Russia-Ukraine war latest: Zelenskiy to address UN after warning Borodyanka atrocities may be worse than Bucha

A team from the International Committee of the Red Cross has been released after being stopped during an attempt to reach the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol and held in nearby Manhush, Ukrainian deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk has said.

“After negotiations, they were released during the night and sent to Zaporizhzhia,” Reuters quotes her saying. Zaporizhzhia is about 200km away from Mariupol in the south of the country.

France’s European affairs minister Clement Beaune has told RFI radio that the European Union will most likely adopt a new round of sanctions against Russia on Wednesday.

Reuters quotes him saying “The new sanctions will probably be adopted tomorrow”, adding the EU should also quickly act on gas and coal imports from Russia.

Reuters is carrying the words from Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the lower house of parliament in Russia. He said:

The situation in Bucha is a provocation aimed at discrediting Russia. Washington and Brussels are the screenwriters and directors and Kyiv are the actors. There are no facts – just lies.

Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of parliament in Russia, has added his voice to the chorus of Russian dissent over the accusations of war crimes and that Russian forces targeted and murdered of civilians in Ukraine.

Reuters reports he has said that the images that have emerged have been a staged performance, and a provocation aimed at discrediting Russia. Volodin offered no evidence to back up his claims.

The UK’s former ambassador to Yugoslavia and to Russia, Sir Andrew Wood, has been appearing on Sky News this morning, and he said that he thought a larger number of Russian people will believe the war crimes accusations than Vladimir Putin would like.

He said “I think a large proportion of the Russian people will suspect that it’s true, and that all sorts of emotional forces will be making them very, very anxious to deny it. They had great trust in their armed forces, greater trust in them than the government in general. And this is such a terrible shock for them.”

He went on to say “It has been a shock for the Russians to reveal themselves as being so inept military. It is also a complete contrast to what they not only expected, but relied on, not just just the speed of their victory, they supposed, but also that it would be possible thereafter for them in effect to rule Ukraine.”

Wood said that the accusations of war crimes would make any successful annexation of areas of Ukraine by Russian forces more difficult to maintain. He said “even if Putin won and dominated the entire country, or the eastern part of it, or whatever it is, he would not now be able to secure the support of Ukrainian people. This [the events in Bucha] is absolutely unforgivable. People do not forget such things.”

He did however offer a defence of Russian actions, saying “in slight defence of the Russians, one has to remember that this is a war in which a lot of civilians are taking part. It is also a war which the Russians have been losing. Some of them are probably rather frightened, and their reactions are accordingly wicked, but emotionally perhaps understandable.”

He expressed concern that any ceasefire or peace agreement would not be a permanent solution.

“I think we are also in a difficult position in that we the West in general would like a peaceful outcome, of course, but we can’t negotiate on behalf of the Ukrainians. It’s up to them to decide what is possible and what should be achieved in negotiations.”

Sumy Oblast Governor Dmytro Zhyvytsky has reported that in Konotop district of Sumy Oblast, the Ukrainian military found the bodies of at least three tortured civilians.

The Kyiv Independent reports that they were found in places where Russian forces had been stationed. Russians withdrew from Sumy region on Sunday 3 April.

Ukrainian mothers are reportedly writing the name of their children and a list family contacts on their children’s bodies in case their parents are killed by Russians and their children survive.

Hello I’m Samantha Lock and before I hand this liveblog over to my colleague, Martin Belam, here is where the war in Ukraine currently stands as of 9am local time.

• Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has accused Russia of attempting to cover up evidence of war crimes. Referring to the recently discovered bodies of civilians in towns surrounding Kyiv, Zelenskiy said Russia is “already launching a false campaign to conceal their guilt” in other areas of the country.
• US president Joe Biden called the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, a “war criminal” and said he would call for a war crimes trial as global outrage over claims of civilian killings by Russian soldiers in the Ukraine town of Bucha continued to mount. “We have to gather the information. We have to continue to provide Ukraine with the weapons they need to continue to fight, and we have to get all the detail [to] have a war crimes trial. This guy is brutal and what’s happening in Bucha is outrageous,” he said on Monday.
• The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said the EU was ready to send investigations teams to Ukraine to document alleged Russian war crimes and crimes against humanity. She said she had spoken to Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy about the “dreadful murders” that were uncovered over the weekend.
• Zelenskiy visited Bucha, about 30km north-west of Kyiv, wearing body armour and surrounded by military personnel on Monday. He spoke of the death and destruction in the recently liberated towns of Stoyanka, Irpin and Bucha. “The cities are simply ruined,” he said, adding that authorities had begun an investigation into possible war crimes. Zelenskiy said there was information to suggest more than 300 people were killed and tortured in Bucha alone.
• The Ukrainian president warned civilian casualties may be higher in other towns. “Now, there is information that in Borodyanka and some other liberated Ukrainian towns, the number of casualties of the occupiers may be even much higher,” he said, referring to a town 25 km (16 miles) west of Bucha.
• Zelenskiy also addressed western leaders, criticising what he described as delayed action against Russia. “Did hundreds of our people really have to die in agony for some European leaders to finally understand that the Russian state deserves the most severe pressure?” he asked. Referring to military aid, he said: “If we had already got what we needed … we could have saved thousands of people.”
• Zelenskiy will address the United Nations security council on Tuesday, after he said it was in Kyiv’s interest to have an open investigation into the killing of civilians in Ukraine.
• Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said evidence of civilian killings in Bucha were just the “tip of the iceberg”. Speaking at a joint press conference with the UK foreign minister, Liz Truss, he said the “horrors of Bucha, Mariupol, and other places” demand “serious G7 and EU sanctions”.
• The bodies of five civilians, including the mayor, were found with their hands tied in the village of Motyzhyn, 45km west of Kyiv, Ukrainian authorities said. The mayor, Olga Sukhenko, her husband and their son, were abducted by Russian troops on 24 March, police said. “They tortured and murdered the whole family of the village head,” Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior ministry, said.
• Zelenskiy said the country is preparing for “even more brutal activity” of Russian forces in the east and south of Ukraine. “We know what they are going to do in Donbas,” he said. Ukraine’s defence ministry spokesperson Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said Russia is attacking the cities of Rubizhne and Popasna in the eastern Luhansk region, while preparing an attack on the city of Severodonetsk and working to capture Mariupol.
• US national security adviser Jake Sullivan appeared to corroborate the claims, saying “Russia is repositioning its forces to concentrate its offensive operations in eastern and parts of southern Ukraine” and this new phase of Russia’s invasion “could be measured in months or longer”.
• Ukraine’s military has claimed Russia is regrouping troops for an aggressive attack in eastern Ukraine. According to a daily operation report as of 6am this morning, Russia’s goal is to now establish full control over the territory of Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
• Ukrainian forces have retaken key terrain in the north of Ukraine, after denying Russia the ability to secure its objectives and forcing Russian troops to retreat from the areas around Chernihiv and north of Kyiv, the UK’s ministry of defence claims.
• The Red Cross said that a team sent to help evacuate civilians from Mariupol is being held by police in Russian-controlled territory. The team was stopped on Monday while carrying out humanitarian efforts to help lead a safe passage corridor for civilians and “is being held in the town of Mangush, 20km west of Mariupol,” ICRC spokeswoman Caitlin Kelly told AFP.
• Russia has backed a new, self-proclaimed mayor of Mariupol, who is collaborating with Russian forces, Reuters reported.
• Washington is working on more economic sanctions against Russia to be announced this week, Sullivan said, adding that “options that relate” to the country’s lucrative energy industry are on the table.
• UK foreign secretary Liz Truss said she will be working with allies to ban Russian ships from western ports, crack down on Russian banks, and agree to “a clear timetable to eliminate our imports of Russian oil, gas and coal”.
• The US will request Russia’s removal from the UN human rights council. During a visit to Romania, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations, called for the international body to suspend Russia.
• The head of the office of the Ukrainian president, Andriy Yermak, said a “very big historical mistake” was made when “specific Allied countries and specific leaders started a game with Russia” 14 years ago at the Nato summit in Bucharest, according to comments published on the website of Ukraine’s presidential office.
• Russia’s latest sovereign bond coupon payments have been stopped, a source familiar with the matter and a spokeswoman for the US Treasury told Reuters, putting it closer to a historic default. The latest sovereign bond coupon payments have not received authorisation by the US Treasury to be processed by correspondent bank JPMorgan, the source said.
• Cyber hacking group Anonymous has claimed to have leaked the personal data of 120,000 Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine. “Personal data of 120,000 Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine was leaked,” the group said in a statement on Twitter on Monday.
• China’s foreign minister Wang Yi spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, in a phone call on Monday, Reuters reports, with Beijing again calling on talks to end the conflict in Ukraine.

Some more images from the recently liberated town of Bucha have emerged showing destroyed Russian tanks littering the streets in the outskirts of Kyiv as Ukrainian servicemen sift through the debris of streets destroyed by shelling.

A shallow grave is also seen next to the church of St. Andrew and Pyervozvannoho in the town’s central square.

Ukrainian forces have retaken key terrain in the north of Ukraine, after denying Russia the ability to secure its objectives and forcing Russian troops to retreat from the areas around Chernihiv and north of Kyiv, the UK’s ministry of defence claims.

The latest British intelligence report, released just after 6am GMT, reads:

Low-level fighting is likely to continue in some parts of the newly recaptured regions, but diminish significantly over this week as the remainder of Russian forces withdraw.

Many Russian units withdrawing from northern Ukraine are likely to require significant re-equipping and refurbishment before being available to redeploy for operations in eastern Ukraine.”

The Ukrainian president also addressed western leaders, criticising what he described as delayed action against Russia.

I would also like to note the reaction of the leaders of the democratic world to what they saw in Bucha. The sanctions response to Russia’s massacre of civilians must finally be powerful.

But was it really necessary to wait for this to reject doubts and indecision?

Did hundreds of our people really have to die in agony for some European leaders to finally understand that the Russian state deserves the most severe pressure?”

Zelenskiy again called for more military aid for Ukraine.

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. I do not blame you – I blame only the Russian military. But you could have helped.

I will continue to say this to the face of all those on whom the decision on weapons for Ukraine depends.”