NEW YORK (1010 WINS/AP) -- Russian troops massacred civilians during their retreat from Kyiv. Seven evacuation corridors attempted to shuttle people out of the most intense conflict areas including the long-besieged port city of Mariupol that was facing a starvation crisis. Relief efforts for the embattled city stalled on Friday after the Red Cross was unable to reach civilians due to ongoing fighting, but slowly picked up Saturday. Shelling continued in the suburbs of Kyiv, though Russian forces have largely been pushed back to northern and eastern border regions. Meanwhile, peace talks continue via video conference.
Sunday, April 3, 2022
7:39 - p.m. Lithuania became the first member state of the European Union to cut off all gas imports from Russia
Lithuania says it has cut itself off entirely of gas imports from Russia, apparently becoming the first of the European Union’s 27 nations using Russian gas to break its energy dependence upon Moscow.
“Seeking full energy independence from Russian gas, in response to Russia’s energy blackmail in Europe and the war in Ukraine, Lithuania has completely abandoned Russian gas,” Lithuania’s energy ministry said in a statement late Saturday, adding that the measure took effect in the beginning of April.
Lithuania managed to reduce imports of Russian gas to zero on Saturday, a move seen a milestone in achieving energy independence in the former Soviet republic of 2.8 million, the ministry said.
“We are the first EU country among Gazprom’s supply countries to gain independence from Russian gas supplies, and this is the result of a multi-year coherent energy policy and timely infrastructure decisions,” Minister of Energy Dainius Kreivys said.
In 2015, nearly 100% of Lithuania’s gas supplies derived from imports of Russian gas but the situation has changed drastically over the past years after the country built an off-shore LNG import terminal, launched in 2014, in the port city of Klaipeda.
The energy ministry said from now on all gas for Lithuania’s domestic consumption would be imported via Klaipeda’s LNG terminal.
4:06 p.m. - Ukraine says authorities have found the bodies of 410 civilians massacred by Russian forces as they retreated from Kyiv
Ukraine’s prosecutor-general says the bodies of 410 civilians have been removed from Kyiv-area towns that were recently retaken from Russian forces.
Iryna Venediktova, Ukraine’s prosecutor-general, says on Facebook that the bodies were removed on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. She says 140 of them have undergone examination by prosecutors and other specialists.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk says Sunday that the mayor of the village of Motyzhyn, in the Kyiv region, was murdered while being held by Russian forces. Vereshchuk added that there are 11 mayors and community heads in Russian captivity across Ukraine.
In a video address on Sunday, Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced the allegedly targeted killings of civilians in towns the Russians occupied and called them “freaks who do not know how to do otherwise.” He warned that more atrocities may be revealed if Russian forces are driven out of other occupied areas.
International leaders have condemned the reported attacks on the Kyiv-area towns after harrowing accounts from civilians and graphic images of bodies with hands tied behind their backs.
2:23 p.m. - US secretary of state and NATO secretary general both respond to reports of Russian troopers massacring of civilians on the outskirts of Kyiv
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview with CNN that the United States believes Russia has committed war crimes and is working to "make sure that the relevant institutions and organizations that are looking at this."
"We believe that Russian forces have committed war crimes," said Blinken on Sunday. We've been working to document that, to provide the information we have to the relevant instructions and organizations that will put all of this together. And there needs to be accountability for it."
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says the graphic images coming out of Bucha, Ukraine, after Russian troops withdrew show “a brutality against civilians we haven’t seen in Europe for decades.”
He tells CNN’s “State of the Union” that “it’s absolutely unacceptable that civilians are targeted and killed” and that it’s Russian President Vladimir Putin’s responsibility to stop the war.
Stoltenberg says it’s “extremely important” that the International Criminal Court has opened an investigation into potential war crimes in Ukraine and that those responsible are held to account.
His comments echoed those by other European leaders, who condemned alleged war crimes and civilian killings by Russian forces in Ukrainian towns including Bucha near Kyiv, the capital.
12:27 p.m. - Russian troops massacred civilians during their retreat from Kyiv, according to reports from Ukraine, Agence France-Presse, AP and CNN.
Ukrainian officials said Sunday that scores of killed civilians have been found on the streets of Kyiv’s suburbs of Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel after the withdrawal of Russian troops. They said that some of the victims were shot in the head and had their hands bound.
Photo evidence of the massacre in Bucha was captured by Agence France-Presse on Saturday, the same day Ukraine declared the town liberated from Russian troops.
Other international journalists later confirmed and documented further evidence of the alleged atrocities.
Ukraine’s top diplomat has called for tougher sanctions on Russia over growing evidence of what he called a massacre of civilians in the suburbs of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted Sunday that the killings were “deliberate,” adding that “Russians aim to eliminate as many Ukrainians as they can.”
He urged the West to impose an oil, gas and coal embargo, and close all ports to Russian vessels and goods. He also called for all Russian banks to be disconnected from the SWIFT international payment system.
In Germany President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in Berlin that “the war crimes committed by Russia are visible before the eyes of the world.”
German news agency dpa reported that Steinmeier said “the images from Bucha shake me, they shake us deeply.”
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock pledged to tighten sanctions against Russia but did not give details.
Saturday, April 2, 2022
6:17 p.m. - At least 17 colleges and universities in several U.S. states will jointly offer honorary degrees to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during their commencement ceremonies this spring
Alfred University President Mark Zupan said the idea grew from his request to have Zelenskyy speak virtually to a combination of graduating classes.
When an official at the Ukrainian embassy declined the western New York university’s request, the institutions agreed to award honorary degrees in absentia to honor Zelenskyy’s leadership during Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“The gesture was motivated by the inspiring example provided by President Zelenskyy to his people and the broader world in defense of freedom and democracy,” Zupan said in a news release Friday.
Several additional campuses in upstate New York, which has a significant population with ties to Ukraine, have committed to the idea. They are being joined by institutions in Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Others are expected to join in, Alfred University said.
4:33 p.m. - Ukrainian troops pushed farther into the outskirts of Kyiv after weeks of Russian pressure on the city
Ukrainian troops moved further north from the capital Kyiv on Saturday, taking up positions in the town of Bucha and Antonov Airport in Hostomel after retaking territory from Russian forces. AP reporters counted at least 6 bodies of civilians scattered along a street and in the front yard of a house.
The Ukrainian soldiers, backed by a column of tanks and armored vehicles, attached cables to the bodies and pulled them off the street, fearing they may be booby-trapped with explosive devices.
As they moved on the streets of Bucha, the Ukrainian soldiers cleared barricades and inspected suspicious objects. They placed red rags on remnants of unexploded ordnance to draw attention to the possibility of explosions.
Residents of the town said the civilians were killed by Russian soldiers without apparent provocation.
“Those people were just walking and they shot them without any reason. Bang,” said a Bucha resident who declined to give his name, citing safety reasons. “In the next neighbourhood, Stekolka, it was even worse. They would shoot without asking any question.”
2:48 p.m. - Russia arrested 208 anti-war protesters, civil rights monitor reports
A Russian group that monitors political arrests says 208 people were detained in demonstrations held Saturday across the country protesting Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.
The OVD-Info group said demonstrations took place in 17 Russian cities, from Siberia to the more densely populated west. More than 70 people were were detained in Moscow and a similar number in St. Petersburg, the organization said.
Video released by another group that monitors protests, Avtozak, showed some detainees being led to police prisoner transports as they smiled and carried flowers. Others were shown to be more harshly forced into the transports, bent over with their arms pinioned behind them.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government has cracked down heavily on dissent, even before Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
12:42 p.m. - A Ukrainian photojournalist and attaché to western media outlets was found shot to death near Kyiv
A prominent Ukrainian photojournalist who went missing last month in a combat zone near the capital has been found dead.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s office said in a statement Saturday that Maks Levin was killed with two gunshots, fired allegedly by the Russian military. Levin’s body was found in the Huta Mezhyhirska village on Friday.
Levin, 40, worked as a photojournalist and videographer for many Ukrainian and international publications.
Levin has been missing since March 13, when he contacted his friend from Vyshhorod near Kyiv to report on the fighting in the region.
An investigation into his death has been launched.
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