Burned corpses and cars are seen on the road in Kyiv Oblast on April 2, 2022. (Getty Images)
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April 4 marks 40 days of Russia's barbarous war in Ukraine.
The extent of Russia's cruelty against Ukrainians, however, was discovered just two days ago.
On April 2, Ukrainian forces regained control of Bucha, a town northwest of Kyiv, revealing the many horrific atrocities of Russia's weeks-long occupation.
Hundreds of civilian residents were found dead on the streets, by their homes and in mass graves.
Following one of the darkest days of the war, one that truly shocked the Ukrainian nation and the whole world, President Volodymyr Zelensky gave the kind of address that "presidents don't usually give."
"Concentrated evil has come to our land," he said. "Murderers, butchers, rapists, looters, who call themselves an army and who deserve only to die after what they have done."
Since Moscow unleashed its all-out war on Ukraine on Feb. 24, at least 1,232 civilian Ukrainians have been killed, according to the United Nations. The actual figures, however, are expected to be much higher, as casualties from front-line areas aren't counted due to a lack of data.
At least 161 children have been killed and 264 injured by Russia's war, according to Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office.
Bodies lie on a street in Bucha, northwest of Kyiv, as Ukrainian forces retook control of the town on April 2, 2022 following weeks of Russian occupation. (AFP via Getty Images)A cyclist rides past buildings on fire following an artillery fire in Kharkiv, a regional capital in northeastern Ukraine, on March 25, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)Rescuers remove rubble from the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration building where at least 35 people were killed by a Russian cruise missile attack on April 1, 2022, in Mykolaiv, a regional capital in southern Ukraine. (The Washington Post/Getty Images)A partially buried body is seen in a mass grave in the town of Bucha, northwest of Kyiv, on April 3, 2022. Hundreds of killed civilians were found in the town after Ukrainian forces retook it following weeks of Russian occupation. (AFP/Getty Images)President Volodymyr Zelensky (C) walks in the town of Bucha, just northwest of Kyiv, the site of Russia's massacre of civilian residents, on April 4, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)Communal workers and volunteers build a protective structure around a monument to the poet Taras Shevchenko in Kyiv on April 3, 2022. (Getty Images)A woman hugs a volunteer fighting with the Territorial Defense Force after the Russian troop withdrawal from the Nova Basan village in Chernihiv Oblast on April 1, 2022. (Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses the 64th Annual Grammy Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena on April 3, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Getty Images for The Recording Academy)The newlyweds, medical volunteers Nastya Gracheva and Anton Sokolov, pose for a photograph in a ruined courtyard of a shopping and business complex in central Kharkiv on April 3, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)A resident walks in front of a destroyed building in Trostyanets, Sumy Oblast, on March 29, 2022. (AFP via Getty Images)U.S. President Joe Biden kisses a child while meeting refugees of Russia's war against Ukraine at PGE Narodowy Stadium in Warsaw, Poland on March 26, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)An ostrich walks on the destroyed enclosure at an eco-park in Yasnohorodka, a village north of Kyiv on April 2, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)A young girl sits on a suitcase at a train station in Kramatorsk, Donetsk Oblast, on April 3, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)A destroyed column of Russia's military vehicles is seen on the highway near Buzova village in Kyiv Oblast on April 3, 2022. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)The family of Ukrainian soldier Ivan Lipskiy grieves at his casket during a funeral of five Ukrainian soldiers in Odesa on March 29, 2022. Lipskiy was killed on March 18 during a Russian air strike that hit the 36th Ukrainian Naval Infantry Brigade killing more than 40 Ukrainian soldiers in Mykolaiv. (The Washington Post/Getty Images)
Russia is likely preparing to launch a new offensive in the coming weeks to strengthen its position in possible peace talks with Ukraine, the Associated Press (AP) reported on March 29, citing Ukrainian analysts and two undisclosed G7 diplomatic sources.
"We've obviously got this energy infrastructure ceasefire. We've got a Black Sea commercial ceasefire that I think is almost done," U.S. Vice President JD Vance told reporters during a visit to Greenland.
Ukraine's Air Force struck the Pogar border checkpoint in Russia's Bryansk Oblast on March 27, destroying its military infrastructure and killing dozens of Russian troops, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported on March 28.
Russia launched 172 attack and decoy drones against Ukraine overnight, the Air Force reported. Ukrainian air defenses shot down 94 drones, while 69 disappeared from radars without causing damage, according to the statement.
Since the media outlets' last update in mid-March, the names of 2,007 Russian soldiers have been added to the list of casualties. The most recent update marks a grim milestone for the project, which began with the start of the full-scale war in February 2022.
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved the disbursement of $400 million in funds for Ukraine via the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), the IMF announced on March 28.
Ukraine is working to finalize agreements with European nations for additional military aid shipments as well as expanded intelligence sharing ahead of the next Ramstein summit, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on March 28.
The Financial Times reported on March 27 that the latest version of the agreement proposed by the U.S. includes terms that would grant Washington unprecedented control over Ukraine's natural resources through a joint investment fund.
The sharp decline is primarily attributed to Ukraine halting Russian gas transit through its territory on Jan. 1 after the expiration of a 2019 transit agreement.
The news came a day after a Paris summit where a number of European countries moved forward with plans to send soldiers to Ukraine as part of a "reassurance force" in case of the ceasefire with Russia.
Work on a new round of EU sanctions against Russia has started and is “at a very early stage,” one of the sources told EUobserver. The European Commission is expected to present its proposals in early summer, another diplomat told the media outlet.
Multiple Ukrainian media outlets reported, citing law enforcement sources, that the deceased was Oleksandr Plakhotnik, a member of ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's Batkivshchyna (Fartherland) party and a former deputy mayor of Kamianske.
"The Russian side reserves the right, in case the Kyiv regime does not comply with this moratorium, of course, not to comply with it either," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
The Kyiv Independent's Francis Farrell sits down with the former commander of Ukraine's Azov Brigade, Lieutenant Colonel Bohdan Krotevych, to discuss the situation on the front line after three years of Russia's full-scale war, why he thinks Ukraine should change its culture of military leadership, why the U.S. army doctrine wouldn't work for Russia's war against Ukraine, and shares his takes on Russia's next steps after a potential ceasefire.
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