Zelenskyy warns Moscow of wanting to ‘invade other countries’ as another apparent mass grave is found
Mayor says Bucha death toll accounts for a third of casualties in Kyiv . region
The city’s mayor said the number of bodies discovered in Bucha accounts for a third of all deaths in the Kyiv region since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
“The number that we have today is 412,” Anatoliy Fedoruk said in a statement posted on his Facebook page and translated by NBC News. “This means that every third victim in the Kyiv region is from Bucha,” he added.
Fedoruk said that investigators discovered another mass grave near a church in the city. He added that 117 bodies including 30 women and two children had been found.
“There are occupiers killing, shooting and torturing, there are charred bodies of civilians,” Fedoruk wrote, adding that authorities are helping residents identify bodies and bury them. their relatives.
NBC News has not been able to verify this claim, and Russia has repeatedly denied its forces are targeting civilians.
Humanitarian corridor from Mariupol will open on Saturday, says Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine
A humanitarian corridor is planned for civilians to evacuate from the besieged city of Mariupol on Saturday, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister said on Saturday.
“Today we are again trying to evacuate women, children and the elderly,” Iryna Vereshchuk said in a message on her Telegram channel translated by NBC News.
The governor of the region said the Ukrainian army had driven the Russian forces out of Kharkiv
The regional governor said on Saturday the regional governor said Ukrainian troops in Kharkiv had launched a successful counterattack on Russian forces, driving them out of four areas in and around the city.
“There have been fierce battles,” Oleh Syniehubov said in a video posted to his Telegram channel and translated by NBC News. “Our units drove the Russians out of the settlements: Bezruki, Slatino, Prudyanka, towards Dergachiv, and secured their positions!”
He added that Russian troops continued to fire on civilian infrastructure in the city and its surrounding areas on Friday. He said two people died and 19 were injured.
NBC News was unable to verify his claims.
Syniehubov also warned that gatherings at night are not allowed to celebrate Orthodox Easter Sunday.
“We can’t allow crowds, security comes first,” he said.
‘Our happy life stopped’: Families recount the first hours of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
Bucha residents work to find and bury their dead amid recent atrocities
BUCHA, Ukraine – After hiding for weeks in the basement of her apartment complex in this community, just outside Kyiv with her mother and son, 45-year-old Inna Leschenko, ran outside on March 19. to find clean water. She never comes home.
Leschenko was killed after being hit by shrapnel when Russian forces shelled the area. Her family waited until it was safe and then removed her body from the yard hundreds of feet away. They then buried her there in a small grassy island with a sidewalk.
When Ukrainian forces liberated the city, the police exhumed Leschenko and put her in the morgue. On Friday, her mother Mariya Kovalenko, 66, identified her remains and finally laid her in bed about a month after her death.
Kovalenko sobbed as she clutched a photo of Leschenko that she kept in a plastic shopping bag to protect it from Friday’s heavy drizzle. There was at least some consolation in knowing that she would be able to bury her daughter properly.
“I got here three days ago, and we found her,” she said.
Ukraine counterattack hinders Russia’s progress, UK says
The UK Ministry of Defense says Russia has not made big gains in the past 24 hours due to Ukraine’s counterattacks.
Ukraine’s air and sea defenses have reduced Russia’s ability to gain control over either region, the ministry said in an update Saturday morning.
The ministry said its resistance had also slowed Russia’s efforts to capture the port city of Mariupol entirely.
Despite their declared conquest of Mariupol, fierce fighting continued to frustrate Russian efforts to capture the city, thereby delaying their desired progress, the ministry stated. in the Donbass”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared “success” on Mariupol, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy insisted that Russia did not control the city.
Defense officials, military leaders from more than 20 countries will convene Ukraine defense talks
The Pentagon said US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will convene a meeting in Germany next week with defense officials and military leaders from more than 20 countries to discuss immediate defense needs and Ukraine’s permanent.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Friday that about 40 countries, including NATO members, have been invited and that responses are ongoing for the session to be held on Tuesday at Ramstein Air Force Base. He did not identify the countries that had agreed to attend but said more details would be provided in the coming days.
The meeting comes as Russia prepares for what is believed to be a major offensive in eastern Ukraine.
Kirby said the agenda will include an updated assessment of the Ukraine battlefield as well as a discussion of efforts to continue to maintain a steady flow of weapons and other military aid. It will include consultations on Ukraine’s defense needs after the war but is not expected to consider changes in the US military posture in Europe, he said.
Russia says 1 dead, 27 missing, nearly 400 rescued after shipwreck
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Friday that one serviceman was killed, 27 were missing and 396 were rescued after a fire on the top missile cruiser Moscow last week.
The statement was made a week after the ship sank.
Immediately after the incident, the ministry said the entire crew of the ship, believed by the media to be around 500 people, had been rescued. The ministry did not provide an explanation for the conflicting reports.
Ukraine said it hit the cruiser with a missile attack.
at Blogtuan.info – Source: nbcnews.com – Read the original article here
