monday said the atrocities?allegedly committed by Russian forces?in Bucha, Ukraine, are a “war crime” and called for a trial to take place against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The US President did not, however, label the killings a “genocide” but said he was looking into additional sanctions against Russia.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said later Monday that the US hasn’t yet seen evidence of “systematic” killings that would warrant designating what’s underway in Ukraine a genocide.

“Based on what we have seen so far — we have seen atrocities. We have seen war crimes. We have not seen a level of systemic deprivation of life of the Ukrainian people to rise to the level of genocide,” Sullivan said during a White House press briefing.

But the images from Bucha, Sullivan said, underscore that “now is not the time for complacency,” stressing the importance of ongoing US support for Ukraine. He said the administration is “working around the clock” to fulfill security assistance requests from Ukraine, detailing the US and allied response so far and hinting at forthcoming “additional military assistance in the coming days.”

Read more:

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks with members of the media after arriving at Fort Lesley J. McNair in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, April 4, 2022.

Related article Biden calls for war crimes trial after Bucha images surface

A CNN team at a crossroads just south of Mykolaiv, near the town of Oleksandrivka, was just meters away from incoming artillery rounds on Monday, leaving their vehicle destroyed.

The team managed to leave moments later, experiencing what regular Ukrainians are living daily during this war.

CNN’s Senior International Correspondent Ben Wedeman, producer Kareem Khadder, photojournalist John Torigoe,?translator Valeriia Dubrovska?and their team had stopped at the crossroads to speak with a few Ukrainian soldiers who were behind a berm. As Wedeman was filming a standup wearing full body armor, they witnessed a “very large incoming round impact uncomfortably nearby and took cover.” The impact was about 150 meters away from their location.?

The team hit the ground as another round came in.??

The team ran to their other vehicle, which also had damage due to shrapnel, got in and drove off.??

None of the CNN team was injured.

Russia’s bombardment of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine near the Black Sea continued on Monday as it has for weeks, with strikes through the morning and afternoon there.??

Last Tuesday, more than 31 were killed following a Russian strike on the office of the regional military governor of Mykolaiv.