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)
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Protesting Polish farmers have temporarily renewed the blockade of trucks at the Korczowa-Krakovets and Medyka-Shehyni crossings on the Ukrainian border, Ukraine's Border Guard Service said on April 18.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on April 18 that it had received a report that the training center of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant had been targeted by an "attempted drone attack," causing no casualties or damage.
The Group of Seven (G7) countries are discussing using frozen Russian assets as collateral to provide loans to Ukraine, Reuters reported on April 18, citing European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis.
In lieu of NATO membership, Kyiv is seeking to sign similar agreements with as many of its Western allies as possible as it fights Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Speaking in Washington, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said she was "confident" this would be achieved but added that fully addressing the country’s economic problems would require ending Russia's full-scale invasion.
"We're going to do what's necessary to make sure the national security bill gets over the finish line," House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said. "It's not Johnson's foreign aid package. It's America's foreign aid package in terms of meeting our national security needs."
There are six additional Patriot systems in NATO countries that could be delivered to Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on April 18 following a Special European Council summit in Brussels.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry responded on April 18 to Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze's comment that a foreign agents law was needed to defend Georgia against "Ukrainization," condemning the Prime Minister's words as "disturbing."
Moscow attempted to undermine the democratic political process in Austria using a Russian spy and a political party he was associated with, the country's Chancellor said on April 18.
Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) said on April 18 that it expects a request by European regulators to accelerate the wind-down of business in Russia.
Slovak citizens have raised over $1.6 million in three days for the Czech ammunition initiative after Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico refused to contribute to the campaign to aid Ukraine.
A joint operation by Ukrainian and Polish law enforcement agencies led to the detention of a Polish citizen who allegedly offered to Russian intelligence to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said on April 18.
Pressure is being placed on all government ministries by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), driven by a fear that officials could be entrapped while abroad and forced into giving up state secrets.
Denmark has become the first country to buy weapons and equipment for Ukraine's Armed Forces from a domestic manufacturer as part of a military aid package, Strategic Industries Minister Oleksandr Kamyshin announced on April 18.
Ukrainians see tense relations with Poland, namely the ongoing blockade by Polish farmers, as a foreign policy factor with the most negative influence on Ukraine, according to a survey by Razumkov Center published on April 18.
Robert Habeck, who is also Germany's economy and environment minister, was accompanied by Helmut Rauch, the head of Germany's Diehl Defense company that manufactures IRIS-T air defense systems.
The increasing number of Bohdanas being produced by Ukraine is part of a wider effort to ramp up domestic weapons production amid rising uncertainty surrounding military aid from the U.S.
Scheduled blackouts were introduced in Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Donetsk oblasts after recent Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, the Energy Ministry reported on April 18.
"We have Patriots, we have anti-missile systems. We have to take them (out) from our barracks where they are just in case and send them to Ukraine where the war is raging," Josep Borrell told reporters after a Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers meeting on the island of Capri.
According to Kpler, Russia exported around 740,000 barrels of crude per day in the 10 days leading up to April 13, a 25% decrease from the same period the previous four years.
Ukraine destroyed several units of military equipment in an attack on a Russian military airfield in Dzhankoi in occupied Crimea on April 17, Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) reported.
