As Russia pulls back from Kyiv, grim scenes emerge
An adviser to the president urged Ukrainians to prepare for “difficult fights” ahead in Mariupol and in southern and eastern parts of Ukraine, where evacuation efforts were still underway. The Red Cross said Saturday it had not yet reached the hard-hit port city where 100,000 are trapped.
Here’s what to know
Higher education eyes giving Zelensky honorary degree
Return to menuAt least 17 colleges and universities across five states say they will give Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky honorary degrees in the wake of his leadership during Russia’s invasion of his nation, one of the schools says.
Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, Adrian College in Michigan and Lenoir-Rhyne University in North Carolina are among those who have publicly committed to honoring Zelensky with degrees from their institutions in absentia.
The idea came from Alfred University president Mark Zupan who wrote Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States requesting Zelensky to speak to the 2022 graduating class, according to a university news release.
“Given how effectively President Zelenskyy was communicating with so many different audiences around the world, I thought that perhaps he might be interested in speaking to our graduating students,” he said, adding that the Ukrainian leader has been effective in communicating with audiences around the world since the war started.
Zelensky has emerged as an international leader unafraid to speak up for is country via Telegram.
His handling of the war has given about 72 percent of Americans a lot or some confidence in him — higher than any other world leader, according to a recent survey from the Pew Research Center.
The admiration for Zelensky’s leadership, despite a “graciously declined” response from the Ukrainian Embassy inspired Zupan to contact other colleges with his idea that has since spread across the country.
“It has been beyond heartening to see how readily and positively colleagues at other higher education institutions have responded to the idea,” Zupan said. “Given the role colleges and universities play in promoting the rights of individuals and a liberal society, adding our voice in recognition of and support for the Ukrainian cause is a meaningful way that we can put our shoulders to the wheel.”
Russians fire on rally, Ukrainian official says; Zelensky thanks protesters
Return to menuFour people were “injured and severely burned” after Russian forces fired mortars at protesters in a city near Zaporizhzhia, the site of a nuclear plant that Russia captured last month, according to Ukraine’s human rights ombudswoman.
Residents of Energodar, a satellite town of Zaporizhzhia, which has been occupied by Russian forces for nearly four weeks, held a rally in support of Ukraine on Saturday. Russian soldiers used light and noise grenades to disrupt the protest and fired on residents with mortars, the ombudswoman, Lyudmyla Denisova, said in a statement posted to Telegram.
“Such treatment of civilians is a crime against humanity and a war crime as defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,” Denisova said.
The Washington Post verified two videos recorded by witnesses and posted to Telegram. The images were filmed at the same time from separate angles and show at least nine flashes followed by large booms. Gunfire is audible as people run away from the site of the protest.
A photo verified by The Post and posted to Telegram on Saturday appears to show the protest earlier in the day. A large group of protesters stood peacefully on the steps of a community center, holding Ukrainian flags.
Nearly a dozen people in military fatigues appear to monitor the protesters from a little more than 100 feet away. They stand next to two vehicles marked with the letter “Z,” suggesting the vehicles belong to Russian forces.
Denisova called on the United Nations commission investigating human rights violations in Ukraine and an expert mission established by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to look into alleged rights violations and war crimes.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the protesters in Energodar, saying he appreciates people who were not afraid to protest in occupied cities.
“The more people protest, the harder it is for the occupiers to destroy us, to destroy our freedom,” Zelensky said in a video released Saturday night.
“There will be an answer for every wounded person,” he said.
Hundreds of Ukrainian refugees gather at the U.S.-Mexico border
Return to menuThe list of Ukrainian refugees waiting to enter the United States is kept in a yellow legal pad on a folding table inside a blue camping tent, a few feet away from the multilane highway that connects Mexico to the United States.
It is written in English and Cyrillic by volunteers, many refugees themselves, waiting for their own numbers to be called.
“They said it could be two or three days,” said Valentina Shymanservska, No. 884, a sunflower farmer from Kharkhiv.
“My turn is any minute,” said Svyastoslav Urusky, No. 319, a university student from Lviv.
“I can’t believe we’re still waiting,” said Maxim Polosov, No. 363, who renovated homes in Slavansk.
By Saturday morning, the list had more than 1,200 names on it. Dozens more Ukrainians were arriving every hour. A van was shuttling them between the Tijuana airport and the tent where the yellow legal pad was kept.
Bodies, rubble line the streets of Bucha after Russian retreat
Return to menuVideo posted to social media on Saturday and verified by The Washington Post showed at least nine people, including one child, lying in the street of a residential area in the town of Bucha, north of Kyiv, after Russian forces retreated. They appear to be dead.
One, still atop a bicycle, lies at the corner of an intersection. He is tilted as though he was about to make a right-hand turn. Others are huddled together on the side of the road.
Additional video posted to social media Saturday shows two men driving through the city. They pass abandoned cars, some of which appear to have been stripped for parts. Debris, tires and old antitank blockades crowd the roads. At one point, as they round a corner, two severely damaged black cars are visible. “STOP” is painted on both in English.
Russian forces withdrew from Bucha, a town of 37,000 people northwest of Kyiv, and other suburbs of the capital in recent days, leaving a trail of destruction. Russian troops fought for control of Bucha starting Feb. 27 — three days after the invasion began — and “relentless shelling” trapped residents in homes and shelters without electricity or gas, according to Human Rights Watch. The fighting took out the city’s water tower a week later.
Ukrainian flag flies over Chernobyl plant as Ukrainians regain control
Return to menuIn the latest sign that Ukrainian personnel have regained control of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the nation’s state-owned atomic energy firm Energoatom reported Saturday that the country’s flag has been raised again over the site.
A post shared on the agency’s Telegram account showed the distinctive blue-and-yellow standard fluttering against cloudy skies over a dark gray building.
“The Ukrainian flag has been raised above the Chernobyl nuclear power plant,” the post read. “The Ukrainian national anthem was also played over speakers around the station.”
Ukraine’s State Agency on Exclusion Zone Management announced Friday in a Facebook post that no Russian troops were near the site. “At the present moment there are no outsiders at the Chernobylka NPP site,” the agency wrote.
The scene of a major 1986 nuclear accident, the Chernobyl plant was among the first strategic facilities seized by Russian troops in the early days of the invasion, prompting fears around the world of another disaster that could spread radiation to surrounding countries.
The power plant’s last reactor shut down in 2000, and few people live in the surrounding zone, but the site still needs to be managed. The nuclear waste cleanup is expected to be complete more than 40 years from now.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, plans to send nuclear safety and security missions to Ukraine “as soon as it is possible,” the U.N. nuclear watchdog said in a news release Saturday.
“IAEA experts will provide both on-site and off-site technical assessment and advice,” the news release said. “The IAEA will also deliver safety equipment, where needed.”
Hardliners urge Russian military to keep pressing Kyiv
Return to menuRIGA, Latvia — Russia’s “de-escalation” and withdrawal from some regions has ignited strong opposition from hard-liners on state television and Telegram channels, with many, including Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, arguing that Russia should fight on and seize control of Kyiv.
After the stall of Russia’s advance, Moscow’s negotiators in talks with Ukraine agreed to de-escalate the fighting around Kyiv and Chernihiv and to focus on the eastern Donbas region.
But propagandists and politicians who have drummed up support for the war on state television are pushing back.
Prominent state television anchor Vladimir Solovyov said Thursday that “that any negotiation with the Nazis until the boot is on their throat is weakness. You shouldn’t shake hands with this creep,” he said, apparently referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, while also repeating a claim by Russian President Vladimir Putin that Ukraine had been taken over by Nazis.
“You shouldn’t have small talk with them, you shouldn’t talk or meet with them at all. That’s my point of view,” said Solovyov, referring to the announcement of moves to de-escalate in Kyiv and Chernihiv. “So don’t mislead and demoralize our people and our troops with crazy messages. The task has been set, and it must be accomplished in full.”
Another pro-Kremlin journalist and blogger Semyon Pegov, from the outlet War Gonzo, which reports from the Russian side of the war, said the invasion was just beginning and that Russia would continue “to the end.” He called Russian soldiers “real Russian heroes.”
“No one and nothing will take away their feat from them,” he posted to Telegram on Friday. “It’s already gone down in history.”
“The war is just beginning,” he said. “... I stay with our army.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Belarus state television on Saturday that it was important for talks to continue, saying that the venue in Istanbul was acceptable to both sides. “The main thing is to find a spot where we overlap with the Ukrainian negotiators. And the main thing is for them to continue, in Istanbul or wherever. But the main thing is to continue,” Peskov said.
Bodies, rubble line the streets of Bucha following Russian retreat
Return to menuVideo posted to social media on Saturday and verified by The Washington Post showed at least nine people, including one child, laying in the street of a residential area in the town of Bucha. They appear to be dead.
One, still atop a bicycle, lies at the corner of an intersection. He is tilted as though he was about to make a right hand turn. Others are huddled together on the side of the road.
Russian forces withdrew from Bucha, a town northwest of Kyiv, and other suburbs of the capital in recent days, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. Journalists on Saturday recounted seeing bodies strewn across streets after the Russian withdrawal.
Bucha’s mayor, Anatoly Fedoruk, told The Washington Post by phone that about 40 people were lying in the streets but that it was difficult to get a count. Fedoruk said the bodies would not be touched until security services determine that they are not rigged with explosive devices.
Ramadan starts in Ukraine as mufti cancels communal night prayers in mosques
Return to menuThe Islamic fasting month of Ramadan began on Saturday, with Ukraine’s sizable Muslim population preparing to break fast amid war.
The mufti of Ukraine, Said Ismagilov, who is responsible for Muslim religious affairs in the country, welcomed the month but said communal night prayers held in mosques would be canceled.
“The collective Tarawih prayers in mosques are canceled due to the martial law and curfew, for safety purposes,” Ismagilov, the mufti of the Religious Administration of Muslims of Ukraine told the Islam in Ukraine website. He urged worshipers to perform their prayers at home and encouraged them to give to charity during the holy month.
Since Russia’s invasion, Ismagilov has donned army fatigues and become an imam-chaplain of the territorial defense of the capital, Kyiv, and surrounding region, the website added.
Ramadan sees 1.2 billion Muslims globally abstain from food and drink among other things from sunrise to sunset, with many flocking to mosques after they’ve broken their fasts, for communal evening prayers.
Since the dissolution of the Ottoman empire, Muslim diaspora communities have existed throughout the Caucasus and Central Asia including Tartars and Chechens. Alongside larger Jewish and Christian communities, Ukraine has about 400,000 Muslims, mostly in the southern Donbas region. Many had hoped for a more upbeat Ramadan after the coronavirus pandemic scaled back recent celebrations.
Thousands of Ukrainian residents evacuated from hard-hit cities Saturday
Return to menuUkrainians from several hard-hit cities throughout the country continue to flee as rescue efforts continue, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Saturday.
“Today, 2,650 people have been evacuated from the cities of Severodonetsk, Rubizhne, Lysichansk, Kremennaya, Popasna and Nizhne in the Luhansk region,” she said. “In total, 4,217 citizens have been evacuated today.”
Vereshchuk said more than 1,200 people arrived in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia from Mariupol and Berdyansk in their own vehicles, with 765 coming from Mariupol alone. Ten evacuation convoys left the port city of Berdyansk with more than 300 Mariupol residents.
She added that another 17 buses arrived from Zaporozhye to Berdyansk. The evacuation of Mariupol residents from Berdyansk will resume Sunday morning.
Russian gas stops flowing to Baltics, in potential energy cutoff
Return to menuRussian natural gas has not flowed to the Baltic states for the past two days, the head of the Latvian natural gas storage operator said Saturday, a potential first sign of a broader cutoff of Russian gas to Europe.
The warning of the halted flow of Russian gas came as Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda declared that starting in April, his country no longer plans to purchase natural gas from Russia.
European Union nations, along with the United States, imposed wide-ranging sanctions against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in late February, but they continued to import Russian fossil fuels because they are deeply dependent on them to keep homes warm, to generate electricity and to keep the continent’s factories humming.
But the Kremlin and the European Union have been locked in a battle over the future of the energy relationship, with some European policymakers saying they should cut off Russian energy altogether, no matter how painful it would be in the short term. Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, has demanded payment for Russian fossil fuels in rubles instead of euros, threatening a unilateral cutoff if he doesn’t get his way.
In the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, there may already have been a cutoff, Uldis Bariss, the chairman of Conexus Baltic Grid, the Latvian natural gas grid operator and storage company, told Latvian Radio on Saturday.
“While there was still doubt that Russian supplies could be relied on, these events clearly show that, from a security perspective, there is no longer any confidence,” Bariss said.
Bariss said that Latvia has extensive reserves of natural gas in storage and that there is no immediate crisis. More in question is what will happen next winter, he said.
A halt to Baltic gas flows could also be the result of a lack of supply on the Russian side or other disruptions to pipelines, rather than a deliberate, politically motivated cutoff. However, gas appears to largely be flowing as normal to Western Europe via other pipelines that don’t serve the Baltic states. Russian energy officials have not commented on gas flows to the Baltics.
Nauseda urged other countries to follow Lithuania’s lead by cutting off Russian gas purchases. Lithuania opened a liquefied natural gas terminal in 2014, enabling it to import natural gas from overseas providers, including the United States.
“Years ago my country made decisions that today allow us with no pain to break energy ties with the agressor. If we can do it, the rest of Europe can do it too!” Nauseda wrote on Twitter.
From this month on - no more Russian gas in Lithuania 🇱🇹.
— Gitanas Nausėda (@GitanasNauseda) April 2, 2022
Years ago my country made decisions that today allow us with no pain to break energy ties with the agressor.
If we can do it, the rest of Europe 🇪🇺 can do it too!
Head of Russia’s space program suggests he will submit proposal to end ISS cooperation
Return to menuThe director of Russia’s space agency suggested he would submit a proposal to end cooperation in the International Space Station program, citing sanctions placed on the nation.
In tweets on Saturday, Dmitry Rogozin, head of the agency Roscosmos, pointed to sanctions against a “number of enterprises in the Russian rocket and space industry.” He said that he appealed to the heads of NASA, the Canadian Space Agency and the European Space Agency to lift sanctions and that in their responses, the “position of our partners is clear: the sanctions will not be lifted.”
“I believe that the restoration of normal relations between partners in the International Space Station and other joint projects is possible only with the complete and unconditional lifting of illegal sanctions,” Rogozin wrote.
He said proposals from Roscosmos “on the timing of terminating cooperation with the space agencies” from the United States, Canada, Japan and the European Union would be reported to the country’s leadership “in the near future.”
Rogozin has frequently used threatening and blustery rhetoric, including to repeatedly suggest Russia could exit the partnership.
His latest remarks came three days after two Russian cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut returned from the space station, a symbol of partnership in space even amid mounting tensions over the war in Ukraine.
Since Russian forces invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, NASA has maintained that the station has been operating as normal, unaffected by the conflict. NASA has said it would be unable to operate the ISS without the Russians because the nation provides the propulsion necessary to keep the station orbiting.
Russian ‘looting bazaar’ set up in Belarus, Ukraine military says
Return to menuFrom the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, reports have emerged of Russian troops looting homes and businesses in places they captured or passed through in their multipronged onslaught.
Now, according to Ukraine’s defense intelligence agency, the Russian military has opened a “looting bazaar” in a town in neighboring Belarus to sell the stolen property. In a Facebook post Saturday, the agency said items for sale at the market in the town of Narovlya, about 30 miles north of the Ukrainian border, include “washing machines and dishwashers, refrigerators, jewelry, cars, bicycles, motorcycles, dishes, carpets, works of art, children’s toys, cosmetics.” In short, it said, “everything that the Russians have gained by looting and robbing civilians in Ukraine.”
The Ukrainian defense intelligence agency’s account of the special “bazaar” and an organized looting operation could not immediately be confirmed independently. But ample evidence has emerged from witnesses and surveillance video that Russian soldiers have engaged in looting in Ukraine.
“They stole everything they saw,” Andrii Kolesnyk, 45, who runs a guesthouse in Irpin, told The Washington Post in early March, shortly after he said about 15 Russian troops took over his property on the outskirts of the capital, Kyiv. “They stole money I left to run the hotel. All the jewelry, everything. All the electronics.”
Michael Kofman, director of Russia studies at CNA, a Virginia-based think tank, has noted that looting is not uncommon for Russian troops in wartime. Indeed, numerous videos have been posted on social media showing Russian troops looting goods in Ukraine.
Sometimes the looters have focused on obtaining food — reportedly because their rations were inadequate and they were hungry.
But the operation called out by Ukrainian military intelligence suggests a more systematic pillaging. The Defense Ministry agency, known as the GUR, claimed that the Russians have been trying to exchange stolen dollars and euros but have been thwarted by Belarusian restrictions. It also accused the Russian military of organizing a “centralized supply” of newly looted Ukrainian “industrial goods and household items” that are moved over the border in truck convoys.
And in the Belarusian city of Mozyr, the GUR said, Russian military trucks bring in looted items that are unloaded by soldiers and sent to Russia via a “Russian express delivery service.”
Former international court prosecutor calls Putin a ‘war criminal'
Return to menuThe former chief prosecutor of two international criminal tribunals has called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” and said an international warrant should be issued for his arrest.
“Putin is a war criminal,” Carla Del Ponte, said in an interview with Swiss newspaper Le Temps published Saturday.
Del Ponte called for the international justice system to issue an international arrest warrant for Putin and other high-ranking Russian political and military officials.
The Swiss lawyer served as chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, two ad hoc judicial bodies that preceded the formation of the International Criminal Court. In the former role, she prosecuted war crimes committed during the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s and proved that Bosnian Serbs had committed genocide against Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica. Del Ponte was involved in indicting former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic for crimes committed in Croatia and Bosnia when he held power in Belgrade.
As head prosecutor for the Rwanda-focused tribunal from 1999 to 2003, Del Ponte was involved in investigating the Rwandan genocide. She also served on a United Nations commission investigating human rights violations in Syria, but she resigned that post out of frustration in 2017 after countries failed to create an international tribunal for Syria.
In interviews with Swiss media about her new book, “Ich bin keine Heldin” (“I am not a heroine”), Del Ponte said scenes emerging from Ukraine evoked memories of the Yugoslav conflicts — particularly images of mass graves. Ukrainians killed by Russian attacks in Mariupol, the besieged city in southeastern Ukraine, have been buried in mass graves as morgues overflow with bodies.
Del Ponte told the German-language newspaper Blick that Russian attacks on civilians and the destruction of entire Ukrainian cities constituted evidence of war crimes.
War in Ukraine: What you need to know
The latest: The International Committee of the Red Cross will make another attempt Saturday to evacuate civilians from the war-torn port city of Mariupol, after Friday’s efforts failed due to what the group called “impossible” conditions. Roughly 100,000 people remain trapped in Mariupol, according to Kyiv. Meanwhile, online peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv took place Friday, in the aftermath of a fuel depot fire in a Russian border city that the Kremlin blamed on a Ukrainian strike.
The fight: Nearly five weeks into their invasion, Russian forces continue to mount sporadic attacks on civilian targets in a number of Ukrainian cities. Russia has been accused of committing war crimes.
The weapons: Ukraine is making use of weapons such as Javelin antitank missiles and Switchblade “kamikaze” drones, provided by the United States and other allies. Russia has used an array of weapons against Ukraine, some of which have drawn the attention and concern of analysts.
In Russia: Putin has locked down the flow of information within Russia, where the war isn’t even being called a war. The last independent newsletter in Russia suspended its operations Monday.
Photos: Post photographers have been on the ground from the very beginning of the war — here’s some of their most powerful work.
How you can help: Here are ways those in the U.S. can help support the Ukrainian people as well as what people around the world have been donating.
Read our full coverage of the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for updates and exclusive video.
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