By The Related Press
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mentioned his authorities is offering investigative help to efforts to doc warfare crimes in Ukraine, and he mentioned Russian President Vladimir Putin is accountable.
“It's clear that Putin is systematically concentrating on civilians, whether or not it’s hospitals or practice stations or maternity wards. This is likely one of the the reason why Canada was one of many first international locations to name on the Worldwide Prison Court docket to look into Putin’s warfare crimes,” Trudeau mentioned Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Canadian investigators, Trudeau mentioned, “are increase the case for folks to acknowledge that not solely was this a horrible mistake to violate the sovereignty of one other nation and create huge world instability that’s impacting vitality and meals costs all over the world, however it is usually a sequence of warfare crimes that Putin is intentionally committing that he must be held to account for.”
Requested if the crimes quantity to genocide, Trudeau mentioned it stays to be decided.
“The tales of what Russian troopers are doing, not simply the homicide of civilians, however the systematic use of sexual violence and rape, to destabilize and have the best adverse impression on Ukrainian folks as doable is completely unforgivable and unacceptable,” Trudeau mentioned. “And that’s why the worldwide neighborhood goes to and is responding so strongly.”
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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:
— US: Russia’s new battlefield commander has historical past of brutality
— Ukraine digs in to battle Russia’s looming japanese offensive
— Ukraine church buildings show religion, hope and charity amid wreckage
— Evaluation: Battle, financial system may weaken Putin’s place as chief
— Biden, Modi to talk as India avoids onerous line on Russia
— Zelenskyy, in AP interview, says he seeks peace regardless of atrocities
— Go to https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine for extra protection
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
It’s virtually Easter in Ukraine, the place religion, hope and charity are on show at a trio of church buildings on the far edges of the capital.
Sunday providers had been held in Bucha whilst our bodies had been being faraway from a mass grave within the churchyard. In Makarov, the devoted had been moved to tears on the sight of crosses scattered in damaged glass. And in Borodyanka, a church was untouched close to the place Russian assaults ripped open a high-rise. That’s the place donations are bringing assist to aged individuals who stayed whereas others fled Russian occupation.
Ukrainian authorities mentioned weeks in the past that no less than 59 non secular websites had been broken. On the day when Pope Francis known as for an Easter truce in Ukraine to make manner for a negotiated peace, church guests invoked God in recalling their survival.
“Every one that was leaving, from anywhere, Makarov, Bucha, Hostomel or from Andriivka, the neighboring village which was destroyed to the bottom; each, even those that didn't know the Lord’s Prayer, he was chatting with God along with his personal phrases,” mentioned Alona Parkhomenko in Makarov, the place the church exterior was speckled with bullet holes and the priest warned of falling glass.
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WASHINGTON — Russia’s newly appointed battlefield commander in Ukraine made his fame crushing resistance to Syrian President Bashar Assad throughout that nation’s devastating civil warfare.
Russian forces led by Gen. Alexander Dvornikov destroyed complete cities whereas dropping barrel bombs that focused civilians. With Moscow supporting Assad, the warfare in Syria has killed greater than 350,000 folks.
Lt. Col. Fares al-Bayoush, a Syrian military defector, mentioned Sunday he expects an analogous “scorched-earth” technique beneath the commander in Ukraine. Talking by phone from Turkey, al-Bayoush mentioned he believes the intention of naming Dvornikov as Ukraine warfare commander is to trigger widespread destruction in lots of locations without delay.
“He has excellent expertise on this coverage,” al-Bayoush mentioned. “This commander is a warfare felony.”
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KYIV, Ukraine — The mayor of Kyiv and his brother mentioned the go to of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to their capital reveals who Ukraine’s actual associates are at this vital time. However they perceive if safety considerations maintain U.S. President Joe Biden from visiting for now.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko and his brother Wladimir have been skilled boxers and now outspoken defenders of Ukraine. Interviewed Sunday on ABC Information “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” they mentioned they count on Russia’s navy to return and goal Kyiv once more. And once they do, they mentioned they'll’t defend Ukraine with their fists — they want weapons.
Wladimir Klitschko additionally pleaded for the world to isolate Russia economically, saying “each cent that Russia is getting, they’re utilizing for weapons to kill us.”
Vitali Klitschko mentioned everybody was shocked when the Russians who pushed on Kyiv retreated after killing tons of of civilians throughout their occupation. He known as it genocide to kill girls, youngsters, outdated folks and youngsters for no motive.
To defend Ukraine now, the mayor mentioned, is to defend democracy and peace in Europe.
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WILMINGTON, Del. — The White Home mentioned President Joe Biden will press Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take a tough line towards Russia’s Ukraine invasion. Press Secretary Jen Psaki says the leaders plan a digital assembly on Monday.
India’s impartial stance within the warfare has raised considerations in Washington and earned reward from Russian International Minister Sergey Lavrov, who lauded India this month for judging “the scenario in its entirety, not simply in a one-sided manner.”
India abstained when the U.N. Common Meeting voted Thursday to droop Russia from its seat on the 47-member Human Rights Council over allegations of warfare crimes. India continues to buy Russian vitality regardless of Western stress to keep away from shopping for Russian oil and fuel. And the U.S. has thought of sanctions on India for its latest buy of superior Russian air protection programs.
Psaki’s assertion says Biden will focus on how Russia’s warfare towards Ukraine is destabilizing the worldwide meals provide and commodity markets, and the necessity to strengthen the worldwide financial system whereas ”upholding a free, open, rules-based worldwide order to bolster safety, democracy, and prosperity.”
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BERLIN — Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer mentioned he'll meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday.
The Austria Press Company reported that Nehammer advised reporters in Vienna on Sunday that he plans to make the journey. It follows a visit on Saturday to Kyiv, the place he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
APA reported that Nehammer goals to encourage dialogue between Ukraine and Russia and in addition deal with “warfare crimes” in his assembly with Putin.
Austria is a member of the European Union and has backed the 27-nation bloc’s sanctions towards Russia, although it to date has opposed chopping off deliveries of Russian fuel. The nation is militarily impartial and isn't a member of NATO.
Nehammer mentioned he was taking the journey on his personal initiative, and that he had consulted with the European Union’s high officers. He mentioned that he additionally knowledgeable Zelenskyy and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
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BERLIN — The U.N. nuclear watchdog mentioned Ukraine mentioned the employees on the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear plant has been rotated for the primary time in three weeks after Russian troops left the world.
The Vienna-based Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company has expressed concern in regards to the well-being of the employees because the Russian navy took management of the location of the 1986 nuclear catastrophe at first of the warfare.
The company mentioned Ukraine knowledgeable it on Sunday that it has now rotated the employees, however the scenario stays removed from regular. They needed to be transported to and from the location by water, with the Pripyat River being the one manner for folks dwelling within the metropolis of Slavutych to presently attain the plant.
The IAEA mentioned Ukraine has knowledgeable it that analytical laboratories for radiation monitoring on the website had been destroyed, with analytical devices “stolen, damaged or in any other case disabled.” The automated transmission of radiation monitoring knowledge has been disabled.
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KYIV, Ukraine — The governor of the area that features Ukraine’s fourth-largest metropolis, Dnipro, says the airport was hit twice by missile assaults on Sunday. The Ukrainian navy command mentioned Russian forces additionally maintain shelling Ukraine’s second-largest metropolis, Kharkiv, and have stored up their siege of Mariupol, the important thing southern port metropolis that has been beneath assault for almost six weeks.
The Russian Protection Ministry says it’s air-launched missiles hit Ukraine’s S-300 air protection missile programs in two areas, whereas sea-launched cruise missiles destroyed a Ukrainian unit’s headquarters within the Dnipro area. Neither facet’s navy claims may very well be independently verified.
The Pentagon mentioned Russia has a transparent benefit in armored forces for its subsequent section in its warfare on Ukraine. Press secretary John Kirby mentioned Friday that the Russians unfold themselves too skinny to take the capital, however now they’re extra centered on a smaller area, and nonetheless have the overwhelming majority of their fight energy. A significant effort by Ukrainian defenses and extra Western help shall be wanted to push them again.
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WASHINGTON — A senior U.S. official mentioned Russia has appointed a brand new commander to supervise its warfare on Ukraine.
The official talking on situation of anonymity mentioned Russia has turned to one among its most skilled navy officers, Gen. Alexander Dvornikov. U.S. officers say the 60-year-old common has a report of brutality towards civilians in Syria and different theaters of warfare.
The White Home nationwide safety adviser, Jake Sullivan, advised CNN on Sunday that “this common will simply be one other writer of crimes and brutality towards Ukrainian civilians.” And he mentioned “no appointment of any common can erase the truth that Russia has already confronted a strategic failure in Ukraine.”
The brand new battlefield management comes as Russia gears up for what is predicted to be a big and extra centered push to develop Russian management within the Donbas after failing to beat the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. Sullivan reiterated help for the Ukrainian authorities, saying america is set to do all it could possibly to assist Ukrainians resist this common and the forces he instructions.
— Robert Burns and Hope Yen
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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s border guard company says that about 2,200 Ukrainian males of preventing age have been detained to date whereas attempting to go away the nation in violation of martial legislation.
The company mentioned Sunday that a few of them have used cast paperwork and others tried to bribe border guards to get in another country.
It mentioned some have been discovered lifeless whereas attempting to cross the Carpathian mountains in opposed climate, with out specifying the quantity.
Underneath martial legislation, Ukrainian males between 18 and 60 are barred from leaving the nation in order that they are often known as as much as battle.
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WARSAW, Poland — Sirens have sounded in some Polish cities to mark the anniversary of a 2010 aircraft crash that killed the nation’s president, regardless of protests that their sound could be unnecessarily traumatic for refugees from the warfare in Ukraine.
The sirens early Sunday had been meant so as to add to the importance and the plaintive character of observances honoring the late President Lech Kaczynski, the primary woman and 94 different outstanding Poles killed 12 years in the past within the crash of the presidential aircraft in Russia. Kaczynski was the dual of Jaroslaw Kaczynski — the chief of the principle governing Legislation and Justice get together.
Provincial governors ignored calls to not use the sirens out of concern for refugees from neighboring Ukraine, traumatized by air raid alarms. Authorities despatched textual content messages to refugees’ telephones that the sirens would imply no hazard.
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KYIV, Ukraine — The Ukrainian navy says Russia has been beefing up its forces and attempting to probe Ukrainian defenses.
The Ukrainian navy command mentioned Sunday that the Russian troops have continued makes an attempt to interrupt Ukrainian defenses close to Izyum, southeast of Kharkiv. It reported that Russia was sending reinforcements to Izyum whereas persevering with the shelling of Kharkiv.
The navy added that the Russians additionally continued their makes an attempt to take management of Mariupol, the Sea of Azov port that has been besieged by Russian forces for almost 1 ½ months.
After Russia’s try to seize Kyiv and different large cities in northeastern Ukraine shortly failed, Ukrainian and Western officers count on Moscow to launch a brand new offensive in japanese Ukraine, the place Russia-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian forces for eight years.
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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he centered on the necessity to monitor down perpetrators of warfare crimes in a cellphone name with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Zelenskyy mentioned on Twitter that in Sunday’s name “we emphasised that every one perpetrators of warfare crimes should be recognized and punished.”
Ukraine has accused Russia of atrocities towards civilians in Bucha and different locations close to Kyiv, the place tons of of slaughtered civilians, many with their arms sure and indicators of torture, had been discovered after Russian troops retreated.
Zelenskyy additionally mentioned he and Scholz “mentioned anti-Russian sanctions, protection and monetary help for Ukraine.”
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VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has opened Holy Week with a name for an Easter truce in Ukraine to make room for a negotiated peace, highlighting the necessity for leaders to “make some sacrifices for the great of the folks.”
Celebrating Palm Sunday Mass earlier than crowds in St. Peter’s Sq. for the primary time because the pandemic, Pope Francis known as for “weapons to be laid down to start an Easter truce, to not reload weapons and resume preventing, no! A truce to succeed in peace via actual negotiations.”
Francis didn't refer on to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, however the reference was clear. He has repeatedly denounced the warfare and the struggling delivered to harmless civilians.
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HELSINKI — Finland says that a cargo of artwork works from Russian museums has been returned to Russia after it was seized beneath European Union sanctions towards Moscow.
Finland’s customs service mentioned late Saturday that the International Ministry granted a particular allow to return the consignment with a complete insured worth of round 42 million euros ($46 million). It mentioned that vans carrying the artwork works from the Hermitage Museum and the Pavlovsk State Museum in St. Petersburg, amongst others, left Finnish territory on Saturday afternoon.
The cargo was seized on the Vaalimaa border crossing at first of April. The works had been en path to Russia after mortgage to museums in Europe and Japan. Specialists say that artwork works loaned from Russia usually journey overland by way of Finland.
Russia has demanded the return of all works on mortgage to “unfriendly” nations that imposed sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine.
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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk mentioned extra civilians had been anticipated to go away Mariupol Sunday of their private automobiles.
Evacuations had been additionally deliberate from Berdyansk, Tokmak and Enerhodar within the south and Sieverierodonetsk, Lysychansk, Popasna and Rubizhne within the east.
Mariupol, a strategic port metropolis on the Sea of Azov, has been besieged by Russian forces for almost 1 ½ months, minimize from meals, water and energy provides and pummeled by relentless bombardment that has killed no less than 5,000, in accordance with native officers.
Ukrainian authorities have urged civilians within the east to evacuate within the face of an imminent Russian offensive. They accused Russia of killing 52 folks on Friday on the practice station within the japanese metropolis of Kramatorsk as they had been getting ready to evacuate.
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GENEVA — The U.N. refugee company says the quantity of people that have left Ukraine because the starting of the warfare has reached 4.5 million.
An everyday replace Sunday of the U.N. Excessive Commissioner for Refugees’ on-line portal on numbers of refugees fleeing Ukraine since Feb. 24 introduced the whole to some 4.504 million.
About 2.6 million of these fled no less than initially to Poland and greater than 686,000 to Romania. Nonetheless, UNHCR notes that there are only a few border controls inside the European Union and it believes “numerous folks” have moved on from the primary nation they arrived in.
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LONDON — Britain’s Ministry of Protection mentioned Russia’s armed forces are in search of to answer mounting losses by boosting troop numbers with personnel who had been discharged from navy service since 2012.
In an intelligence replace on Twitter, the ministry additionally mentioned Sunday that the Russian navy’s efforts to “generate extra preventing energy” additionally embrace attempting to recruit from Trans-Dniester, a breakaway area in Moldova that borders Ukraine.
Russia maintains some 1,500 troops within the area, which isn't internationally acknowledged.
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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy advised The Related Press on Saturday that he's dedicated to in search of peace regardless of Russian assaults on civilians which have surprised the world.
He mentioned nobody desires to barter with individuals who tortured their nation — “as a person, as a father, I perceive this very effectively.” However he mentioned “we don’t wish to lose alternatives, if we've got them, for a diplomatic resolution.”
Zelenskyy mentioned he’s assured Ukrainians would settle for peace regardless of the horrors they've witnessed within the warfare. However in the meantime, Russian troops are regrouping for an anticipated surge in preventing in japanese Ukraine, together with the besieged port metropolis of Mariupol that Ukrainian defenders are battling to retain.
So Zelenskyy renewed his plea for international locations to ship extra weapons. He says they must battle for all times — not “for mud when there may be nothing and no folks. That’s why you will need to cease this warfare.”
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KYIV, Ukraine — U.Ok. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, promising a lot help that his nation would possibly by no means be bullied once more.
Johnson’s shock go to included a pledge of 120 armored automobiles and new anti-ship missile programs, a part of one other 100 million kilos ($130 million) of high-grade navy gear. Johnson additionally confirmed a further $500 million in World Financial institution lending, taking Britain’s whole mortgage assure as much as $1 billion.
Johnson mentioned Ukraine defied the percentages pushing Russian forces “from the gates of Kyiv, reaching the best feat of arms of the twenty first century.″
Britain and its companions “are going to ratchet up the financial stress … not simply freezing belongings in banks and sanctioning oligarchs however shifting away from use of Russian hydrocarbons,” he mentioned.
Johnson additionally described a imaginative and prescient for a future Ukraine so fortified and guarded by the gear, know-how and know-how of Britain and its companions that it could possibly by no means be threatened in the identical manner once more. Within the meantime, Johnson mentioned, “there's a large quantity to do to ensure that Ukraine is profitable, that Ukraine wins and that Putin should fail.”